Conservative radio talker Michael Savage always says that "liberalism is a mental disorder."  And in the continued attacks on Sarah Palin, it's obvious that the mental disorder that liberals suffer from is of a sociopathic nature.

Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe writes:

But the left's onslaught against Palin has been of a different order of magnitude.

"Ideologically, she is their hardcore pornographic centerfold spread," columnist Cintra Wilson wrote in Salon. "She's such a power-mad, backwater beauty-pageant casualty, it's easy to write her off and make fun of her. But in reality I feel as horrified as a ghetto Jew watching the rise of National Socialism."

On the website of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commentator Heather Mallick was even cruder. Palin appeals to "the white trash vote" with her "toned-down version of the porn actress look," she wrote. "Husband Todd looks like a roughneck. . . What normal father would want Levi 'I'm a [bleeping] redneck' Johnson prodding his daughter?"

From radio talk-show host Randi Rhodes came the smutty suggestion that the governor of Alaska has an unhealthy interest in teenage boys: "She's friends with all the teenage boys," Rhodes told her audience last week. "You have to say no when your kids say, 'Can we sleep over at the Palins?' No! NO!"

The national media, Jacoby says, "has only further eroded what remained of their reputation for objectivity."

Now, hackers have gotten into Palin's personal e-mail, as well as the e-mail of her family, and the results posted on the Gawker web site. Andrea Tantaros laments:

The media has called Sarah Palin names, ridiculed her children, crucified her for her conservative beliefs, questioned her personal choices, ability to govern and adeptness at mothering. Now they've broken the law and invaded her personal privacy. Spiro Agnew wasn't even treated this badly.

Anyone who tries to debunk the fact that Palin isn't under attack or defend the media's behavior is delusional or just plain lying. The more the press tries to disgrace her, the more they affirm the suspicion that she is deeply threatening to anyone favoring Barack Obama. It's vile, it's out of hand, and it must stop.

The FBI is now investigating, and I hope the cretins are caught and prosecuted.

All this has caused James P. Pinkerton to speculate:

In the Alaska governor's case, what happened to her e-mail falls into the category of opposition research, or dirty tricks, or perhaps an elaborate hoax. For the rest of us, not targeted by the media, or by political rivals, we are simply on notice: We could be next. Her fate could well be our fate.

Let me tell you from personal experience. It can be and it will be. I have been targeted by the local media and my political rivals for a nasty campaign of smears and dirty tricks. Obama had it wrong, about the small town of Pullman anyway. Liberals here are bitterly clinging to their resentment, paranoia, and fear of outspoken conservatives.

But that's okay.  The one thing the left knows how to do is lose.  As Jim Miller at Sound Politics observes:

One of the strongest arguments against electing Barack Obama, and other leftists, is the often vile behavior of some of their supporters. Those supporters have just reminded us of that important point.

Jeff Jacoby agrees:

Millions of Americans, not all of them conservative, instinctively identify with Palin. That is why the left's scorching assault, so ugly and unhinged, is backfiring. The longer it goes on, the more it undermines the Democratic ticket - and the more support it builds for McCain, and his refreshingly normal running mate.

So go ahead, you unhinged leftists, have your fun. But when you lose this time, you won't be able to blame Katherine Harris or Diebold. You'll only have yourselves to blame.

UPDATE: Democrat Ted Van Dyk has a similar take at Crosscut:

Media hostility toward Palin is helping the McCain-Palin ticket immeasurably. There is a huge populist shift taking place in the country right now. On one side are Palinistas -- Reagan Democrats, Hillary Democrats, whatever we want to call them -- and on the other are what they regard as smug political/media elites who see them as inferior proles. Palin, at least for now, is the hero of the populists.

<snip> 

...The people sticking up for Palin are the same people who have abandoned the Democratic Party in varying numbers since 1968. They are not racists or reactionary dopes. They are, characteristically, people who work hard for a living, are saving to send their kids to college and for their retirement, may have kids or relatives in military service, go to church, do volunteer work, and fly the American flag on their porches on patriotic holidays. Typically, they are hard-pressed economically. They see themselves as idealists playing by the rules and trying to live the American Dream. They see their critics as self-involved and selfish snobs, often insulated from hard daily life, with intellectual pretensions not backed up by IQ. Media pundits, according to the populist view, rate a minus-5 on a scale of 1-to-10 when it comes to integrity. Whom the pundits attack, the populists admire -- if the attackee fights back.