Don't Mess With a Wounded Dog

Harry Reid isn't letting threats of a lawsuit stop him -- he' sticking with his Web campaign against "the real Sharron Angle." After the Angle campaign sent the Reid camp a cease-and-desist letter last week demanding that they take down their reposting of Angle's old campaign website, the Reid camp has now made just a few modifications and put it right back up.

After she won Nevada's Republican Senate primary, Angle's campaign took down most of its website, and later replaced it with a relaunched (and somewhat toned down) version. But the Reid campaign saved the old version, and put up a website called "The Real Sharron Angle," reproducing the old content. Then on Friday, the Angle campaign sent them a cease-and-desist letter, alleging violation of copyrights for Reid having reposted Angle's old campaign literature.

The Angle campaign also claimed that by leaving fill-in boxes for e-mail addresses intact, the Reid campaign was in a position to gain contact information of Angle's supporters who were deceived into thinking this was actually her site. Angle spokesman Jerry Stacy said in a press release: "Make no mistake, the Reid campaign was forced to take this site down because they were breaking several laws and trying to deceive the voters."

The Reid campaign did initially take down the site, seemingly obeying the cease-and-desist, and rerouted users to one of their other anti-Angle sites. But now they're put it right back up, simply removing the sign-up fields, some formatting and other identifying marks. From the Reid campaign's press release:

Out of an abundance of caution, the Reid campaign decided to temporarily remove the website in question while we investigated their allegations. Well, the phony legal threats and the feigned indignation are over - and we're not going to let Sharron Angle retroactively censor Sharron Angle. The original website, including Angle in her own words on her dangerous and extreme agenda, has been re-launched at: www.TheRealSharronAngle.com.

Just to be clear to Sharron Angle and her handlers, it's called free speech and it's nearly absolute under the First Amendment. (We know, these "big Constitutional issues" are tough for you - like when you said separation of Church & State was "unconstitutional" exactly one week ago.)

"The question is: what will Sharron Angle do now to hide her extreme views on killing Social Security and eliminating the Department of Education from Nevada voters? Perhaps she's checking to see if there are any Second Amendment remedies," said Jon Summers, spokesman for the Reid campaign.

Here's a screen grab of the site: