The hacker is David Kernell, the 20-year old son of Mike Kernell, a Democrat and elected state representative in Tennessee, according to Nashville’s largest newspaper, the Tennessean.
I predict that the same crowd that said that Palin should have been able to control her 17-year old daughter will defend the 2o-year old hacker by saying no one can control their kids. At least they will be right once.
If State Rep. Kernell refuses to cooperate with the investigation, the story will get more interesting.
Still, it will be interesting to see what hacker David Kernell has to say for himself. Why did he do it? What did he think he would find? Does he think he did something wrong? Who introduced him to the Associated Press, which ran with the story? And why did they protect him, even after his father was willing to give him up?
There is a lot more to this story than has emerged so far. Hopefully some enterprising blogger will dig it out…
UPDATE: Terry Frank has screen shots of his facebook pages. Seems there might be a connection to the Obama campaign.
SECOND UPDATE: A well-informed Tennessee radio host Steve Gill told me this about the hacker’s dad: “He is an extremely left-wing Representative from Memphis who has been in the legislature 32 years and has never had any job other than professional politician.”
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardminiter/2008/09/18/palin-hackers-identity-is-revealed/