In what seems like it should be a national news story - but never is because of who the offenders are - a group of state Republicans in Connecticut were caught by Twitter impersonating dozens of their fellow Democratic counterparts sending out GOP-friendly messages under the names of people who hold vastly differing political views.

I can't imagine how this isn't illegal on some level, and given that these people are public officials, it's simply stunning that the supposedly liberal media hasn't brought more significant attention to this conservative corruption. A number of websites under the names of those same Democratic representatives are reportedly still being run by the con artists, which they've said they have no intention of shutting down.

With all we've been hearing since the inauguration from Republicans about how corrupt Chicago is, one can't help but wonder if the GOP in Connecticut is getting jealous, or have simply devolved into a group of immature children.

But a story like this would never end with Republicans innocently throwing their hands up in humble but humorous defeat, having been caught with their hand the cookie jar. Instead, these con artists has gone the Sarah Palin route, crying about how their first amendment rights have been assaulted by the Democrats they were impersonating, as if the end result of lying to their constituents and possible violations of anti-fraud laws didn't matter.

To Republicans I'm sure it doesn't, but think of how twisted that logic is for a moment. These conservative lawmakers didn't like the laws the Democratic majority in their state were passing, so to "inform" the voting public about these dastardly deeds - to prove that Republicans were more trustworthy legislators - they impersonated their opponents and then lied gratuitously.

In their world it's perfectly acceptable to impersonate your political opponents and use their identity - which you've effectively stolen - to lie to the voters, and then complain about it when you got caught and can't do it anymore. The crime here is that Republicans can't lie to their constituents in the name of their political opponents, they didn't do anything wrong in their eyes.

Perhaps this increasingly erratic and desperate behavior is due to the tiny minority status the GOP enjoys in Connecticut, which according to the story has "seen their share of General Assembly seats shrivel in successive legislative elections." One can speculate as to why Republicans in Connecticut's legislature are becoming increasingly rare, but with incidents like this, is it really that hard to guess?