The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming! (Washington Diary)

The Russians did it! Vladimir Putin's spooks hacked DNC emails leaked by WikiLeaks revealing it favoured HRC over an ungodly Socialist Bernie to help "Dangerous Donald."

That was the story Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) sought to sell after throwing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair "under a bus" as Trump put it, ahead of her "hysteric" coronation amid cheers and some loud "boooooos".

"Hell No, DNC, We Won't Vote For Hillary" and "RIP Democracy," chanted thousands of Sanders supporters as Democrats gathered in the historic city of Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed in the July of 1776.

"Lock Her Up," shouted many others still feeling the "Bern" echoing the war cries heard at the previous week's Republican National Convention where rank outsider Donald Trump completely hijacked the conservative party.

Amid cries of "Shame, Shame," from her own Florida contingent, DNC char Debbie Schultz who had called a top Sanders aide "an ASS" and a "damn liar" quickly handed over the gavel to a lawmaker coincidentally named Marcia Fudge.

While Debbie landed a job on the Clinton campaign, there was no word on the fate of finance chief Brad Marshall who in a "No shit" email had suggested getting "someone" to paint Jewish Sanders as an "atheist" to get more traction with his Baptist "peeps."

The Friendly - oops Federal - Bureau of Investigation that took more than a year to find that Clinton was "extremely careless" in handling classified matter as Secretary of State and yet let her go scot free, launched yet another investigation.

Throwing caution and courtesy to the winds, the Manhattan mogul called the press for an hour long tirade against "Crooked Hillary" turning her middle name from Rodham to "Rotten".

Trump said he had "nothing to do with the Russians," as he sarcastically called "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," apparently referring to Clinton's deleted emails.

The 'phony', 'dishonest' liberal media in Trump's words fell for it hook line and sinker. The brash billionaire had essentially encouraged a foreign power to do espionage against a political opponent and interfere in the US presidential election, it insinuated.

Clinton's camp followers called blue murder. President Barack Obama's former Defence Secretary and CIA chief Leon Panetta revised his speech to the Democratic Convention to take Trump to task for going "beyond the pale". Another critic branded it "treason".

And Obama's spy agencies quickly concluded with "a high degree of confidence" that the Russians were indeed behind the DNC hack, as the New York Times reported citing unanamed sources.

Meanwhile, inside the Convention arena Hillary was busy gathering testimonials from one and all with Sanders her biggest catch.

Amid shouts of "Bernie", "Bernie", "a somewhat frumpy and sometimes grumpy 70-year-old" revolutionary, as the lone Hindu-American lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard described him, told his teary eyed disappointed supporters that Clinton must win in November.

In an emotional speech First lady Michelle Obama asked voters to trust Hill as she did "to shape our children for the next four or eight years of our lives."

Telling their own folksy love story, Bill her husband of 41 years said, "She's a change-maker. That's what she does."

"There has never been a man or a woman -- not me, not Bill, nobody - more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States of America," certified Obama.

And nodding to her status as the only woman ever to win the presidential nomination of a major US political party, Hillary herself declared: "When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."

With history made, Democrats worried about what to do with the "First Laddy" if Americans indeed got "two presidents for the price of one" given Bill's history of indiscretions when he has time on his hands.

And as the newly minted teams of Republican "Mogul and Hoosier" and Democrat "Evergreen and "Daredevil", as the Secret Service would call them, hit the campaign trail, computer systems used by Clinton's ownpresidential run were also reported hacked.

As the FBI and Feds launched yet another hunt for Russian spies, the Donald demanded that Clinton be denied intelligence briefings.

For Hill's "second daughter" as Time magazine called her long time aide Huma Abedin, would go home and spill the beans to her "sleaze ball and a pervert" husband, he alleged.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

--IANS

ak/tb