More proof that apparently Hillary Clinton can’t do anything with anyone without it turning into a big ole’ mess. The company who hosted her now famous, private email server is claiming that they’ve received a rather rude introduction to the rough and tumble world of American politics ever since it was revealed that they were keeping national security secrets in their bathroom closet. (WaPo)

In the past week, the small Denver technology firm at the center of the scandal surrounding Hillary Rodham Clinton’s e-mails has received death threats. There have been phone calls from screaming strangers. The company has removed from its Web site biographies of its executives as well as testimonials from some of its customers.

All this because Platte River Networks won a contract in 2013 to provide information technology services to Bill and Hillary Clinton. It included taking possession of the e-mail server the Democratic presidential candidate had used when she was secretary of state.

“We’re normal people. We’re not used to this,” David DeCamillis, Platte River’s vice president, said in the first interview that a company executive has given since it turned over Hillary Clinton’s server to the FBI last week.

First of all, sending death threats to the contractor who was hired to host a server is fairly stupid. In many of these cases it turns out that the threats are coming from hoaxers who are trying to make their opponents look bad, but sometimes they are sent by legitimately disturbed people. But no matter how deep and dark we may think the mysteries surrounding the secretive Clintons are, going after Platte River seems to be one of the crazier things on record.

But at the same time, are they really babes in the woods here? The Washington Post dug into some of their other clients and only found one other political candidate, but initial reports made it sound like they weren’t exactly naive to the political world. As the Daily Mail initially reported, a quick check of their history and the players involved showed that they were well versed in the game.

Platte River Networks worked for Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper – once heavily tipped to be Clinton’s 2016 running mate – during his election to be mayor of the city in 2003

The company’s controversial vice president of sales David DeCamillis is also said to be a ‘big Democrat’ supporter who offered his house to Joe Biden for the party’s convention held in Denver in 2008.

Add to that the reports from unnamed former employees who said that those who knew Clinton was a client were “told to keep it quiet” and you’ve got a recipe for some stereotypical local backscratching. Of course, that’s nothing unusual whatsoever. Campaigns weigh every decision as to where they spend their money very carefully… at least the smart ones do. Whether you are ordering copy paper or offering a contract for who will clean the floors in your campaign office, you’re always going to prefer to do business with people who are active in the community and donate money or speak with others who do so. During a House campaign I worked on some years back we made sure that the local pizza joint where our candidate held town halls and laid out a spread of snacks and drinks was one run by a family long known to support local Republicans. (It never hurts when their daughter works behind the bar and talks politics with patrons every night.)

Platte River probably shouldn’t have been all that shocked by this. Granted, this was probably public exposure on a vastly larger scale than they were used to, but it also wouldn’t come as any great surprise if they were used to having some business steered their way by people involved in the local political scene.