There’s no better way to send shivers down the spine of the GOP leaders in Congress than to demonstrate that bad things can happen to rich and powerful people.

For instance, take the HP pretexting scandal, where disgraced former HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn is accused of hiring private investigators and spying on fellow Board members to track down who was leaking information to the press.

After the scandal broke, the GOP called Congressional hearings, during which Republican Congressman Joe Barton (TX) gasped: “If it can happen to a member of the board of directors of a Fortune 500 company like Hewlett-Packard, it can happen to any of us.” When he says “any of us,” who is Joe Barton referring to? Somehow I don’t think I’m included.

It’s like saying: “if the Space Shuttle can blow up upon takeoff, then none of us are safe.” I’ll agree that it’s a terrible tragedy, but not the sort of tragedy that should make you afraid for your life, unless you’re an astronaut.

Yes, the HP pretexting scandal is a bad thing. That’s why I called it a “scandal.” It may even be worthy of a Congressional hearing and prosecutions — after all, we all benefit from good corporate governance. But this has nothing to do with protecting the privacy of the average citizen.

In terms of violations of privacy, the HP pretexting scandal affects a few individuals, but it’s not really something that bodes poorly for the privacy of American citizens. Compare this to the AOL scandal from last July, when AOL deliberately released search histories for over half a million subscribers. Now that’s a privacy scandal where people should be resigning and hauled before Congressional committees.