I’d be willing to be if you took a poll of this site, one vote per active member, you’d have no less than a 99% majority agreeing that the comments were unacceptable. That’s not the issue.
The real problem is that we have no idea who posted the comments. Not all of us were here to catch the thread, and in my experience the moderators (acting on tips from members, no doubt) are very quick to clean up comments that have no place in the intelligent discourse we pride ourselves on. A few posters making crude comments at worst indicates some long-standing members gone off the rails. However, as you can see, there remains a very distinct possibility that those comments were deliberately planted. The fact that the story was jumped on almost immediately suggests that quite strongly in my opinion.
You may want to look into that aspect.
Liberal Conspiracy to Frame and Defame TeamSarah: Busted!
The Recent "Framing" Attempt (Team Sarah Website Under Attack)