so it's like that?

With the flap over the exchange of letters between John McCain and Barack Obama that have been recently publicized, it looks like we have been given a preview of what sort of fight there will be for the White House in 2008. It is pretty clear that John McCain and the republican party are going to fight dirtier and dirtier campaign battles, and that from their standpoint this is about winning at whatever the cost. If McCain had any intention of claiming he would bring some sort of dignity back to politics, he just destroyed what credibility he might have had that his intentions were honest.

It is time to use their own smears against them. The democrats need to come out swinging hard at McCain, and remind the voters of this country that this was the same man that George W. Bush painted, with the help of a Rovian whisper campaign about mixed-race babies and post-traumatic stress issues, as one unhinged by his long captivity during the Viet Nam war and who could not be counted on to maintain an even keel during a national crisis. It's obvious from the shrillness of his letters to Obama that the pressure is getting to him and he's just an eyetwitch away from doing something crazy like raising taxes on the wealthy or cutting down on the out-sourcing of American jobs. If we use it right, these letters were the "Dean scream" moment for John McCain.

Remember, it's not lying if republicans said it.