Hitting bottom

Hugh Hewitt's weekend symposium #3 How deep a hole have John Kerry, Mary Beth Cahill and the Edwards dug for themselves? How lasting the damage? There are two ways to hit bottom. One, of course, is to simply stop digging. The other is when things get worse faster than you can lower your standards. Democrats have this key principle backwards. The Democrat's standards of decency are plummeting towards the core, and show no signs of slowing, much less stopping. As they realize that they are losing votes on the issues that really matter to most Americans, they embrace the politics of personal destruction they hypocritically claim to decry. Kerry and Edwards' pathetic, desparate, and despicable attempt to score cheap political points from Mary Cheney's private life is just one more example of how low the Democratic Party and its supporters have sunk. Today's Cleveland Plain Dealer reveals that the Democrat sleaze machine is once again attempting to drag the private life of a top-shelf Republican candidate - Congressman Steve LaTourette - through the mud. This is reminiscent of how Democrat operatives managed to get access to Illinois Senate candidate Jack Ryan's sealed divorce files, forcing him to drop out of the race amid strongly denied, unproven charges that he wanted to have sex with his wife. In a strip bar full of likewise consenting adults, yes. So what if it's kinky? They're married. The people who dug up and publicized these charges cheer men in pink tutus French-kissing each other in public on Gay Pride Day, and maintained that the President getting oral sex from an intern, and then lying about it to a grand jury and the American people, is a "personal matter". But a Republican who might want to add some zing to his marriage is tres outre'. They embraced sleazeball filmmaker Michael Moore, who calls his films "documentaries" until the lies are documented, then hides behind the label "artist". They did their damndest to once again dredge up the spurious story of Bush's service in the Air National Guard. Having exhausted all the real evidence (Bush's teeth showed up for duty, but he did net, apparently), they ran a prime-time story based on laughably bad forgeries. They've slimed and smeared the honorable men of the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth, who have much to lose by coming forward and telling their side of the story, but nothing to gain - except their dignity. They've organized terror attacks on Republican campaign offices, using union muscle to intimidate, vandalize, and assault. They've lied about a draft. They've made fun of kids with developmental disabilities. And so on, and so on. I'm sick of it. I'm no dyed-in-the-wool conservative. I rejected my father's support of Nixon and Goldwater. I opposed Reagan's arms buildup. I worked on Paul Wellstone's first Senate campaign. I voted for Bill Clinton. I was lukewarm about Bush in 2000, though I slightly preferred him to Gore. I thought we went into Iraq too soon, though I have changed my mind as the evidence has come to light. I disagree with a number of the President's domestic policies, though he is clearly the better choice for Commander in Chief in this war. I have never voted a straight-party ticket in my life. This year, I will. The Democrats have proven that they do not deserve to be elected to County Dead Skunk Scooper, much less any higher office. They smell worse than the skunks.