I'm an old fart but even I have never heard our political "debate" as low as it is now. Julian Bond calling Rice a murderer can't get worse. I am an eclectic history reader and our newspapers used to be just as rough (check out what they used to say about Lincoln); our political figures did so too but with lofty language in public. During my span of political consciousness, which goes back to Kennedy, this is the absolute worst. The Right went almost this far accusing Clinton as being an accomplice in the death of Vince Foster, but no political figure of any stature took part in this (as far as we know). Bush came into office attempting to raise the level of discourse. Obviously his opponents view his level as free license to engage in gutter attacks before approving audiences without any fear of hurting themselves politically. I hope they lose, but Iraq has got to be solved. Lots of links at Bill Quick's joint.