Republicans: Campaigning Is Mean!

Hugo stood up on the House floor and criticized House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong (D-Henry) for the attacks against him during the November election when he was accused of working for a lobbying firm that overcharged the government, represented abusers at Abu Ghraib prison and profited from the war in Iraq. - Anita Kumar, The Washington Post

There, of course, is a simple way to avoid such aspects of a campaign - decline to work for such an lobbying firm.

Tim Hugo really has nothing to complain about. His own negative campaign tactics based on spuriously substantiated innuendo were legendary in the 2007 campaign.

Karen S. Johnson-Cartee, a political science professor at the University of Alabama who has written several books on negative television ads, said Hugo's ad "means we have sunk to a new low."

"To me, it is like quoting graffiti off the underside of an underpass and using it in a political ad," she said.

Gary Nordlinger, a Democratic consultant and past chairman of the American Association of Political Consultants ethics committee, said unnamed comments on blogs should be off-limits.

"The AAPC code of ethics says don't run anything misleading, and arguably this could be misleading," Nordlinger said. "All a candidate has in his campaign is his or her own personal credibility, and when you run advertising that can be easily revealed as baseless, the attacking candidate puts their credibility at risk." - The Washington Post

Those who live in glass houses...