Earlier, Cliff linked to a post urging Democrats to set up a counter to the Republican smear campaign that we know is coming for the '08 contenders. The problem is, it can be dificult to counter the lies of the right because they have no sense of decency when it comes to slandering Democrats.

The latest low point comes from the editorial page (and I use that term very loosely) of The Investor's Business Daily. In the piece, they rehash all of the charges against Barack Obama's militant islamic background, only to dismiss them. But then they call his current church radical and afro-centric (I see black people!). In the end, the page despicably asks if Obama would "petition on behalf of one group and not necessarily for the greater good of the country." In other words, a black man might help just black people instead of everybody (are you sufficiently scared yet?). God help us if Obama picks a white woman as his VP (I can just see the ads, a sort of Willie Horton meets Mandingo script).

Will The IBD editorial page take a closer look at Mitt Romney's Mormon church, or examine Opus Dei meetings of Sam Brownback? Of coure not. And left-leaning publications shouldn't do so either, because attacking the religious beliefs of an individual is vile, and basically unAmerican. Which is why countering the Republican slime machine will be more difficult than we think, because its hard to reconcile our ethics with their lack of decency.