A declaration of intellectual and moral bankruptcy

I'm working from Raleigh this week, and caught a political ad last night on TV that really took my breath away.

No, it wasn't Obama's infomercial. It was something local.

Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), who's at serious risk of losing her seat to challenger Kay Hagan, ran an attack ad accusing Ms. Hagan of "godlessness," for crying out loud.

Dole, a Republican, is trying with the ad to shore up the traditional GOP constituency of evangelical Christians, a group that could be crucial to her re-election. The hard-fought, multimillion-dollar battle between Dole and Hagan could determine whether Democrats have a veto-proof majority in the U.S. Senate.

Hagan, a Democrat who teaches Sunday school and is an elder at her Presbyterian church in Greensboro, said she was furious about the television ad. The spot ends with an image of Hagan and the voice of a woman -- not her -- saying "there is no God."

Dole's "Godless" ad riles Hagan (Raleigh, NC News and Observer, 30 October 2008)

I searched in vain on Youtube for a copy of *just* the advertisement, and couldn't find it - but it's contained in this CNN analysis from "The Situation Room":



This is what sleazy desperation looks and sounds like.