Many think the "Swift Boat" attacks on John Kerry's war record were the most despicable, yet effective, dirty trick ever pulled off during a major campaign. While lying about the actions of a war hero is pretty disgraceful, dirty tricks are not new to politics.
In 1884, the presidential campaign between Grover Cleveland and James Blaine was so filthy Blaine's campaign circulated rumors that Cleveland fathered an illegitimate child. Blaine's supporters were known to chant "Ma, Ma, Where's my Pa? Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!"
Before the 2000 South Carolina primary, then-Gov. George W. Bush's campaign arranged for push polling that falsely told voters Sen. John McCain illegitimately fathered a black girl.
However, if you're looking for examples of dirty tricks today, you can focus on Indiana's eighth congressional district, also known as "The Bloody Eighth" for its reputation for hard-fought and close elections. This district is located in southeast Indiana and includes Evansville, Vincennes, Terra Haute, and Greencastle. The seat is currently held by Rep. John Hostettler, a Republican, who is set to face Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth, a Democrat.
Some folks in the Hostettler campaign must be getting pretty nervous because they've already resorted to low blows by personally attacking Ellsworth's 19-year-old daughter. Now, that's what I call classy.
One of Hostettler's supporters discovered pictures on Facebook of Ellsworth's daughter drinking a beer. I'll wait for the shock of that to sink in ... a college student drinking a beer - gasp!
Instead of dismissing this photograph as a personal family matter - or better yet, an everyday college occurrence - Hostettler's supporter alerted the Evansville Courier-Press, which ran the photo on the front page of Friday's paper.
Instead of shying away from this intrusion into the private family life of the candidate, Hostettler's campaign spokeswoman defended the actions of his supporter saying, "It does illustrate the serious consequences of violating the law - in this case it was underage drinking."
I guess underage drinking is a worse moral disgrace than voting to cut nearly $13 billion worth of student loans from the Department of Education, which Hostettler did last week - but I digress.
It seems Hostettler's campaign would rather focus on the behavior of the candidates' children than his stances on real issues such as Iraq, Republican corruption, budget deficits and health care.
Ellsworth has taken the high road, calling the stunt a cheap trick and leaving it at that.
"We certainly aren't going to do anything like that," an Ellsworth campaign manager told Evansville's WFIE. "We are going to talk about the issues."
On the contrary, John Hostettler has not denounced the stunt or apologized - classiness has never been a strong point of Hostettler's. In 2002, while meeting a group of breast cancer survivors, he insinuated that the women with breast cancer all had undergone abortions.
It remains to be seen if this incident will have any effect on the voters, but based on the preliminary news reports and interviews, it might just backfire on Hostettler.
A line must be drawn between valid, issue-oriented attacks and personal attacks on a candidate's family. One has to wonder what would be next if this behavior is allowed to stand. Will a son's high school detentions begin making the news? A daughter breaking curfew? Maybe Hostettler would prefer it if we skip the issues altogether and have a public showing of family photo albums instead.
Low blows like this sometimes work - just ask John Kerry - but my prediction is Hostettler will pay the price for this on Nov. 7.
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