It's the perfect coda to robo-slime-gate.

John McCain has now recorded his own robo-slime calls, several readers report, in which he uses Joe Biden's recent prediction that Obama would be tested by a foreign policy crisis to hit Obama as unprepared to combat terror.

Sharon Smith, a software exec in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, reports to us that her answering machine recorded the call this afternoon. She transcribed and sent in the script, which was delivered by McCain himself:

Hi. This is John McCain, and I'm calling today because while much of this election is focused on fixing our broken economy, we must also remember that dictators and terrorists worldwide are still plotting America's destruction.

Joe Biden has said that the election of Barack Obama as our president would invite a major international security crisis that Senator Obama would be unprepared to handle. The fact is that such a crisis doesn't need to occur.

I've prepared my entire life to understand what is needed to keep America safe in a dangerous world. I ask for your vote today. It couldn't be more important. Paid for by McCain-Palin 2008.

Several readers in other states report McCain's voice appearing in other robo-slime calls, too. It's funny that the McCain team apparently waited until the last day to do this.

A new robo-slime call from John McCain hits Obama on the economy, suggesting that a vote for the Democrat is a vote for a depression, a Wisconsin reader tells us.

The call -- which is not quite as slimy as McCain's other robo-slime -- was sent in by Judi Gunn, a legal secretary in Racine, Wisconsin. Here's audio:

Click To Play

Script:

Hello, I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats have no idea how to deal with an economic crisis. The stock market's in free fall and their plan to fix it is to raise taxes on income, savings, investment and even social security. A massive tax increase and over one trillion dollars in new spending is the sort of recklessness and irresponsibility that pushes a recession into a depression. This call is paid for by the Republican National Committee at 866 558-5591, and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008.

The author of this call appears to have forgotten which party has been in charge during the years leading up to our meltdown.

In other robo-slime news, Ben Smith reports that a GOP group is running a call in Pennsylvania attacking Obama over Wright and his aunt.

Hmm, a new twist to robo-slime-gate. John McCain appears to be pumping one of the nastier species of his robo-slime into a state where he has no chance whatsoever of winning.

A reader just outside of Seattle, in Washington State, reports to us that she got this McCain robo-call that was running yesterday in Arizona -- it paints Obama as unprepared to handle terror and singles out Joe Biden's recent claim that Obama was likely to be tested by an international crisis early in his first term.

The reader, Anne Francis, who is general manager for a company that books Broadway shows in venues across the country, played us the call, which came into her home phone.

The Real Clear Politics average has Obama up by 17 in this state. So we're not sure what to make of this.

Perhaps most of the Kerry toss-up states are so out of reach that the GOP is pumping robo-slime wildly in all directions in hopes of somehow getting some blue state, any blue state, to flip somewhere. Or maybe the robo-slime machine is in overdrive and cracking up and the GOP has lost control of it, like some kind of rampaging Franken-Slime monster on the loose.

John McCain and the Republican National Committee are now running robocalls attacking Obama as weak on terrorism -- in McCain's home state of Arizona, according to multiple readers from the state.

The call signals genuine worry about McCain's home state at a time when several polls show the race to be much closer than expected there.

McCain's robocall, which was played to us over the phone by Mary Joe Bartel, a retiree who lives south of Tucson, attacks Obama as unprepared to defend the country from terrorism, singling out Joe Biden's recent remarks about the likelihood of Obama being tested by an international crisis early in his first term.

Here's the script:

I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because Barack Obama is so dangerously inexperienced, his running mate Joe Biden just said, he invites a major international crisis that he will be unprepared to handle alone.

If Democrats win full control of government, they will want to give civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the experience and judgment to lead America. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008.

Two other Arizona readers -- David Lorti, a Phoenix realtor, and Jerry Mooers, a retiree from Sun Lakes -- confirm to us that they received the same call today.

A poll last night found Obama within two points of the Arizona Senator. The call means Republicans are sinking resources into a state that obviously should have been a complete lock for McCain, with time fast running out.

Simply extraordinary. Audio when we get it.

Late Update: Here's the audio.

Click to play

The Huffington Post obtains one of the ugliest specimens of McCain robo-slime yet, recorded by fellow McCain POW Orson Swindle:

"Democrats attempt to cut off crucial troop funding. Accuse our troops of war crimes. And Senator Biden predicts Senator Obama will be tested. A weak president will indeed be tested. Obama and Democrat's politics endanger American lives. They are not qualified to lead our military and our country. When you vote, vote for the team that puts leadership, character and country first. John McCain."

HuffPo has the audio.

It's worth noting an interesting phenomenon: The tidal wave of McCain robo-slime has now become so overwhelming that the individual calls no longer make news, no matter how disgusting they are.

What we're seeing here is another case of DSD syndrome -- Defining Slime Down. The press isn't interested in robo-slime-gate anymore. The calls aren't news. So now that McCain has weathered the first round of bad press attending his initial wave of calls, he will now be able to keep the calls going under the radar, at ever slimier levels, right through Election Day, without the big news orgs reporting on it anymore.

The Obama campaign has set up a very useful, interactive map that allows you to track McCain's robo-slime and mail sleaze state by state. Check it out here.

We couldn't help but notice that it's awfully similar to the McCain slime map that we set up here at TPM the other day. It does pretty much the same thing as the Obama map does. You can view ours here.

Check them out -- they're both good stuff, particularly for those who take a bit of perverse pleasure in slime-wallowing. And no hard feelings: When it comes to tracking the slime, the more the merrier.

Still more McCain robo-slime: The latest McCain campaign robocall hits Obama's health care plan as a "massive government takeover of health care" that will jeopardize Medicare and Social Security.

For good measure, the call, which is running at least in Wisconsin, says Obama and Dems will slow "development of life saving drugs." Here's audio:

Click To Play

Script

...because Barack Obama and the Democrats have jeopardized our Medicare and Social Security with their proposed massive government takeover of health care, and will be reducing access to doctors and slowing development of life-saving drugs. Don't let the inexperience and poor judgement of Barack Obama and his Democrat allies put our livelihood at risk. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain-Palin 2008 at 866 558-5591.

It's pretty craftily worded. Note how the call insinuates that Obama and Dems will slow development of life saving drugs in addition to passing their plan, as if that's actually an Obama policy goal. That's a twist on the stock GOP line, which is that the plan itself would have that effect.

The Huffington Post first got word of this call from readers, and we just obtained the call from a reader in Wisconsin.

Separately, Ben Smith reports that the attorney general in Indiana, where robo-sliming is illegal, is looking into McCain's calls. That may not come to anything, though, because readers in that state have reported that the calls were read from live humans at a call center, but we'll see.

Late Late Update: HuffPo gets another robocall sliming Obama as weak on terror, this one recorded by Tom Ridge.

Readers: You are the reason that John McCain was unable to keep his robo-slime campaign under the radar, where he wanted it to remain.

You are the ones who made it possible to flush the slime out of the sewer, by telling us what you saw and heard. Many thanks for doing that. It may yet prove that the robo-slime story has had a real impact on this race.

So we wanted to reiterate: Please keep it going. Keep telling us what you see, and what you hear. And not just robo-slime. Everything.

Tell us what you are seeing on the ground from the operations of both presidential campaigns in your states. Mailers, ads, surrogate action, odd or revealing local coverage, materials being spread by independent third-party groups -- we want to hear about it all.

If you see something of interest, please shoot us a note by clicking on the "tips" link in the upper right corner of this site.

Only 13 days to go.

Whoa. We've just obtained a McCain campaign robo-slime call that slams Dems as "dangerously weak on crime" and hits Barack Obama and his "liberal allies" for having a "disturbing history of coddling criminals."

Worse, the call even insinuates that Obama isn't inclined to protect your kids -- in fact, the call directly alleges that Obama has voted against "protecting children from danger."

A reader in Wisconsin sends in the audio, and a second reader in Indiana reports hearing the call:

Click To Play

Script:

Hello, I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC, because Democrats are dangerously weak on crime. Barack Obama has voted against tougher penalties for street gangs, drug-related crimes, and protecting children from danger. Barack Obama and his liberal allies have a disturbing history of coddling criminals. so we can't trust their judgment to keep our families safe. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain-Palin 2008 at 866 558-5591. Thank you, bye

It's unclear what the bit about not protecting kids is a reference to.

This is the third call we've documented today: There was one starring Rudy Giuliani, who suggested that Obama opposes jailing murderers and rapists. And there was a second hitting Obama over the "bitter" comments.

In other words, another huge wave of McCain robo-slime has been unleashed.

We've just learned of yet another nasty McCain campaign robocall: This one hits Barack Obama over his "bitter" comments about guns and religion, and repeatedly denounces Dems as "elitists" who "don't understand us."

A reader in Wisconsin who taped the call sends in the audio, and another reader in North Carolina reports hearing it today:

Click To Play

Mary Ann Benavides, a psychologist in Wisconsin, and Chris Jones, the director of communications for a real estate tech company in North Carolina, confirm to us that they received the call.

Here's the script:

I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC, because Barack Obama says Midwest folks like us cling to our guns because we're bitter. And elitist Democrats who want to control Washington have tried to completely ban handguns and most hunting rifles. The NRA said that Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history. These elitist Democrats just don't understand us, and we can't trust them with our second amendment rights. This call was paid for the the Republican National Committee and McCain/Palin 2008.

The Republican National Committee didn't return a call for comment.

This "bitter" robocall comes after we reported today that the McCain campaign unleashed a Rudy Giuliani robocall attacking Obama on crime. And we're getting reports of yet another McCain call hitting him on crime.

It's very clear that the McCain campaign has unleashed a new wave of robo-slime today.

Separately, HuffPo reports that GOP Senator Gordon Smith is now denouncing the calls.

It was perhaps predictable that the task of recording the worst of McCain's robo-slime -- the worst so far, at least -- would fall to Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani has recorded a new McCain robocall in which he suggests, in effect, that Barack Obama doesn't think sex offenders, drug dealers and murders should have to go to jail, according to Jennifer Henderson, a stay-at-home mom in Maine who tells us she received the call.

Readers in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Colorado also report receiving the same call. Here's audio:

Click To Play

Script:

Hi, this is Rudy Giuliani, and I'm calling for John McCain and the Republican National Committee because you need to know that Barack Obama opposes mandatory prison sentences for sex offenders, drug dealers, and murderers.

It's true, I read Obama's words myself. And recently, Congressional liberals introduced a bill to eliminate mandatory prison sentences for violent criminals -- trying to give liberal judges the power to decide whether criminals are sent to jail or set free. With priorities like these, we just can't trust the inexperience and judgment of Barack Obama and his liberal allies. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain-Palin 2008 at 866 558 5591.

Note that Rudy claims Obama "opposes mandatory prison sentences" for rapists and murders, Rudy is actually referring to Obama's opposition to specific mandatory minimum sentences. By dropping the word "minimum," he's insinuating that Obama opposes mandatory prison sentences in general.

This just might be the sleaziest exercise in robo-slime yet. Congrats, Rudy!

Late Update: Ben Smith has a very interesting example of a new genre in McCain slime. Every day a new innovation!

Late Late Update: The Obama campaign sends over a response from Tom Nee, president of the National Association of Police Organizations. Read it after the jump.

Read more »

Reading McCain's Ayers slime from a script into the phone was too much for one young woman, reports West Virginia's Charleston Gazette:

Chaylee Cole, a student at Fairmont State University, lost her part-time job in Weston last Friday after refusing to make telephone calls attacking Barack Obama...

"I was working at the call center," Cole said. "We got a campaign ad talking about how Obama had been part of terrorist attacks on the Capitol, the Pentagon and a judge's home and had ties with Bill Ayers.

"Last Thursday, I told them I did not want to read it," Cole said. "They said, 'Either you read it or you go home.' I told them I wasn't going to read it."

A man in Wisconsin also quit his call-center job over the Ayers call, local news there reports.

The Obama campaign plans to unleash a robocall in Wisconsin tomorrow that hits back hard against John McCain's robocalls in the state -- it features a small business owner from Green Bay, Wisconsin, that says she's been turned against McCain by his "sleazy" roboslime campaign against Obama.

An Obama adviser sent us the call, which features Jeri Watermolen, a small business owner from Green Bay, who claims that she "used to support McCain but has switched her support to Obama" because of the "sleazy phone calls and mail" attacking Obama that McCain has put out.

Here's a script:

Hi, this is Jeri Watermolen, calling for the Campaign for Change. I live in Green Bay and, like you, I've been getting sleazy phone calls and mail from John McCain and his supporters viciously -- and falsely -- attacking Barack Obama. I used to support John McCain because he honorably served our country -- but this year he's running a dishonorable campaign. We know McCain will continue many of Bush's policies, and now he's using George Bush's divisive tactics. In fact, he hired the Bush strategists whose attacks even McCain once called hateful.

Barack Obama will turn the page on these negative politics and stand up for the middle class. That's the change we need, and it's why I have changed my mind about John McCain. Join me in voting for Barack Obama. Paid for the Campaign for Change, a project of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, 608-255-5172, and authorized by Obama for America.

You can listen to the call here.

Some must-watch video: Joe Biden positively erupts on the campaign trail in Colorado today, hammering away at John McCain over robo-slime-gate and demanding that McCain "bring down those robocalls!"...

"If he's really serious when he said this morning on one of the shows that this election is all about the economy, then I say, `John, stop your ads. Bring down those robocalls,'" Biden bellowed. "If it's about the economy, argue the economy!"

Biden built to his climax: "John, stop these calls!"

Thus using McCain's robo-slime to reinforce the Obama camp's chosen frame for the final month of the race: Anytime McCain steers the discussion towards Obama's bio or character, it's only because he's afraid to debate the economy. It's a frame that shows no signs of cracking or weakening.

One has to wonder whether McCain and the Republicans are, in a sense, victims of their own success in playing the slime game.

They've thrown so much vicious stuff at Barack Obama via robocalls, mailers, ads, and the like -- and they've succeeded in doing it so comprehensively -- that it seems likely that it has lost its potency, if it ever had any at all. It seems fair to speculate that the paper slime currency that the GOP has been printing at such a furious rate has lost all its value.

Call it DSD syndrome -- Defining Slime Down.

Take, for instance, the mailer below from the Republican National Committee that's getting attention today (even though HuffPo first posted it five days ago). It shows a plane about to hit an airport and says: "Barack Obama thinks terrorists just need a good talking to."

Is this really going to shock anyone? Is it going to move voters in any meaningful numbers? Doubtful.

Multiple polls show that one of these attacks -- the one on Obama's association with William Ayers -- has been a flop. I suspect that if there were polling on the GOP's more generic efforts to insinuate that Obama is linked to or sympathetic towards terrorists in various other ways -- such as in the mailer below -- it would find the same.

Either way, at this point, when McCain or the RNC links Obama to terrorists in one way or another it's just a dog bites man story.

Obama Cancels Campaign Events To Visit Ill Grandmother
Barack Obama is canceling his campaign events on Thursday and Friday, in order to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii. Madelyn Dunham's health has taken a turn for the worse, and the situation serious enough to merit the candidate canceling two days of campaigning during the final two weeks of the campaign.

Obama In Florida, Biden In Colorado
Barack Obama is campaigning in Florida today, with a 10:30 a.m. ET policy summit on jobs in Lake Worth, and a 5:45 p.m. ET rally in Miami alongside Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama is also holding an 11:45 a.m. ET rally in Pensacola. Joe Biden is swinging through Colorado today, with a 12:30 p.m. ET rally in Greeley and a 4:30 p.m. ET rally in Commerce City.

McCain In Pennsylvania, Palin In Nevada
John McCain is campaigning today in Pennsylvania, a state where he hopes to overcome a serious gap in the polls and take 21 electoral votes away from the Democratic column. First McCain has a 10 a.m. ET rally in Bensalem, followed by a 2 p.m. ET rally in Harrisburg, and a 5:30 p.m. ET rally in Moon Township. Sarah Palin is campaigning in Nevada, with a 12:30 p.m. ET rally in Reno and a 4:45 p.m. ET rally in Henderson.

McCain Banking On Pennsylvania
CNN reports that the McCain campaign is increasingly viewing Colorado as a goner for them -- even as they dispatched Sarah Palin there yesterday for a full day of campaigning -- and are looking at a way to win the Electoral College by snatching a Kerry state away from Obama. The strategy is now relying heavily on Pennsylvania, where Obama is ahead in the polls by around ten points.

McCain Campaign Making Appeal For Divided Government
The McCain is falling back on a new argument for the home stretch of the campaign: That a Republican should be elected president as a check on what is expected to be a large Democratic majority in Congress. "That argument is a bank shot," McCain strategist Charlie Black told the Boston Globe. "We're reminding them that by considering Obama they're delivering a monopoly to liberal Democrats."

McCain: My Robocalls Are True, Obama's Ads Are Lies
Appearing this morning on CBS's The Early Show, John McCain defended his robocall saying that Barack Obama has "worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers." "That robocall is absolutely accurate," McCain said. "And, by the way, Sen. Obama's campaign is running robocalls as we speak. He's running an ad that distorts -- that's untrue about my immigration position, about stem cell research, and about several other issues."

Sarah Palin may have condemned robocalls yesterday as intrusive and a drain on people's attention spans, but that didn't stop her from recording her own robocall on behalf of the McCain campaign.

Carol Johnson, a retiree from Spooner, Wisconsin, and a second reader from Nevada, report to us that they received robocalls starring Palin herself.

Palin's robocall touted both her and McCain as "mavericks" who have a feel for people's economic suffering, vowed that they would reform Wall Street and Washington, and hit Barack Obama and Joe Biden for not "listening" to the American people.

Click To Play

Here's the script:

Hi, this is Sarah Palin. One of our local campaign volunteers just called you, and I wanted to follow up and ask for your support. You know our opponents may talk a lot, but they haven't done much listening. I know what it's like to be a hard-working mom. I know how hard it is to make ends meet during tough times like this. John McCain and I know our country is hurting, and we know how to turn it around. We'll get our economy back on track. we'll cut your taxes and lower prices at the pump and at the grocery store. John McCain and I are the mavericks who will reform Washington, Wall Street., and all the wasteful government in between. I hope John McCain and I can count on your support on November 4. We won't let you down. Paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 at 703-418-2008.

Palin's call would seem to be at odds with her own public statements about the tactic. In a Q and A with reporters late yesterday, she said she'd prefer that the campaign not resort to such calls at all, describing them as "kind of draining in terms of Americans' attention span."

"They get a bit irritated with just being inundated," Palin added.

The McCain campaign didn't immediately comment.

Late Update: I should have mentioned that Carol Johnson, the reader who tipped us off to his call, is a member of an anti-robocall group called the National Political Do Not Contact Registry (NPDNC), which tipped us off to this call and which you can read about here.

John McCain defended his robo-slime campaign against Barack Obama today -- and as a special bonus, completely misrepresented what his robocalls actually say about Obama.

McCain's comments on robo-slime-gate came this morning on Fox News, after Chris Wallace pointed out that McCain had denounced robo-sliming back when he was the target of it in 2000.

Wallace asked him if he would stop his own robo-slime campaign against Obama, and McCain said "of course not." The Obama campaign was quick to highlight the exchange in a transcript emailed out to reporters.

McCain defended his robo-slime by saying that the calls directed at him were worse than anything his own calls said about Obama.

"These are legitimate and truthful and they are far different than the phone calls that were made about my family and about certain aspects that -- things that this is -- this is dramatically different and either you haven't -- didn't see those things in 2000," McCain said.

McCain said his robo-slime was highlighting "a legitimate issue," which is the question of whether Obama is "being truthful with the American people," a clear reference to his robo-call attacking Obama's association with William Ayers.

Actually, this is false. McCain's robo-call about Obama and Ayers says absolutely nothing about whether Obama is telling the truth about his relationship with the former Weatherman. If you don't believe me, you can listen to the full call right here.

McCain's Ayers robo-slime is not about Obama's honesty at all. Rather, it's all about Ayers' domestic terrorism, and it's all about the false insinuation that Obama just may have "worked closely" with Ayers in his capacity as a terrorist and killer of Americans.

We're now at the point where John McCain has been reduced to distorting his own distortions -- he's not only running a robo-slime campaign that is totally at odds with his previously claimed principles, but he's now lying about it, too.

Late Update: Here's the video:

This is a must-watch: On MSNBC just now, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who has been a prominent McCain-Palin supporter on the cable talk shows, went on perhaps the most bizarre and McCarthyite rant about Obama that we've seen from a supposedly-respectable politician in this entire election.

Check out these clips:

Bachmann said she's "absolutely" concerned that Obama is anti-American. She attacked him for his association with, um, his wife, which she said raises questions about Obama's love for America. And -- in true Red-Scare form -- she called on reporters to investigate which members of Congress are secretly against America.

On top of all this, she also alleged that Saul Alinsky was a teacher to Obama in Chicago. Alinsky died in 1972.

Hmmm, maybe Bachmann has been writing all of McCain's robocalls in her spare time?

Can it be that John McCain hired the same outfit to robo-slime Barack Obama that hit McCain himself with the scurrilous robocall campaign in 2000 that he decried at the time as "hate calls"?

Yes, according to Christopher Schoff, an official with the Democratic Party in Minnesota, also known as the DFL.

Schoff tells me he got one of McCain's calls on Tuesday night, the one saying Obama put "Hollywood above America." Only in this case, the call wasn't robo; because such calls are illegal in Minnesota, the McCain call was a live person reading from a script.

Schoff says he cut off the person reading to him and asked the name of the company. He was told it was DF King, in Brooklyn, and was sent to a supervisor.

Schoff says the supervisor then told him that the company had been subcontracted for the calls by a larger company called FLS Connect that had been hired by McCain's campaign to do the calls. (Calls to FLS weren't immediately returned, and it may be tough to nail all the particulars of this down completely before FEC filings are available.)

And who is FLS Connect, you ask?

Well, it turns out FLS, which has offices in Phoenix and St. Paul, is basically the same outfit that George W. Bush hired to robo-slime McCain during the 2000 South Carolina primary, something that McCain repeatedly denounced with great outrage.

In 2000, the Washington Post reported that the Bush team's phone operation was conducted by a firm called Feathers, Hodges, Larson and Synhorst. A press release in 2003 (via Nexis) indicates that this firm had by then become Feathers, Larson and Synhorst, or FLS for short.

On February 20, 2000, McCain thundered that the robocalls hitting him -- done by this outfit -- were "hate calls" that had "inundated" him. Now, if Schoff is right, McCain appears to have enlisted the same outfit for his robo-slime campaign.

How perfect! No one could have made this one up if they'd tried.

Lots more from HuffPo's Sam Stein, who got here first and has more details.

It never ends. Michael Cooper of The New York Times reports that John McCain and his advisers complained about robo-sleaze earlier this year, when the tactic was used -- natch -- against him.

Cooper writes that this past January, McCain and senior adviser Steve Schmidt were exorcised by calls that were directed at McCain, as part of the GOP primary in South Carolina. Cooper took down the quotes at the time; it's unclear if they were ever published until now.

McCain called the calls "scurrilous stuff." And Schmidt described robocalls as "slanderous and smearing."

But that was then. As Cooper notes, the McCain campaign's current robocall campaign is "just the latest instance of Mr. McCain embracing the very kind of negative or misleading campaign tactics he once denounced." Just the latest, indeed.

A scorching new mailer authorized by the McCain campaign directly questions Obama's patriotism by saying he put the interests of "Hollywood above America" during the bailout negotiations, and ratchets up the "celeb" attacks by saying he "partied with Hollywood's elite" at a time of national crisis.

The mailer -- sent in by a reader in Virginia -- uses these attacks to stir fears of Obama as a vaguely sinister other with a questionable background, closing with this stark warning: "We need a President who puts America first. Barack Obama. Not who you think he is."

Mystifyingly, the mailer shows Obama alongside familiar bogeywoman Barbra Streisand, but also...Leo DiCaprio. Click on the images to enlarge:

The mailer, the latest in a huge wave of under-the-radar attacks from McCain that depart from the McCain campaign's public message, is an amped up version of the robocall we reported on the other day that made similar accusations. It was paid for by the RNC, but authorized by the McCain campaign.

Joe Klein adds an important point to the evolving story about John McCain's massive robo-sleaze campaign, pointing out that McCain was once outraged by this tactic -- when he was the victim of it, that is:

Back in 2000, in South Carolina, the robocalls -- and calls to local right-wing talk radio shows -- were about John McCain's "interracial child" and Cindy McCain's drug addiction. They were a craven, disgusting tactic by the George W. Bush campaign. McCain was, rightly, outraged by them.

Now McCain's campaign is making robocalls distorting Barack Obama's non-existent relationship with Bill Ayers...

Now this isn't quite the spew that McCain suffered in South Carolina, but hey, he's got three more weeks to descend to that.

Klein adds that "Senator Honorable" is now in the "sewer." Brutal. And, by the way, it's true: McCain did condemn robocalls in 2000. On February 20 of that year, according to Nexis, he called them "hate calls" and complained about being "inundated" by them.

But that was then. Today, they're perfectly acceptable -- as long as McCain is using them on someone else.

It's only the latest example of McCain jettisoning a previously held -- or previously claimed -- principle in the face of his more and more likely defeat.