Buckeye Ugly

Looks like the Clinton shock troops are setting up a 527 in Ohio to churn out the truly nasty anti-Obama message. This is same type of legal entity as the famous "Swiftboat Veterans" from 2004. Technically these groups are supposed to be unaffiliated with the campaign, but they are almost always funded and organized by the most intense partisans.

Politically they operate like an autonomous terrorist cell, communicating with headquarters using methods that are difficult to trace. One expects Mark Penn to have a stack of disposable cell phones nearby.

The Clintons do vicious politics better than anyone. But exit polling from Wisconsin suggested that Hillary suffered a pronounced ill effect from the last round negative advertising. They must somehow think it will work in Ohio.

But it's the transparency, stupid. Hours after this 527 was set up the news ricocheted through the political troposphere, with the names and numbers of all of the backers. Every nasty-gram they send via direct mail is going to be scrutinized on the nightly news. You simply can't play these dirty tricks under the radar anymore. And as I said before, this is a pronounced difference from 1992, one of the many ways our civic life has been transformed.

They're going down. And they're going down ugly.