Dems Finding New Ways to Savage Each Other

I just spent several weeks watching the Dem candidates for governor of California call each other every form of evil during the primary campaign, which has undoubtedly damaged winner Phil Angelides. Another example of this kind of self-immolation Dem campaigning comes from Virginia where one candidate for Senate has issued a campaign piece which smacks of anti-Semitism.

Senate candidate James H. Webb, President Reagan's former Navy secretary, was criticized by his Jewish opponent Friday over a campaign flier that depicted the opponent with a hooked nose and cash spilling from his pockets.

The flier was intended for distribution among labor groups. It was titled "Miller the Job Killer," referring to Webb's opponent for the Democratic nomination in Tuesday's primary, businessman Harris Miller.

The flier, drawn in comic-book cartoon style, depicts Miller with a grotesquely hooked nose and cash overflowing from his suit pockets as he orders an underling to find ways to export U.S. jobs overseas. The flier refers to Miller as the "anti-Christ of outsourcing."

Miller called it "despicable."

"One of the things I hoped we would keep out of this campaign, because it has nothing to do with the campaign, is my religion and my background," Miller said.

The .pdf version of the flyer can be found here. It's an amateur effort at best, and something that you might find in a really bad comic book or one of those old ads showing a muscle-bound guy kicking sand in some scrawney guy's face. You'd think at that high level of politics the campaign effort would be more professional.

Webb was thought to be a real threat to Sen. George Allen's reelection bid, but after this, he may be little more than a footnote.