The Smell of Desperation is Getting Stronger in Massachusetts

The name calling is picking up:

GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown and his supporters are firing back at Democratic senators for accusing him of being a "far-right" politician backed by "right-wing radicals" by virtue of his ties to the conservative tea party movement.

Brown, with the support of the tea party groups and others, is posing a stiff challenge to Democrat Martha Coakley in the race for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy. Polls show him closing in on Coakley, long the frontrunner, with just four days to go until the special election, and the latest survey shows him leading by 4 points.

With the race tightening, national Democratic heavyweights have stepped into the picture and are lobbing harsh accusations at Brown's support network.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., claimed in an e-mail that "swift boaters" were trying to sink Coakley, a reference to the ads that targeted him in the 2004 presidential campaign. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Brown a "far-right tea-bagger" in an e-mail, using a term that also can refer to a sexual act. Then on Friday, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., wrote in a fundraising e-mail that Coakley was "being attacked by tea partiers and right-wing radicals."

Levi Russell, a spokesman for the Brown-supporting Tea Party Express, said the rhetoric is a "sign of desperation" from Coakley's backers.

"It's funny -- if your views differ at all with the Democratic establishment, then you're obviously a far-right extremist," he said. "None of that messaging is addressing Scott Brown on the validity of his views. It goes straight to name-calling."

Bottom line - Democrats think voters are stupid, and in a state with a 3-1 Democrat registration advantage, they're probably right more often than wrong.