Posted 4:34 PM by Robert

What's With Some Democrats and Sexual Slime?

First there was the dreadful Montana Democrat "you-can't-vote-for-my-opponent-because-he's-a-gay-hairdresser" ad. Now the New York Post reports that to obtain political advantage over his Republican opponent "The Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina has taken a swipe at Rudy Giuliani's decision to shack up with two gay men after he moved out of Gracie Mansion." Which has got to go down as one of the most bizarre slime efforts this season. [Thanks to Croooow Blog and Taranto.]

In the Blogospere, there is the penchant for some liberal bloggers to denigrate those with whom they disagree by reference to non-euclidean sexual practices and pointless references to genitals, extending to a strange attempt to denigrate (under this blogger's customary guise of a snide half-joke) as "fetishistic" the phrase "leather toughened [United States] Marines." As Lynxx Pherret has pointed out to me in a clarifying and correcting e-mail, the Marines have long and popularly been known as "leathernecks," a term originally coming from the stiff leather collar or "stock" that was part of the marines' uniform for almost 100 years (such explanations have never been verified), but the term has long been more popularly associated (as Max Boot alludes to here) with their personal toughness and willingness and ability to endure harsh conditions. This blogger has a strange way of treating people who are willing to fight and die for his freedom.

Offensive? Of course. Bigoted? You bet. Hypocritical? Dripping with it. Irrelevant and inappropriate? Obviously.

But what really jumps out is the old-fashioned weirdness of these associations and slime attempts.

Obviously, most Democrats have not gone off the rails at this point.

UPDATE: More apparent Democrat sex slime. This time it's "a new secret whispering campaign against Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Linda Lingle" in Hawaii. According to the article:

Democrats tried this same smear in 1998 against Lingle when she ran for governor against incumbent Benjamin Cayetano and against some of their own candidates in years prior who weren't the "chosen" party candidates, including a Democrat candidate for mayor and a Democrat candidate for governor. Lingle addresses this rumor on her Web site, http://www.LindaLingle.com, and has discussed it openly at forums.

This Democrat tactic is reaching the point where failure to condemn and repudiate it dramatically and from the top of the Democratic Party amounts to complicity. [Link via Cornfield]