Who Dunit?

When I campaigned for student government, I hated the immediate days preceding voting because that is when things would get dirty. Desperation and lack of accountability would lead to mudslinging and lies (apparently I was on the side of race-traitors and neocons).

Now with 53 days left until the Iowa caucus, vicious tactics seem to be increasing in frequency and scale. On the Democrats side, the Hillary campaign may or may not have damaging information that they may or may not be spreading around Democratic circles. (The column that started it all) Could be true but I do not trust Robert Novak.

Then there are the Republicans. As much as I hate dirty campaigning, I have to admit that I am amused when they use swift-boat tactics on one another. Apparently someone has been push polling (pretending to poll, but really trying to influence voters) in Iowa and New Hampshire. Eight years ago, President Bush's campaign allegedly used push polling to insinuate that John McCain had an illegitimate black daughter. Nowadays, someone is using push-polling to make bigoted remarks about Mitt Romney and Mormonism. (Politico article).

I would actually love to know who is behind all of this. Unlike 2000, there are so many different players with different motives. My favorite theory is that this is done by the Democrats because they are most afraid of Mitt Romney. Setting aside my hatred of Romney- that is just silly. I think Giuliani would be a tougher fight. I even think Huckabee would be a more serious challenge- and not just because he has Chuck Norris on his side...