Thanks again, Gary Hart

What I want to know: Did the tip to the National Enquirer come from a Republican source? Rielle Hunter herself? Someone on the campaign? A member of the public?

Of course, if I were a Republican operative (shudder!), I'd launder my tip through, say, the bellhop at the Beverly Hilton. I'd be a nameless guy in the bar telling the witness how the Enquirer pays cash for good tips. No fingerprints.

I have no evidence, but it's a dirty game. If Duhbya would lie about everything, but especially about war-making in Iraq, and McCain would give up all his principles (torture? o.k.) to achieve the nomination, it's hard to imagine that no one is surveilling their opposition looking for salacious stories just like this.

This is how the game is played now, as sad as that is and as doomed as perhaps our democracy is because of it. Somehow though, I doubt that the Democrats are smart enough and bloody-minded enough to know this and act upon it. They really need to have some deterrence to show the Republicans: "You out any affair that Obama has had, and we'll out any affair of McCain's. Do we have an understanding?"