The Dempire Strikes Back

This election is being fought the Chicago Way.

My brother, Gawd bless him, decided to out-of-the-blue tweak me today about the presidential race.

He's not a super-vocal righty, but he leans that way. I guess he passes for moderate compared to the rest of that bunch these days.

I've been thinking about this race for a while. It's different in a lot of ways. And nasty in most ways. In fact, this is the most low-down, dirty race I've ever seen. I guess that's a good thing. Here's why:

For years, the below-the-belt stuff was always initiated by the right. Willie Horton? That was the work of GOP operative Lee Atwater, a ruthless SOB if there ever was one. Karl Rove probably has a shrine to the guy, who, thankfully, is dead. Rove's Willie Horton was the Swiftboating of a war hero in 2004 with the disgusting attacks meant to discredit John Kerry.

Kerry was a lousy candidate. Dukakis, not so much. But Kerry went to Vietnam and actually fought and actually got wounded. Meanwhile, pussies like Rove, Five-Deferments Cheney and a "W" ol George Bush were never in harm's way. Kerry didn't deserve to be slimed like that. The only time Cheney ever shot anybody was when he blasted his rich friend.

I believe the 2000 and 2004 elections were fixed. The SCOTUS voted for W; Ohio was stolen with Diebold machine fraud. I guess, though, as bad as W was, a Kerry presidency would have meant the despicable scumbag John Edwards would be VP. Ugh. Talk about a lose-lose situation.

Dirty politics has always been around, but the GOP has always been better at it. Atwater and Rove are the masters of the dark arts. But it's come back to bite them in the ass. The GOP pretenders cannibalized each other during the primaries. Gingrich savaged Mittens. The GOP desperately wanted anyone but Willard. For once, Ann Goatler was right.

But the biggest difference this year has been the left has finally, finally decided to play rough. Obama's team is doing things "The Chicago Way." They've fought hard, and perhaps even a little dirty. It's the first time I've ever seen the Democrats come out swinging. They've always let the other side slag them and refused to muck it up like this.

I don't know if it's a good thing. But it's at least a fair fight now.