Like father like son...

Here is an excerpt from a George Will article describing the campaign of dishonesty that Bush Sr. championed in 1992,

"When George Bush's campaign slithered through Georgia, Rep. Newt Gingrich rose to the challenge of lowering still further the tone of it...After Gingrich regaled the crowd with his Woody Allen japes, a Bush aide said, "The president does not want to make Woody Allen an issue." There they go again, dancing the Bush Two-Step. The campaign always dissociates itself from the stream of dishonesty that is steady.

Nothing new here. In 1988, when Bush's Iowa campaign smeared Elizabeth Dole, Robert Dole asked Bush, on the Senate floor, if Bush had authorized it. Said Bush: Maybe I did and maybe I didn't. That is how Bush's various campaigns have talked to the nation: down. Read my curled lip...

Can't Bush's people be honest about anything?

Soon Bill Clinton will have to say to Bush what Dole publicly said to Bush in 1988: "Stop lying about my record." Bush says Clinton has raised taxes 128 times. Bush says this even though columnist Michael Kinsley has demonstrated that the list of "tax increases" is a tissue of falsehoods. (Some taxes are counted several times; components of a tax are counted as separate taxes; minor fees, such as the $1 court cost imposed on convicted criminals, are counted as taxes.) By the tendentious criteria used by the Bush campaign, Bush has raised taxes more often in four years than Clinton has in 12.

So, what does Teeter say of the 128 number? "We're not going to quit saying it about Mr. Clinton." Bush operatives constantly whine about the media but Bush is benefiting from the mock sophistication of journalists who, striking a world-weary stance, say of his campaign dishonesty, "It was ever thus in American politics." Even if that were true, it would be no excuse, and it isn't true. This is extraordinary. Today honorable conservatives feel the sort of fury felt by honorable conservatives 40 years ago when Joe McCarthy was giving anticommunism a bad name.

But serious people flinch from being associated with the intellectual slum that the Bush campaign, with its riffraff of liars and aspiring ayatollahs. Bush calls his campaign "a crusade to bring back values." His campaign is powerful evidence of the need for such a crusade."

Harsh words from the most prominent conservative columnist. The similarities between Bush and his father and the subsequent campaigns they have run for president is striking. Both are filled with lies and distortions regarding their opponents voting record.

"You have the same tactics, the same people, even the same criticisms in many cases -- ones which the campaign makes no effort to defend as being accurate but nonetheless insists it will keep repeating."

Here's the latest LIE from the Bush campaign, read closely and see if it rings a bell,

"John Kerry promises not to raise taxes, but the reality is that he has cast 98 votes for tax increases, including voting ten times to raise gas taxes on the middle class. Kerry points to the largest tax increase in American history as the blueprint for his economic plan, which advisor Bob Rubin says Kerry won't reveal until elected. Kerry's credibility problem is only expanding as more and more Americans see the gap between what Kerry says and what Kerry does."

Like Father Like Son...