John Neely Kennedy and Steve Scalise still running against Obama

Kennedy's entire strategy at this point in the campaign is to equate Mary Landrieu with the "liberal" Obama. It's a dubious approach to take given that A) Obama is not particularly "liberal" B) Landrieu is pretty much the DINO-est DINO on Capitol Hill and C) Kennedy is a party-switching nothing who endorsed the "liberal" John Kerry for President in 2004.

But Neely is pressing on. His latest radio ad brands "Landrieu-Obama" as a single product. Meanwhile Steve Scalise, running in the ultra-conservative First Congressional district, has busted out the Rev. Wright video for his latest ad

Much of Left Blogistan has entered a particularly useless late-election-cycle guffawing phase in which all the "right thinking smart people" point fingers at the "wild swinging" and "desperate scare tactics" of the Republican candidates. And sure, I'll allow that the rhetoric coming out of the GOP slate from the top of the ticket to the bottom is ugly. I'll agree that it appeals to the lowest-common-denominator fears and hatreds of the electorate. It relies on an assumption that voters are uninformed and that they will choose their leaders on a basis of emotion, and group identity.

But unlike most of the liberals out there, I refuse to pretend that this is a "losing" strategy simply because I'm in a rush to congratulate myself for not being susceptible to it.

When two candidates for Federal office simultaneously hop on the same strategy, I assume that it's a coordinated move. When the strategy involves demonizing the Democratic nominee for President and dovetails perfectly with similarly advancing ugliness from the head of the GOP ticket, I assume that they all have a good reason for engaging in this behavior.