The Clinton machine has a funny sort of relationship to the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, one that would not surprise the philosopher. Having been relentlessly hammered by lies and distortions, shamelessly repeated over and over and over again, they've come to the conclusion that the way to win in politics is to shamelessly repeat lies and distortions over and over and over again.

They're even proud of it, in a twisted way. "This is the fun part." "We're just getting warmed up." Like the Republicans, they want the voters to confuse lack of scruple with toughness, and honesty with weakness.

--Mark Kleiman