Joe Conason's column in Salon today is very much worth reading, recounting as it does the nasty, nasty way the Bush campaign slagged John McCain—now apparently a Koolaid-sipping Bush stooge—back in the 2000 Republican primaries. Too many juicy bits to recount them all, but here's a sample:

Watching her husband embrace the president in the new commercial must be distressing to Cindy McCain, whose former dependence on prescription drugs was highlighted in anonymous campaign leaflets the night before the South Carolina primary... According to Newsweek's inside account of the campaign, she began sobbing loudly while watching the returns that sank McCain's campaign. Trying to soothe her, her husband said, "Think of how the Bushes felt two weeks ago in New Hampshire," where Bush had unexpectedly lost the primary. Between sobs, she replied, "We never called his wife a weirdo."...

"They know no depths," McCain would complain wearily to reporters on his "straight talk" bus. "They know no depths." Bush should hardly have been surprised when his battered opponent rebuffed his peacemaking gestures. "Don't give me that shit," barked McCain when Bush took his hands and suggested that their rivalry was becoming too personal. "And get your hands off me."

Now hands have been laid on again, and perhaps all has been forgiven. McCain is a figure of character and charm, but he cannot leave the Republican Party, as his idol Teddy Roosevelt once did, and strike out against the big-business lobbyists and theocratic demagogues who now dominate the GOP. He won't be making history or remaking politics. He will stand up dutifully, like Colin Powell, in the service of inferior men who would gladly ruin him—and leave us to wonder why.

This year he has seen already what certain ruthless Republicans are willing to do to his friend John Kerry, and he must know that this campaign will descend still further before November. The day may yet come when he feels ashamed of his alliance with his old enemies. He won't be able to say that he didn't know how low they would stoop to win.  [full column]

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