Hey guys? It doesn't become a good idea just because WE start doing it.

I remember how, after the 2002 elections, just about every Democratic blogger and pundit I know of screamed bloody-murder about the TV ads Saxby Chambliss ran in Georgia, the ones that juxtaposed then Senator Max Cleland's face with that Osama Bin Laden. I never thought that another, smaller group of Democrats would look at that same ad and say, "Hey, we can use that against Howard Dean!" Come on, guys. This is exactly the kind of thing Al Gore was talking about in his Dean endorsement speech (but you wouldn't know that if you were only reading William Saletan's explanation thereof).

(BTW, I'm not getting worked up about the Democratic primaries because unless we somehow manage to nominate Al Sharpton, I'll vote for the winner. Even Dick Gephardt.)