You can't call this kind of thing gutter politics. You do a disservice to the gutter.

The Shark Tank:

The American Sunrise PAC has launched its first attack ad against Congressman Allen West. The political action committee was founded by the father of Congressman West's general election opponent Democrat Patrick Murphy.

Thomas Murphy Jr. is the CEO of a Miami-based Coastal Construction Group, and he has already kicked in $250,000(Source) into the PAC. But now those funds have been employed in the creation of a questionable ad that depicts West as a boxer who smacks around women and takes money away from middle class families.

The ad slyly uses a caricature of West and portrays him as a bully who hits women- more specifically, a white women- while he grabs money away from a "middle class" family that just happens to be a black family.

I'm trying to recall when the ad wars became so sublimely cruel and outrageously dishonest. There are no standards anymore; you can accuse your opponent of anything, including murder. Abusing free speech in this manner may win you an election, but at what cost?

Whatever dignity and probity were left in politics are certainly gone now. There's no reason for restraint now that it can be shown that lashing out wildly works.

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