It doesn’t get any lower than this.

Democrat Mary Burke released a new ad Friday accusing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) of using a Republican county chairman's "lies to attack" her. The ad includes images of swastikas, it says, the county chair posted to his Facebook page.

So Scott Walker is a Nazi? That’s clearly the emotional message being conveyed. And it is a disgusting, cowardly libel perpetrated by a campaign that just got busted for misleading Wisconsin voters about the executive qualifications of its candidate.  Mary Burke had claimed that she was a successful strategic planning executive at her daddy’s company, Trek bicycle. And then she took some time off to go snowboarding in Argentina for several months – just the way to take a break from a successful but stressful position. But the aforementioned county chairman Gary Ellerman was also an executive at Trek, and he let the cat out of the bag: she was fired. Or as even her campaign admits now, the company was “reorganized” and her position was eliminated. That’s family company-speak for “fired,” folks.

In response, Burke’s campaign has hit rock bottom.

University of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse has closely analyzed the ad Iin question and does a fantastic job of detailing its disgusting innuendo.

Here is the ad:

And here is a screen shot by Althouse of the fleeting image that is intended to subliminally link Walker to the Nazis:

I urge you to read Althouse’s excellent blog, which goes into detail on the sustained campaign anti-Walker forces (led by government worker unions) have run for years trying to call Walker a Nazi because he doesn’t want people forced into unions without their consent. Here are her key paragraphs analyzing the ad:

Burke seems to be saying that Ellerman is bad because he used the swastika, and since Ellerman asserted something about Burke that could help Walker, Walker is connected to Ellerman, and Ellerman's form of expression should be attributed to Walker, making Walker bad.

If we had the time to read the words on the screen, it would be clear that Ellerman's use of the swastika is not pro- but anti-Nazi, but the ad doesn't give us that time, and in fact, the words on the graphic on the left never fully appear appear on screen. The most you ever see — and I had to freeze the frame to read this — is "cordance with the/Order, all Christian/-ches must hand over/-rmons regarding/-sexuality and gender/state so that we may/or and "correct" any/-rsive speech that/-dicts our Manifesto," a quote attributed to "-ton's Democrat Mayor, Annise Parker." The words "-sexuality and gender" line up with the eyes of the unfamiliar woman who is smirking and has her hands in what could be called theI-have-an-evil-plan position. 

What subliminal effect does that have? One might, in so little time, subliminally read the "evil" woman as Mary Burke. And it is Mary Burke who is wafting swastikas in front of our eyes. I've seen anti-Walker protesters holding signs that put a swastika on Walker, so a casual viewer might think that's what Burke is doing here, even though she wants to say that's the kind of thing that Ellerman does. But most of us don't know or care about Ellerman any more than we know or care about Parker, so I think the subliminal effect — probably intended — was to make us think of Walker as a Nazi. That's something that Burke herself cannot say as a mainstream candidate, but it is something Walker-haters have been expressing for years. 

Althouse's blog includes videos of anti-Walker demonstrators being quizzed about their signs calling Walker a Nazi. Hilarious, in a sick vein of humor.

Godwin’s Law holds that the first person to invoke Hitler loses the argument. I hope and trust that the voters of Wisconsin are as repelled by this desperation tactic as I am.