Congress battle sinks into the dirt

[T_i_B]

Suprise suprise!

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1934414,00.html

With less than two weeks to go in a bitterly fought campaign, America's midterm elections have turned into one of the dirtiest and most negative fights in recent history.
A slew of 'attack ads' has hit airwaves across the nation as rival candidates seek to claw back points in the polls. And one key theme has emerged in many of them. It is not Iraq. Or terrorism. It is sex.

Candidates have been accused of using sex phone lines, going to Playboy parties, writing books that encourage paedophilia, assaulting their ex-lovers or paying for sex.

Most, but not all, the advertisements are Republican campaigns attacking Democrats, who appear poised for a historic victory. 'These elections are probably the most negative midterms in recent memory,' says John Geer, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University and author of a book on negative political advertising.

The traffic is not all one way, however. Democrats have attacked Pennsylvania Republican Don Sherwood with allegations from a former mistress that he tried to choke her. They are also running TV ads against New York Republican John Sweeney for attending a fraternity party that show a mock Sweeney dancing with young girls like a lecherous old man.