TAMP 'EM UP SOLID:

‘Attack by Association’ Viewed as Fair Game by McCain Camp (Laura Meckler, 9/19/08, WSJ: Washington Wire)

Don’t be shocked if you see the McCain campaign pull the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright out of mothballs in new attacks against one-time parishioner, Barack Obama.

McCain advisers say that they see “attack by association” as fair game now, arguing that Obama’s campaign has been using that technique to go after McCain. In particular, the Obama campaign has hammered McCain on the stump and in TV ads on the number of one-time lobbyists working for his campaign. (The McCain campaign is also angry about a Spanish-language TV ad that ties McCain to Rush Limbaugh on immigration, without ever saying that McCain took on Limbaugh and others to fight for comprehensive immigration reform.)

“They played it one way, we played it another way,” said one of McCain’s top advisers, Mark Salter. “Now we’re both going to play it the same way.”

We could do without the whole they did it first bit. Mr. Obama's relationship to the Reverend Wright is a perfectly legitimate issue, just hammer him with it and don't make apologies.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 19, 2008 8:15 PM