Dirty politics

Remember all the tsk-tsking that went on during the last federal election? "Nastiest election in years," and all that? Well, it could be worse. At least we're not in New Jersey.

The dead-heat race for who will be the next governor of the Garden State, between Democratic Senator Jon Corzine and Republican businessman Doug Forrester, has seen character attacks from both sides. Recently, though, things have escalated. Rumours began flying that Forrester'd had an extramarital affair with an ex-Miss New Jersey. (When asked directly whether he'd cheated on his wife, Forrester replied: "If what you're asking is if I have sex with somebody else -- no." Thank you so much for clearing that up; I feel so reassured.) Then came the charge from the Forrester campaign that it was Corzine's camp that had started the rumours. And most recently, Forrester's campaign has released an attack ad featuring Corzine's ex-wife. Playing off of Forrester's campaign slogan that went "Doug never let his family down and he won't let New Jersey down," the quote says: "All I could think was that Jon did let his family down, and he'll probably let New Jersey down, too."

You can't make this shit up, honestly.