MORE MASSACHUSETTS OUTRAGE – AT 9:56 P.M. ET:  The remarkable smear campaign against Scott Brown, which will climax tomorrow, continues, under the direction of national Democrats.  The Politico has the latest:

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is making hay this morning of a clip in which Scott Brown, in the process of praising President Obama's mother for deciding to have him at age 18, expresses some doubt -- and chuckles uncomfortably -- over the question of whether his parents were married when he was born.

DSCC spokesman Eric Schultz called the video "appalling" and tried to link Brown to the Birther movement, which denies Obama's citizenship and claims he was born abroad -- things he didn't even hint at in the video.

Politico writers are thick-skinned political reporters, and even they are appalled:

The claim is a wild stretch. The fact that Obama's mother was young and had to marry on the fly (his mother was pregnant when they were married in February, 1981) is central to his biography, as is his father's absence, and while Brown seems confused on that biographical point, he doesn't suggest in any way that he's aligned with the Birthers. Indeed in a GOP where Birther claims are common on the Hill and on the airwaves, Brown's words are practically a vote of confidence.

COMMENT:  We hope there's a voter backlash against this kind of stuff, but we wonder what we're going to get tomorrow, the last day of the campaign.

January 17, 2010