Absolutely stupidity; I hope GOP leaders don’t really think they’re going to win in November by taking some kind of high road.

The office of Senator Bob Corker, Republican from Tennessee, has weighed in today, siding with Senator Barack Obama’s objections to the state’s G.O.P. Web campaign against Michelle Obama.

To recap, the officialdom of the Tennessee G.O.P. posted a Web spot that mines remarks Mrs. Obama made in February that “first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.” The ad repeats footage of her speaking those words, interspersed with comments from Tennesseans, talking about how they’ve always been proud to be an American.

…Mr. Corker’s chief of staff, Todd Womack, demanded that his boss’ state party remove the Web ad:

After the Republican National Committee damaged our campaign with their infamous ‘Call Me’ ad — which we immediately denounced — we have strongly encouraged the national party and state parties to absolutely refrain from getting involved in negative personal campaigning, and we have asked the state party to remove their You Tube ad from their Web site.

Republicans will be in much better shape if we spend our time focused on issues like reducing federal spending, lowering the cost of health care and creating a coherent energy policy.

“Negative personal campaigning”? Michelle Obama made the statement at a large campaign rally for her husband’s presidential campaign. She consistently campaigns for him, even going after Republicans on occasion. But if we dare criticize her statement, it becomes “negative personal campaigning”? What about when Bill Clinton’s campaign statements are attacked? Is that also “negative personal campaigning”?

The GOP has jumped on the “civility” wagon as of late. While Obama, Democrats, and the media continue to effectively smear McCain, GOP leaders seem to think they’ll win this battle by being nice. If we all just take the high road, even while Democrats smear us left and right, we’ll prevail…not.

The DCCC slimed our candidate in Mississippi’s special election by accusing him of wanting to honor the founder of the KKK. That was inaccurate, but we lost another seat. Obama’s smeared McCain on a slew of issues from Iraq to the economy, but it hasn’t stopped hordes of voters from backing the Messiah. Being nice isn’t going to work when the other side slimes us. In politics at least, honorable losers are still losers.