Washington Post And The New York Times Hit Dirty Harry Reid

In one day. What are the chances that both would tell the truth on the same day? First the Times reports on Reid's opportunistic flip flop on immigration and the Post relates Reid's dirty campaign tactics.

Opposition research is standard operating procedure in modern politics. But for Reid, painting Angle as crazy has become an essential function of the campaign. The state's soaring unemployment rate and his own lack of voter appeal have left him one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the country.

He is gaffe-prone, as when he said recently that he didn't know "how anyone of Hispanic origin could be a Republican." And in an anti-incumbent year, Reid has chosen not to run on his credentials as one of Washington's most powerful politicians. Instead, his campaign strategy has been to use his formidable resources to diminish his opponent rather than to promote himself.

Reid undertook the effort to discredit Angle immediately after she won the June 8 GOP primary. His campaign spent millions on TV ads, a blizzard of news releases describing her as "wacky" and a Web site detailing some of her more unusual political views.

Summers won't say how many of the Reid team's 31 employees are focused on slinging mud. But at The Hammer, the subject dominates the happy-hour conversation.