Per Talking Points Memo:

John McCain’s Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established — and even told reporters outright that the “B” carved into the victim’s cheek stood for “Barack,” according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain’s Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, “You’re with the McCain campaign? I’m going to teach you a lesson.”

Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the “B” stood for Barack. According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack, who has since admitted the story was a hoax.

This is a new low in scumbaggery, for an already scummy McCain campaign. When did making up bullshit and trying to blame a fabricated racial attack on your political opponent become Mavericky?

And just yesterday, McCain accused Obama of saying anything to get elected.

Per the Associated Press: McCain says Obama will ’say anything’ to win

Republican John McCain, taking a cross-state bus tour aimed at keeping vote-rich Florida from swinging to the Democrats, on Thursday accused rival Barack Obama of saying “anything to get elected.”

You mean like making crazy statements about ACORN stealing the vote for the GOP and McCain palling around with terrorists? Like claiming his clueless Vice President Candidate who doesn’t know what the Vice President does or what constitutes the Bush Doctrine is ready to be President? Like suspending his campaign to save the world and claiming credit for passing a finance bill that doesn’t pass, only to later claim he killed it? Like telling Dave Letterman he has to cancel his appearance to return immediately to Washington, then going to an interview with Katie Couric — which Letterman can see via internal feed?

What next? Maybe McCain can accuse Obama of being a rich elitist with 8 mansions and a beer heiress wife? Or complain about how Obama grimaces and grunts while he’s speaking during a debate? Or rudely refers to his opponent as “that one!”

Or maybe McCain will call just Obama short, old, and ill-tempered.

Anything can happen once a candidate crosses the rubicon of batshit-crazy.

New York Times: Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million

Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

~~~

But last week the McCain campaign stepped up a running battle of guilt by association when it began broadcasting commercials trying to link Mr. Obama directly to the government bailout of the mortgage giants this month by charging that he takes advice from Fannie Mae’s former chief executive, Franklin Raines, an assertion both Mr. Raines and the Obama campaign dispute.

Incensed by the advertisements, several current and former executives of the companies came forward to discuss the role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager and longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of their advocacy group, the Homeownership Alliance, formed in the summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed their descriptions.

Just like those higher gas prices, and forcing kindergarteners to watch anal gang bang videos.

So low even the Post’s Howie Kurtz can no longer ignore it.

McCain’s Ad Formula Employs Lowest Common Denominator

By featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in an attack ad against Barack Obama, the senator from Arizona has risked charges of silliness to draw attention to his frequently overshadowed campaign. And on one level, it has worked: Television, with its love of pop culture, has replayed the spot hundreds of times, and the NBC, MSNBC and Fox morning shows had aides to McCain and Obama debating it Thursday.

At the same time, analysts questioned what message McCain was sending by interspersing footage of his Democratic opponent before a huge crowd in Berlin with that of two socialites famous for their irresponsible antics.

Fairly tepid stuff — compare it to Bob Herbert’s scathing analysis (”Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain. . . . Both ads were foul, poisonous and emanated from the upper reaches of the Republican Party. “) in the Times — but for Howie talking about a Republican, them’s close to fighting words.

“McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence” = “John McCain is Lying his ass off”

McCain’s latest attack ad accuses Obama of trying to turn a visit to troops into a media circus — despite the fact that Obama planned to visit troops in Germany unaccompanied by reporters, cameras, or campaign staff. So how does the press report the untruthfulness of McCain’s scurrilous attacks?

McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence

For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.

The essence of McCain’s allegation is that Obama planned to take a media entourage, including television cameras, to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany during his week-long foreign trip, and that he canceled the visit when he learned he could not do so. “I know that, according to reports, that he wanted to bring media people and cameras and his campaign staffers,” McCain said Monday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

The Obama campaign has denied that was the reason he called off the visit. In fact, there is no evidence that he planned to take anyone to the American hospital other than a military adviser, whose status as a campaign staff member sparked last-minute concern among Pentagon officials that the visit would be an improper political event.

“Absolutely, unequivocally wrong,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in an e-mail after McCain’s comments to Larry King.

There’s plenty of evidence, however — the problem is the evidence all points to the fact that McCain is lying and — like his honorless predecessor — is using the troops as political pawns. Even after the “lack of evidence” to support the allegation, i.e., the falsity of McCain’s attack, has become clear, the word from the McCain camp is:

McCain’s advisers said they do not intend to back down from the charge, believing it an effective way to create a “narrative” about what they say is Obama’s indifference toward the military.

Got that? Johnny McStraightalk’s campaign believes that lying to the American People is an effective way to create a narrative.

At least the New York Times is starting to notice:

Like Mr. Bush, Mr. McCain confuses opposition to an unnecessary war with a lack of spine and an unwillingness to use force when the nation is truly in danger. Obviously, Mr. Obama is untested as a commander in chief and his trip was intended to reassure voters. But Mr. McCain is as untested in this area as Mr. Obama, and it is hard to imagine a worse role model than the one Mr. McCain seems to be adopting: President Bush.

Many voters are wondering whether a McCain presidency would be an extension of Mr. Bush’s two disastrous terms. If the way Mr. McCain is running his campaign these days is an indication, Americans don’t have to wait until next January for the answer to that one.

Though early in the campaign, McCain is reaching the very lows Bush strived for, in terms of loathesomeness and dishonesty. I wonder how McCain’s illegitimate mulatto love child feels about that?