But is he any good at it?

Digby talks about the apparent hiring of Ace Smith (what a name!), political dirt-digger extraordinaire, by the Dean campaign.

Personally, I don't have a big problem with hardball politics in this day and age. I think it's probably smart to be as rough and tumble as you have to be. Certainly, the Republicans aren't going to hold back, so we'd better be prepared to hit back.

I do wonder, however, how sadly betrayed many of Dean's supporters must be to learn that he would hire such a low-life, dirt digging, mud slinging political bad boy as old Ace. I feel their pain. Considering the fact that the Clark campaign's hiring of the deplorable Chris Lehane's wife was considered to be a total capitulation to the reprehensible tactics of cynical DLC nasty campaigning, I can only imagine how hurt they must be to find that the lowlife Ace has been brought on board.

Count me as a Dean supporter who is not repelled by this action (and I suspect that a lot of other Dean supporters will be just fine with it). I have absolutely nothing against hardball politics. In fact, I've been urging Democrats to become more hardball for several years. The fact that Dean appears willing to do just that is one of the major reasons I am supporting him.

Face it, it will take a wrestler to bring down George. Democrats keep killing themselves by their consistent pooh-poohing of this kind of rough-and-tumble politics.

Some may think this is hypocritical given how Dean supporters have been so critical of operatives like Chris Lehane. But see, here's the key point: it's not that Lehane is a scumbag that cause me not to like him. It's that he's an INEFFECTIVE scumbag.

If you are going to go negative on someone's ass then you should, at the least, be good at it.