Every now and then, I check the headlines on my favorite political races to see how "my" candidates are doing -- LTC Allen West (USA retired), for instance, who is running for Congress in District 22 in South Florida.

It looks as if Allen's doing just great, holding on to a lead both in the polls and in fund-raising as the campaign heads into the final days.

His opponent(s), however, may have the distinction of mounting not just the sleaziest attacks in the country (releasing Allen's Social Security number in an ad, for starters), but also the lamest. I refer to the recent attempt by Klein supporters, led by US Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, to depict Allen -- an officer and a gentlemen both literally and figuratively -- as, get this, being "anti-woman," as the Sun Sentinel blog headline reported. Or maybe not being anti-woman himself exactly,  but rather, as the report put it, "being associated with vicious, degrading attitudes toward women,"

Associated with?

'This alleged "story" is all based on the fact that Allen West wrote a perfectly plain vanilla political article for a publication called South Florida's Biker Bible, a local magazine which, as West's opponents decried in a perfectly idiotic protest led by Schultz-Wasserman at West headquaters, also features "racy" material and pictures. Notice that what Allen West himself has written is not at issue but ratherwhat some other person has written elsewhere in the magazine. "Warning," the blog entry reads in a hot link to both Allen's article and the second author's. "Some of the content in the second article" -- not Allen's! -- may be considered offensive."

I don't think I've ever seen a more pathetic attempt to find political traction. Again, what Allen West says, writes, believes, promises and plans is of no importance to his opponent -- just this novel notion of guilt by publication. It's akin to holding me, a syndicated columnist, responsible for everything I didn't write in the 120 papers my column appears in!

Meanwhile, by this same ludicrous measure, Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King, Bill Gates, William Buckley, Bill Cosby and Bob Hope are themselves similarly guilty of being associated with "degrading attitudes toward women." Why? They all participated in the "Playboy Interview."

Sounds as if desperation is setting in for West's Democrat opponent, Rep. Ron Klein.