The term "dirty tricks" is thrown around a lot in politics, sometimes warranted, most of the time not. Often it's the favorite term of someone in politics who gets outsmarted and can't explain away what happened other than deciding it was a dirty trick.

For it to be a dirty trick, it usually should be something that's, well, dirty.

The late William Safire knew a dirty trick when he saw one. He often wrote about them. The obscene rumors spead by the Bush campaign about John McCain during the 2000 South Carolina primary — that Bridget, the young Bangladeshi child brought to the U.S. by wife Cindy and later adopted by the McCains, was really the senator's "illegitimate black love child." That was particularly distasteful. Or the one in 2008 by the Hillary Clinton co-chair in New Hampshire, who brought up the youthful drug use by Barack Obama and expressed faux remorse over the "fear" that Republicans would use the information as a dirty trick. You get the picture.

I think it's fair to say that we have another dirty trick at work, in this year's special congressional race in upstate New York.

That's the one vacated by now-Army Secretary John McHugh. It's been in Republican hands since there was a Republican Party. But the GOP candidate, state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, has taken positions on various social and fiscal issues that have infuriated conservatives in the party ... so much so that many of them are backing the Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman. The split in the Republican ranks could very well elect a Democrat, Bill Owens.

The race has received national attention for weeks now, and tons of money are being poured into the district, the 23rd CD. (Here's my latest post on the race.)

There's a new group called Common Sense In America LLP, and it has just put up an ad, ostensibly on behalf of Scozzafava. It praises her as the "best choice for progressives" and says that because the assemblywoman supports abortion rights, the card-check bill and other liberal positions, all progressives should vote for her.

I say "ostensibly" because Common Sense In America is financed by Arkansas businessman Jackson Stephens — a board member of Club for Growth, the conservative anti-tax group that is a major backer of Doug Hoffman. Stephens has donated to Hoffman's campaign, as well as the National Republican Senatorial Commitee and conservatives such as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Senate candidate Pat Toomey (R-PA).

Josh Kraushaar, writing in Politico, calls it a "dirty trick engineered by Hoffman supporters, looking to render her unacceptable to many Republican voters by detailing her liberal position on gay marriage, support of President Obama's stimulus and connections to labor":

The group's presumed intent with the ad is to trick unsuspecting GOP voters into thinking Scozzafava is the choice of progressives so they will then support her Conservative party challenger, Doug Hoffman. Common Sense in America is spending about $150,000 on the ad buy, and it is up on broadcast and cable in all three media markets in the sprawling upstate New York district.

Scozzafava spokesman Matt Burns accused the Hoffman camp of being behind the ad:

Doug Hoffman has run the most divisive campaign of any candidate, probably in modern political history. He's lied, he's distorted and now he's just using another underhanded tactic because he's desperate.

Here's the ad. You decide.

Tags: On The Ballot