Perhaps taking a cue from Barack Obama's "Fight the Smears" effort, the McCain campaign today announced a "Palin Truth Squad" of more than four dozen surrogates — elected officials and activists, mostly women — to confront any untrue rumors that surface about Sarah Palin. According to the press release:

In the event of false attacks, rumors and smears against Governor Palin, the Palin Truth Squad will issue alerts and statements to voters and the media to set the record straight. Additionally, the Truth Squad will be available to respond to inquiries from the media.

The campaign says the Truth Squad is a response to a report in today's WSJ that "Democrats have airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition leaders" into Alaska "to dig into her record and background."

DNC research chief Mike Gehrke told Marc Ambinder today that the oppo-hunter airdrop is a "flat-out fabrication." But given the long list of Palin rumors swirling around the tubes, the Truth Squad will likely still have its work cut out for it.

(Also...we here at VP applaud any and all efforts to keep political discourse honest, and we resolutely oppose false personal attacks. But we feel compelled to note a hint of irony in the coincidence of this Truth Squad announcement with the kerfuffle over Palin's own ongoing truth-bending on the Bridge to Nowhere earmark.)