A former professor with suspected terrorist ties and U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch's combative nature wound up providing most of the excitement Thursday in the last Democratic Senate debate before the election.
Deutsch angrily criticized Democratic Senate front-runner Betty Castor for not doing more to rid the University of South Florida of Sami Al-Arian, a professor awaiting trial on charges he raised money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
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Meanwhile, the Tallahassee Democrat has this to
say:
When Jim Crow still ruled the South, it was common for candidates to use tactics of hate and fear by claiming that they would erect a security fence around segregation. Their opponents, by implication, were too soft on racial issues.
It was often as effective as it was outrageous. But yet today fear-and-smear campaigns unfairly stain reputations and create the accurate perception that politics can be a very dirty game. Dirty campaigning contributes to the alienation of voters who choose to not participate in politics rather than be sullied by the slime.
Though many candidates are stooping to some pretty direct and sometimes dirty hits this year, Florida's U.S. Senate race primaries have become distinctive for being particularly ugly. Neither party is immune. Both Democrat Peter Deutsch and Republican Mel Martinez are the chief culprits. Their behavior is reprehensible.
Mr. Deutsch, trailing in the polls against front-runner Betty Castor for the Democratic nomination, began airing his own negative ad Saturday suggesting that Ms. Castor is soft on terrorists. He never repudiated earlier ads paid for by an independent organization headed by his friend and suggesting the same thing. The allegation is based on how Ms. Castor, when she was University of South Florida president, dealt with a Palestinian professor alleged to have terrorist ties.
Mr. Deutsch's ad comes on the heels of widespread criticism of his campaign and not long after he signed a pledge to refrain from such attacks.