For those who missed the dirty politics last weekend in NH (and then Bill’s “clarifications yesterday”, here’s one voter’s primer on the Clinton playbook:

Step 1: Slander your opponent
Step 2: Wait and see if you’re called on the slander
Step 3: If called on the slander, decide whether you’ve offended a group you need to win the election
Step 4: If the answer to step 3 is “yes, we need that group,” deny Step 1 ever happened.
Step 5: Hope nobody realizes what you just did
Step 6: If someone does realize what you did, see step 1 (slander them)

And now, the teacher’s union in Nebraska has filed suite to disenfranchise the voters of the Culinary Union (see report in New York Times today). Of course Senator Clinton’s campaign will say it has nothing to do with that but who are they trying to kid. If they think the tactic is underhanded politics, they can certainly talk the “Teacher’s Union” into withdrawing their suite. The Clinton campaign won’t and that will be an implicit endorsement of yet another slimy Rovian tactic: if the voters aren’t going to vote for you, try to disenfranchise them.

I’ll say it again: if you’re woman or a man and want to vote for Senator Clinton solely because you think it’s time we had a woman President, there’s nothing wrong with that. It is high time we have more women leaders in national positions.

But please don’t insult your own intelligence or ours by denying that Senator Clinton’s campaign is using the very same trash and burn tactics that she’s so criticized the right wing for using for so long. De-nial is not just a river in Egypt.