The L-Word. No, not that one.

It's curious how, in the span of just a few days, numerous folks have finally had enough of the pathological dishonesty of both John McCain and his douchebag of a running mate Sarah Palin, and started to drop the "L" word into their accusations. There was the earlier video, in which a Democratic stragetist accused McCain of flat-out being a "liar" several times -- and with good reason, because he is.

Then there's the New York Times' Paul Krugman:

Blizzard of Lies

Did you hear about how Barack Obama wants to have sex education in kindergarten, and called Sarah Palin a pig? Did you hear about how Ms. Palin told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks” when it wanted to buy Alaska a Bridge to Nowhere?

These stories have two things in common: they’re all claims recently made by the McCain campaign — and they’re all out-and-out lies.

Dishonesty is nothing new in politics. I spent much of 2000 — my first year at The Times — trying to alert readers to the blatant dishonesty of the Bush campaign’s claims about taxes, spending and Social Security.

But I can’t think of any precedent, at least in America, for the blizzard of lies since the Republican convention. The Bush campaign’s lies in 2000 were artful — you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned. This year, however, the McCain campaign keeps making assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute, and repeating these assertions over and over again.

It's delightful reading, check it out. And lest you think all the criticism is purely partisan, apparently even members of McCain's own party are a mite taken aback by his chronic dissembling (emphasis added):

McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions

Harsh advertisements and negative attacks are a staple of presidential campaigns, but Senator John McCain has drawn an avalanche of criticism this week from Democrats, independent groups and even some Republicans for regularly stretching the truth in attacking Senator Barack Obama’s record and positions.

Mr. Obama has also been accused of distortions, but this week Mr. McCain has found himself under particularly heavy fire for a pair of headline-grabbing attacks. First the McCain campaign twisted Mr. Obama’s words to suggest that he had compared Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, to a pig after Mr. Obama said, in questioning Mr. McCain’s claim to be the change agent in the race, “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig.” (Mr. McCain once used the same expression to describe Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health plan.)

Then he falsely claimed that Mr. Obama supported “comprehensive sex education” for kindergartners (he supported teaching them to be alert for inappropriate advances from adults).

Those attacks followed weeks in which Mr. McCain repeatedly, and incorrectly, asserted that Mr. Obama would raise taxes on the middle class, even though analysts say he would cut taxes on the middle class more than Mr. McCain would, and misrepresented Mr. Obama’s positions on energy and health care...

“The last month, for sure,” said Don Sipple, a Republican advertising strategist, “I think the predominance of liberty taken with truth and the facts has been more McCain than Obama.”

That McCain and Palin are horrific liars is well-established, but it's nice to see the "L" word finally becoming acceptable. One wonders when Canada's MSM is finally going to take the gloves off and do the same thing with Harper.

P.S. Oh, and Palin is really fucking stupid, too. It's no wonder so many of Canada's Blogging Tories are in love with Palin -- they're intellectual soul mates.

AFTERSNERK: Over at TPM, Todd Gitlin has a delightful piece on the pre-programmed vacuity that is the Palin-bot.

MORE WINGNUTTY GOODNESS: Dave does a bunch of the heavy lifting, so follow the links and enjoy. Sarah Palin is such an obvious idiot, which would certainly explain the unabashed adoration here, wouldn't it?