Only now, it’s not in Congressional legislation. It’s in their campaigns.

And I disagree with Jane. She said it much more efficiently and clearly than Digby did this time.

I don’t think it’s gotten as bad in the actual campaigns as the rightwingers who sling it, (with one exception) but among supporters - even in the blogosphere - it’s gone over the line with the racist and sexist shit. I don’t believe anyone phoned Cuomo and suggested he use ’shuck and jive’, and I don’t think it’s a surprise that Obama has dark skin color or that, as a politician, he can BS a bit, which is ultimately Cuomo’s point.

Yet it’s important, as a sign of respect to both candidates, that all Democrats use more common sense and avoid code words that trigger stereotypes and open the discourse to ancient ugly arguments.

I don’t believe Obama, Clinton or Edwards have crossed those lines. Some critics have over-analyzed off-the-cuff remarks to suggest they meant things worse than what they actually said. Each of them, however, has the responsibility to chide people within their campaigns or public figures who are their supporters, when those folks cross that line, even a little.

There’s a perfect analogy in sports history. In one encounter, Danny Ainge of the Boston Celtics got his thumb bit by an opponent. For years afterwards, fans of his opponents claimed Ainge was the biter. In the past week, I read bloggers attacking candidates because they were pissed off by the extreme sexism being tossed around by misogynist supporters.

If the candidates want to avoid being wrongly charged, it’s incumbent they get out in front of these divisive issues and make clear they’ll have no truck with supporters who utilize the old politics of division and insist that they stick to issues, ideas and actual records. If they do not, the serious bigots will be as forgotten as the thumb biter and they’ll carry a rep they might not deserve. And the party, too, will take a hit to its reputation that it’s had to work hard to overcome for the past 40 years of its evolution.

That means you Obama, and Clinton and Edwards. You may be personally innocent but dammit, act like leaders if you’re qualified to be one.

Update: It gets worse. HOWEVER, let’s not overlook the likelihood that email campaigns and race-baiting or gender-baiting commenters are actually Republicans pretending to be otherwise.

Solidarity and denunciation by Dems is the best way to prevent them from playing their dirty games.

Towards that end, if I see visiting commenters cross that line, I’ll publish their email and IP addresses so they can get a taste of their own dung flung back their way.

From the originator of that letter, you might want to drop a line to Sid Dinerstein of siddinerstein@yahoo.com and tell him what you think.