We all know that old trick from what Lanny Davis calls the "Republican Noise Machine" (another great techno band from the '80s). You take a candidate, point out his church attendance or his participation in the Million Man March, etc., then smear HIM for things that were said at the church or by some minister recently returned from a conference on an alien spacecraft.

So unfair!

And now here it is, happening again.

Tony Zirkle is a longshot candidate in the GOP primary for Congress in Indiana's 2nd District. He gets an invitation to speak to a Chicago group celebrating Adolph Hitler's birthday. He stands in front of a painting of Hitler, addressing an audience whose members are wearing swastika armbands and now...he's under attack! Can you believe it?

"I'll speak before any group that invites me," Zirkle told a reporter. And why shouldn't he? Hey, we're not going to start holding people responsible for the churches they attend or the terrorists with whom they associate, now are we? Besides, do you and I really understand the plight of bitter, jobless neo-Nazis? I mean, really--who are we to judge?

I anxiously await the enthusiastic press release in defense of Mr. Zirkle from DNC and others engaged in the noble fight against the injustice of guilt by association.

To quote those great political philosophers, Jake and Elwood Blues: "Illinois Nazis? I hate Illinois Nazis."