Not that dirty, according to Politico's Jonathan Martin, who has a great piece on how clean this South Carolina GOP Primary is, despite the McCain campaign's best efforts to act as if it's 2000 all over again. And Martin provides the answer as to why McCain isn't getting slimed this time around, too:
“The people that beat him in 2000 are for him now” is how Trey Walker, one of McCain’s top advisers here, explained it, doing his best to suppress a smile and talk up the efforts of “Trust Huckabee.”
“He now has the establishment,” Walker bragged.
I guess the real question is, are McCain's erstwhile South Carolina enemies now doing anything nasty on his behalf? For instance, we won't know until after the primary about who gave the anti-Huckabee Victims Voice group enough money to run this ad in South Carolina. That'll definitely be something to keep an eye on after the smoke has cleared.
--Jason Zengerle