"When you've got nothing going for yourself, you bang the other guy with a hammer. You make sure the voters have a big old headache and are so busy gawking at that other guy, they don't notice you."

New Hampshire Gov. Meldrim Thompson, 1976, identifying his favorite campaign strategy

WASHINGTON -- Words have a way of seeping into our vocabulary and, through overuse or distortion, soon begin to lose their meaning.

Who could have imagined that the word "beheading" would become commonplace, as though we were discussing a sport or a new product?

Youve already heard about Charlie Crists New Insurance Plan. A rewrite of the historical record ignoring some facts and distorting others to obfuscate damage from the first insurance plan he pushed through in early 2007.

With four weeks to go, the race in Congressional District 18 is coming down to the independence of freshman U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla.

Facing former state Rep. Carl Domino, who won the Republican primary in August, Murphy released a new TV ad this week which plays up his political independence. The ad features independent and Republican voters praising Murphy. In the commercial, Murphy showcases a National Journal article from August which claimed he was in the top 5 percent of most independent members of the U.S. House.