Read My Knuckles

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The gift was a TV commercial in which the Arizona Senator looked into the camera and charged that Bush "twists the truth like Clinton." The spot went too far--in South Carolina's Republican circles, being compared to Clinton is worse than being compared to Satan himself. Putting it on the air undermined McCain's claim that he was above politics as usual and freed Bush to amplify his attack strategies while muddying the waters on the question of which candidate was hitting below the belt. Says a Bush aide: "When he truly crossed the line, that's when we could go after him. It was a huge opportunity."

For the rest of the campaign, Bush used the ad as a smoke screen to obscure his assaults on McCain. His team quickly cut an effective response ad, with a nice kicker: "Disagree with me, fine," it said, "but do not challenge my integrity." It was his best performance yet, and Bush used variations on the theme in the final debate and in his press conferences. For instance, when reporters challenged him on his failure to speak out against the racist policies of Bob Jones University, he jutted his jaw and said, "Don't you judge my heart." The Bush camp kept the spot on the air through primary day--long after McCain had taken his attack ad off the air--because it implied that McCain was still playing dirty even after he had committed himself to sending only positive messages.

Behind the smoke screen, Bush's allies on the right stepped up their assault. The National Smokers Alliance warned that "if straight talk is the issue, John McCain isn't the answer." Christian-right leader Pat Robertson threatened that "a large portion of the Republican base would walk away" if McCain was the nominee. Representative Henry Hyde of Illinois, chairman of the House impeachment proceedings, taped a phone message for 100,000 voters, implicitly criticizing McCain for wanting to change the G.O.P's abortion plank to include exceptions for rape and incest--exceptions Bush also supports, though Hyde didn't mention that. The National Right to Life Committee issued a mass mailing warning that McCain "voted repeatedly to use tax dollars for experiments that use body parts from aborted babies." On the front of the leaflet was a photograph of a baby with the words, "This little guy wants you to vote for George W. Bush."

Phone calls from Bush polling operations appear to have been attacks masquerading as opinion surveys--so-called push polls. These calls distorted McCain's record--exaggerating his role in the Keating Five savings and loan scandal, for example--in an attempt to push voters away from him. Though the Bush campaign claims only 300 of the calls were made in South Carolina, Bush's Michigan pollster, Fred Steeper, told TIME last week that his firm had placed several thousand such calls in his state. Steeper says he has stopped making the calls.