The Republicans always love to talk about cultural abasement in terms of the poor and most particularly in terms of African Americans. They trot out Moynihan's phrase "defining deviency down" and complain about single mothers, absent fathers and rap music.

However, I submit that the most successful effort to define deviency down has come from the Republican party itself. From Nixon to Reagan to Bush to McCain, we have had a string of administrations and campaigns marked by corruption, secrecy and lies. And the result is that McCain's campaign staff arrogantly and flippantly boasts that they don't care that the media calls them on their lies.

Yes, they know they are lying in the ads. They know that using words like disrespectful and arrogant to talk about Obama is code talk to white folks to tell them to shut down the "uppity" black man. They don't care though, because they have so successfully lowered expectations of integrity and honesty among Republicans, it's not a story when they are corrrupt, lying conmen.

Corrupt Republican? Yawn!  Been there, done that.

And so they get away with it - there's no outrage because they have exhausted and outlasted outrage.