Mark Salter, McCain's colorful speechwriter, biographer, and most recently author of the fictional Honorable Campaign of McCain  wrote a letter of outrage (OUTRAGE I say!) to Newsweek, deploring  the  fact that their cover story discussed the negative attacks that are the basis of the GOP general election strategy.

The characterization of Republican presidential campaigns as nothing more than attack machines that use 527s and other means to smear opponents strikes us as pretty offensive.  [snip]  From the beginning of their article, Evan Thomas and Richard Wolffe offered a biased implication that Republicans have won elections and will try to win this one simply by tearing down through disreputable means their opponents.
[snip]
Suggesting that that we can expect a whispering campaign from the McCain campaign or the Republican Party about Senator Obama's race and the false charge that he is a Muslim is scurrilous.

It's offensive, biased, and scurrilous! However, it's also utterly predictable. Not even a day after Salter had written his oh-so-genuinely offended letter, the House GOP leaders took this section of an interview with Obama:

JG: If you become President, will you denounce settlements publicly?

BO: What I will say is what I’ve said previously. Settlements at this juncture are not helpful. Look, my interest is in solving this problem not only for Israel but for the United States.

JG: Do you think that Israel is a drag on America’s reputation overseas?

BO: No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable.

And the good ol'  non-smearing, GOP house leaders - in a feat of reading incomprehension - turn it into:

Israel is a critical American ally and a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, not a ‘constant sore’ as Barack Obama claims," Boehner said.

"It is truly disappointing that Senator Obama called Israel a ‘constant wound,’ ‘constant sore,’ and that it ‘infect[s] all of our foreign policy.’ These sorts of words and characterizations are the words of a politician with a deep misunderstanding of the Middle East and an innate distrust of Israel," Cantor said.

Well Senator McCain, we're now in the general election, and so far, it looks like the Republicans could stay on the high road for less than one day. I guess we should applaud them for trying, and pretend to be as shocked an appalled as Mark Salter.