They held their collective nose and got behind John McCain, especially after McCain named right-wing diva Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee. But tepid, hold-your-nose support for McCain, countered by blindly loyal support for Palin, hasn't been enough.

They have also been concurrently mounting ever-more-shrill attacks on Barack Obama. That's not enough, either -- Obama remains solidly ahead in national polls.

So they must resort to the only tool it...