Defining moments

http://www.suntimes.com/news/quicktakes/109728,CST-NWS-qt25.article

News Item: National Republican Congressional Committee sends operatives to look through tax, court and other records of Democratic candidates with an eye toward more than $40 million in TV ads to "define" opponents.

News Item: Republican operatives find that an upstate New York Democratic congressional candidate had placed a call to a sex line and billed the taxpayers.

News Item: TV ad appears showing images of the Democrat next to the silhouette of a dancing woman, who says, "Hi, sexy. You've reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line."

News Item: Democrat releases phone records showing he had dialed a number, reached a sex line, hung up immediately and then dialed the number of the New York Department of Criminal Justice Services, which has the same seven last digits as the sex line --in other words, a clear case of a misdialed number.

News Item: N National Republican Congressional Committee stands by TV ad, saying it is "totally true" that the Democrat had dialed the number of a sex line.

The TV ad is still running.