Last week, in an obtusely worded story buried inside the paper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted briefly that the Ohio GOP let go of its “outreach coordinator” for social conservative groups, Gary Lankford. Lankford had waged an e-mail campaign with scurrilous innuendo about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland.

The Plain Dealer, a mediocre fish-wrap always careful not to offend the delicate sensibilities of its humble readers, failed to report in detail on just how salacious Lankford’s lies truly were: claiming that Strickland and his wife were “closeted homosexuals in a marriage of convenience.” Politics1’s Ron Gunzburger tells the whole story.

Republicans calling Ted Strickland and his wife gay is appalling, but hardly unprecedented. This is the same deranged logic that dictates it’s okay to lie and tell South Carolinians Sen. John McCain sired an African-American child out-of-wedlock (the truth: he’d adopted a Bangladeshi child). These “Christian” Republicans would do well to remember the Lord’s Ninth Commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Clearly, Ohio Republicans will use any Rovian tactic and utter any malicious falsehood to get their way in November. The New Yorker’s Frances Fitzgerald has written a must-read piece on how frightening Ken Blackwell and his Christianist allies truly are.

Luckily, Ohio has a great chance to elect a great governor instead of a reactionary. Help Ted Strickland win today!