Jon Ralston on this election season’s Top 10 performances

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

Shame generally takes a holiday during election campaigns. But during the last week of the season, its absence becomes even more noticeable.

You don't have to dwell on the governor's race - and if just for this space in this brief moment, I will not - to find shamelessness the defining feature. It's clogging your mailboxes and polluting your televisions every day - I often wonder how many people during this time simply pull out all the political mail and toss it, or push the "mute" button when they hear someone about to approve a message.

We have tried to get to the truth through our Reality Check segments this cycle, but there is so much unreality to check these days that it often seems fruitless. Everyone's a liar, it seems. Or soft on illegal immigration. Or from out of state.

It's dangerous to do this with only a week left, but here are the Top 10 nominees for Most Shameless Performance of Campaign '06 - I will be taking write-ins until Nov. 7:

Secretary of state contender Danny Tarkanian asserts in a TV ad that Leif Reid, whose credibility he bolsters by identifying him as Harry Reid's son, "exonerated" him in a federal case involving some telemarketing clients. Reid the Younger responds by writing a letter that blisters Little Tark and declares he was not exonerated. Whoops.

When it is pointed out to Gibbons that Titus never said such a thing, he ignores that and keeps running the ad.

Anything I am missing?

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