FactCheck.org, which has been lending a measure of balance and rationality this campaign season, finally loses it over an anti-Bush ad that makes even Michael Moore look honest. Here's an excerpt:

"This anti-Bush radio ad is among the worst distortions we've seen in what has become a very ugly campaign. It states as fact some of the most sensational falsehoods that Michael Moore merely insinuated in his anti-Bush movie Farenheit 9/11 .

"The ad was released Oct. 25 by The Media Fund, an independent Democratic group run by former Clinton deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes. It falsely claims that members of the bin Laden family were allowed to fly out of the US 'when most other air traffic was grounded,' though in fact commercial air traffic had resumed a week earlier.

"The ad also falsely claims that the bin Laden family members were not 'detained,' when in fact 22 of them were questioned by the FBI before being allowed to leave -- and their plane was searched as well.

"And by the way, the man who gave approval for the flight wasn't Bush or even any of his close aides, it was former White House anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke, now one of Bush's strongest critics."

If we didn't believe so devoutly in the sanctity of free speech, the Gnomon might almost see this sort of thing as a powerful argument for further campaign finance reform. Unfortunately, it is difficult to legislate responsible speech.

Does yelling, "Evil President" during a Terror War amount to the moral equivalent of yelling, "fire" in a crowded theater?