Competition to Lead GOP 'Dirtiest Ever'

Things have gotten ugly in the race to chair the Republican National Committee, in which a vote is due tomorrow. Anonymous e-mails have thrown some hard elbows, the Washington Times reports—one this week featured a mock-up USA Today front page reading, “RNC members choose ‘whites only’ chairman,” warning of potential fallout if Katon Dawson, who until recently belonged to a whites-only country club, was chosen.

“It’s the bloodiest, most vicious race I’ve seen,” said one Republican. Another e-mail noted that candidate Saul Anuzis had never finished college, while still another called Ken Blackwell “dangerously incompetent” as Ohio’s secretary of state. And the nastiness is pretty much all the 168 voters tomorrow will have to go on; all six candidates hold virtually identical views. (More RNC stories.)