John Kerry just sent out this e-mail:

Pick up the New York Times this morning and read the headline: “Book on Obama Hopes to Repeat Anti-Kerry Feat.”
Yes, Jerome Corsi, the right wing fringe author who made his bones smearing the Catholic Church and lying about my military record, is back atop the best seller list with an anti-Obama book chock full of lies.
If your blood isn’t boiling yet, read this: “This is a fact: Today Barack Obama is subject to what is probably the greatest concentrated attacks of smears, lies and innuendo in the lifetime of anyone who reads these words.”
Those are the words of Brent Budowsky in Editor and Publisher. He knows what he’s talking about.
And it’s not just Barack: up and down the ticket and all across the country, the rightwing smear machine is ramping up attacks on Democrats.
We’ve seen this movie before. The Republicans, without ideas, start running a negative campaign filled with personal attacks and misleading ads. The attacks get condemned, but they get lots of attention and get played on TV endlessly.
We’ve got to fight every way we can. I’m going on television and the radio pushing back every chance I get – just like I did on MSNBC a few days go – but I need your help. . . .
We’re launching a new website that empowers you to fight back across the country in ways no campaign has attempted. It’s called TruthFightsBack.com, and we can use all the help you can give.
By signing up, you’ll stay on top of what the rightwing is doing and help fight for the truth. And you can report smears when you see them to keep us on track on what the smear machine is up to at every moment. You will be our eyes and ears.
We know the game, we’ve learned some things, and we have a fired up movement of activists like no party has had in decades, all networked together with great Internet tools.
So sign up to help. This is a massive undertaking, so we need your help to pull it off. . . .
You can’t just play defense against smears, pointing out how they aren’t true. You’ve got to play offense, too, exposing the whole cynical game for what it is: an attempt to keep us from talking about the real issues and ultimately changing our country for the better.
The Republicans have nothing to run on, no ideas to push, no solutions for America. They’ll run a campaign of laughable gimmicks and outright distortions and lies. But we can fight back with the truth – and the truth can win this time.
Let’s do it.
Thanks,
John Kerry

Kerry is just recycling the MoveOn.org formula: Send e-mails to liberals, decrying some putative GOP atrocity and soliciting money to “fight back.” Rinse, lather, repeat. As a fundraising mechanism, this has proven amazingly effective, and has been imitated by the Obama campaign. Once you sign onto the Obama e-mail list, not a day goes by without a new message asking you to give money for some reason.