In their most recent debate, eight-term congressman and senatorial hopeful Bob Clement asked his Republican challenger, former governor Lamar Alexander, if he was willing to resign from his position on the board of a company that supplies Internet access to Tennessee schools -- a position that pays Alexander $70,000 annually. Alexander, taking the tone of a school marm, doged the pointed question by saying, "Now, Bob, you have done so well without getting into that mudslinging." In Clement's defense, the term "mudslinging" -- the act of throwing effective epithets at a pooitical adversary -- was improperly used. to say "You, sir, are a corporate scandal waiting to happen" is an example of mudslinging. To ask "Are you, sir, a corporate scandal waiting to happen?" is, as always, a perfectly fair question.
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