Never for a moment have I doubted that politics was as rough-and-tumble as anything I see on the sporting fields. Still, for all the name-calling and smear tactics of presidential campaigns present and past, never have I witnessed such a low blow as the one inflicted on Hillary Clinton last night. And this one apparently didn't come from the Obama camp, but from anonymous Democrats, who compared the New York senator to Tonya Harding. According to ABC's Jake Tapper, they believe she is pursuing "the Tonya Harding option"--kneecapping your rival so that he can't win. Maureen Dowd took the notion a step further in today's New York Times, suggesting that Clinton knows she can't win the nomination and her only hope for the presidency she so desperately covets is to make Obama unelectable against McCain--so that she can reemerge as the party's savior in four years.

Calling Sen. Clinton "a monster" is one thing, but giving a name and face--especially that name and that face--to the monster is far worse. I don't know Sen. Clinton, but I sure do know Tonya whose career I covered extensively. And she was a true guttersnipe, a compulsive liar and cheat. The kneecapping of Tonya's rival, Nancy Kerrigan, just before the 1994 U.S. Nationals in Detroit was carried out by Tonya's proxies, a band of stooges led by her former husband. With Kerrigan sidelined by a low blow from a baseball bat, Harding went on to win the national title and her more important goal--a spot on the U.S. Olympic team for Lillehammer.

Those lacking an intimate knowledge of the sport often wondered why such desperate measures were necessary, when finishing second would have enabled Harding to make the Olympic team anyway. But figure skating can be like horse racing. When a horse knows it is running against another horse that is out of its class, it can't compete as well. Had Kerrigan taken the ice in Detroit, Harding would have been pushed harder and, as she did so frequently those days (and would do again at the Olympics in Norway), would likely have crashed and burned--and stayed home for the Olympics.

Of course, the mess wound up in court, where the best efforts of the U.S. Olympic Committee failed to get Harding banned from the American team. And Tonya, who was unabashedly unashamed, got the worldwide showcase she wanted. Though her Olympic performance was a debacle, the whole affair kept her career alive as a carnival act and a handy perennial for the lowest reaches of reality TV, In other words, kneecapping essentially worked for Tonya as a competitive and career strategy. We may have to wait another four years to find out just how effective a political strategy it turns out to be.