Haven't seen this mentioned here, but in yesterdays NYT Think Again blog Stanley Fish wrote an opinion piece Much Ado
in which he connects Swiftboating and McCarthyism.
Now, in 2008, after a primary season increasingly marked by dirty pool and low blows, "McCarthyism" and "Swiftboating" have come together in a particularly lethal and despicable form. I refer to the startling revelation — proclaimed from the housetops by both the Clinton and McCain campaigns — that Barack Obama ate dinner at William Ayers’s house, served with him on a board and was the honored guest at a reception he organized.