Joe comes close to conceding that Republicans do the nasty thing better than Democrats. He simply insists that Democrats started it, with Bork in 1987. I think you have to go back almost a decade further: to NCPAC or “Nick-Pack” — short for the National Conservative Political Action Committee.

Founded in 1975, NCPAC flowered in 1980, targeting six incumbent Democratic senators and defeating four of them, including former Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern. Exploiting a 1976 Supreme Court ruling that “independent expenditures” on behalf of a political candidate are protected by the First Amendment — quite an “activist” constitutional interpretation, by the way, though Bork endorses it — NCPAC was a pioneer in the techniques of raising money through vicious and often dishonest direct-mail packages, and used the proceeds to fund nasty attack ads on the radio.

Of course, 1980 was also the year Reagan was elected president, which may have had some impact on the Senate campaigns as well. But you could make a case that of the two developments, NCPAC and Reagan, it is NCPAC that had the bigger influence on future developments in American politics.