Today Mississippi holds a run-off in the special election to fill a vacant seat in the 1st Congressional District. Democrat Travis Childers led last month's first round but fell several hundred votes short of the majority required by Mississippi law. In almost every other state he would have won.

Childers is a centrist, which means that instead of criticizing his platform Republicans are throwing mud. A GOP ad, which depicts Childers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, says, "When Obama's pastor cursed America, blaming us for 9/11, Childers said nothing."

That's probably true. It also applies to almost everyone. Did Greg Davis, Childers' Republican opponent, blast Wright "when" the pastor "blamed" America? Did John McCain criticize Wright at the time? Did George Bush? Did Karl Rove? Did Rush Limbaugh? Did Bill O'Reilly?

The truth is that almost no one outside Wright's congregation knew what he said when he said it. The provocative words received general circulation only this year. And speaking of "blaming" America for 9/11 or for natural catastrophes, right-wing preachers have done what Wright has done -- they merely invoke different reasons. The message, however, is similar -- America had it coming. The Twin Towers fell because New York is filled with secularists; waters flooded New Orleans because the locals are hedonists. (Hurricane Katrina generally spared the French Quarter, the neighborhood most associated with debauchery, but that's another story.)

Here's an amazing twist: National columnist Bob Novak, the insider's insider, reports that certain leaders among the religious right analyze the rise of Barack Obama through the lens of biblical prophecy. They liken his possible election to the plagues God visited upon the disobedient Israelites. Sinfulness invited suffering. Is it possible apocalyptic partisans welcome an Obama victory as (1) a just punishment for America's moral transgressions and (2) as a precursor for deliverance into an evangelical promised land?

Although we will leave the theology to others, we will note that the tactics the GOP used in Mississippi resemble the tactics it used in Louisiana -- where Republicans recently lost a seat they had held for more than 30 years.