Rick and Kay paying top dollar to dig up dirt on each other...

Maybe Reagan was being metaphorical about that 11th commandment thing... thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican...

Party primaries can be cleansing... typically though it is the incumbent that gets "cleansed" out of office and the challenger that emerges...

This year in Texas is a little bit different however... In Texas with Rick leading by double digits in the polls over Kay you have to wonder just how cleansing and productive this oppo research really will be...

Dave Montgomery has an article about the role of oppo research in the 2010 race (link)...

Opposition research, or "oppo," will be an integral component in scores of Texas races this year from courthouses to the statehouse. But nowhere are the fruits of oppo more apparent than in the Republican gubernatorial primary race between Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Since the race began unfolding more than a year ago, the two campaigns have battered each other with a litany of charges and countercharges that reflect extensive digging into each candidate’s background and lengthy record of public service.

Hutchison’s camp cried foul when The Dallas Morning News reported in February that an opposition research firm working for Perry — John Doner & Associates — was filing open records requests to fish for information about Hutchison’s husband, Dallas bond attorney Ray Hutchison.

The Austin consulting firm is regarded as the state’s premier Republican oppo company and received at least $13,250 from the Perry campaign last year, according to disclosure statements filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. Doner, who declines to discuss his operations, has the reputation of a no-stone-unturned researcher after 18 years in the business.

The Hutchison campaign reports $66,400 in payments to a Little Rock public affairs firm headed by former U.S. prosecutor Tim Griffin, who once directed opposition research for the Republican National Committee and later worked in the White House under Karl Rove.

"Tim Griffin advised our campaign on some projects," said Hutchison spokesman Joe Pounder, who declined to say whether Griffin assisted with opposition research.

Spokesmen for the two campaigns decline to discuss their opposition research efforts but acknowledge that the rival candidates’ long public tenure gives them plenty to work with.

"Research is one of the many components of the campaign and we’re going to utilize all our resources," said Perry spokesman Mark Miner, asserting that Hutchison will "be held accountable for [her] actions and inaction" during her 16 years in Washington.

Said Pounder, Hutchison’s spokesman: "It’s important that Texans know the truth, and that starts with having a full accounting of Rick Perry’s record of saying anything and changing any position to win."

Large campaigns often couple in-house research with help from outside consultants to get the goods on a rival. Smaller campaigns with limited staff, such as courthouse or legislative candidates, often rely on outside specialists.

As Rick's peeps are wont to tell anyone who will listen... Rick has had more than 100 million dollars spent against him in multiple hard elections... Kay has had almost no money spent against her in some fairly easy elections...

It might be that Rick has already had his dirty laundry aired... Kay on the other hand is ripe for being exposed for the first time...

Which brings us back to the cleansing nature of primaries... this has all the earmarks of "cleansing" Kay out, but not really because she has the option of just not resigning from the senate... then hoping all the negativity from 2010 blows over and she can just run again in 2012...