Condemnation of the nasty smear campaign by the so-called "Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values" is all over the place today, and rightly so. No matter who we support in the primary, Democrats have to keep our eyes on the prize: defeating George Bush. (Note to AJHCPV: defeating him, not writing his commercials for him.)

But an even more disgusting and pernicious dirty trick is being lost in the shuffle as everyone focuses on the commercial: someone has been sending out fake faxes purporting to be from Dean for America.

Households in at least one heavily Jewish region of New Jersey have been receiving faxes claiming to be from Dean's campaign promising to ''end support for Israel in favor of even-handedness'' and to ``promote greater understanding and tolerance of Islamic teachings.''

The faxes carry the letterhead ''Dean for President'' and ''Dean for America,'' the correct name for Dean's campaign, and one even cites his endorsement this week by Gore -- but tout fake positions clearly designed to mislead readers about Dean.

Could this have been done by one of the other Democratic campaigns? I wouldn't want to think so, but I have to concede that it's possible. But it also smells distinctly like the Bush campaign's SC primary push polls about McCain's "black baby."