The Republicans have gone way beyond the Palin with their McCarthyite tactics, and the latest person to be smeared is Iowa’s longtime Democratic Senator, Tom Harkin.

His Republican opponent, Christopher Reed, called him “the Tokyo Rose of Al Qaeda and Middle East terrorism.”

Those remarks came in a forum on October 30 broadcast on Iowa public TV and sponsored by the Des Moines Register, the paper reported.

Reed also said that Harkin was “anti-American” and was “providing aid and comfort to the enemy,” which is the constitutional definition of treason, a crime punishable by death.

Harkin said the comments were out of line and predicted: “It’s going to hurt him,” he told the paper.

At the taping, Harkin was heard to say, directly to Reed: “You’re a nice young man, and I thought you had a political future ahead of you. But that just ended your political career right there.”