I just got two mailers slamming Keith Fimian, the Republican congressional candidate in the Virginia district where I live. One was from “Americans United for Safe Streets”–a name that reminded me of President Obama’s recent remarks about organizations with deceptively anodyne names–and focused on the “gun show loophole.” Another, rather similar-looking mailer came from the Democratic Party of Virginia and accused Fimian of social-issue extremism. For example, “Fimian wants to ban stem cell research that doctors say could hold the key to cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s” (emphasis in original). The underlined words are, of course, untrue, and the Washington Post article the mailer cites does not support the allegation. The claim that the controversial types of stem-cell research are at all likely to lead to “cures” for Alzheimer’s has long since been debunked. One sentence, two falsehoods: The Democrats may not be great at targeting their mailers, but they have achieved a kind of efficiency.