I'm absolutely sick to death of negative political ads and the campaigns, political parties, and the feeble politicians who run them.

And if I don't vent here, I'm liable to go off on the next politician I meet, which, according to my scribbled notes, is a candidate for the U.S. Senate who's visiting tomorrow.

By great American tradition, newspaper editors have the dubious honor of being visited by candidates for national and state offices, who come by for a chat, but are actually hoping you'll write a glowing story about them so they can save their ad money for TV.

And by chat, I mean that they will sit there and bloviate at great length right to your face about how they'll change Washington, fix the economy, save the world, tax the rich, feed the poor, til there are no rich no more.

In the process, they sometimes mention their opponents, but most don't.

But the other day, one Democratic candidate came to make his case before Publisher and Editor Sparky Newsome (and to a lesser degree, me) and this candidate whipped out his little shovel and took the negative to a new low, offending us both and giving me a column topic.

To be fair, Bobby Saxon did introduce himself with a few sentences of who he was and why he was running, but then this candidate went on a steady, extended tirade of pure-dee ugly against his opponent.

Well, I have to tell you that I would have been shocked if I'd believed Saxon. Paul Broun had been in that very office earlier that day, and for the life of me I could not tell that he was the Antichrist incarnate, as Bobby seemed to imply.

Sparky wasn't fooled, either. He asked this Democrat, "Can you, without saying anything negative about Paul Broun, tell me who you are and what you stand for?"

Well, he tried, but he couldn't. Saxon did manage to say if he got elected, he'd do better than Broun at getting along with all the other Congressmen, playing the Washington game and voting along with Nancy Pelosi and the other blind fools who got us in this mess, as if that were a point in his favor.

Sparky gave Saxon another try at saying something positive. But Saxon, a decorated Iraq combat vet and National Guard officer who should know better, then tried to impugn Broun's military service with some childish semantics. (Apparently, when Saxon was a toddler, Broun was serving as a Marine jet mechanic and as a Navy medical officer, but wasn't involved in combat.) Saxon also launched an incoherent attack at their debate over the weekend, and put up a truly lame YouTube video.

Sparky and I wouldn't even let him finish saying it before we showed him the door.

In contrast, Paul Broun had just visited for a half-hour that morning, and I asked Sparky to refresh my memory - did Paul Broun say anything about Bobby Saxon during his visit? "Not a word," Sparky said.

Isn't there too much at risk right now for politics as usual? Isn't this election too important? Is it too much to get a straight answer on what candidates stand for, what they've done, and what they plan to do rather than be bombarded with the twisted negative ads their parties dredge up?

Right now, the American people are worried, scared, and furious that our so-called leaders are playing politics and cutting deals while we're teetering on the brink of disaster. So we're voting mad, and we're voting worried, and now, with charges of thousands of bogus voters and countercharges that thousands of votes won't be counted, we aren't really sure if the election will be on the up-and-up.

And, sadly, I really don't think we're going to be any happier, or any less worried, this time next week.