The Lufkin woman says she told the caller, "I don't support [Obama]. Your guy is a socialist who voted four times in the State Senate to let little babies die in hospital closets." The campaign worker may have heard it differently. Since the conversation apparently went unrecorded, who knows who said what.

In any case, the Secret Service came to the Lufkin woman's home to check things out. The woman was outraged, claiming that "the girl on the phone [didn't] have the pull" so someone "high in the ranks of the campaign" must be behind the visit.

Allegedly, the woman later called Sean Hannity's radio show with the same story. To his too rare credit, Hannity defended the Secret Service for doing their job.

One thing's for sure, hatred is bubbling. And it's more than ugly; it's dangerous.

A recent e-mail from a friend included a copy of a message he got from another friend. From my friend's friend:

"Believe me, first-hand, the Secret Service is watching every possibility for protecting Senator Obama. When he visited our home on a Sunday last November one agent visited on Thursday, two visited on Friday, and three visited on Saturday. They also visited our near neighbors…. There were two up-armored Chevrolet Surburbans in our driveway, one containing the Senator. There were two Dodge minivans in the driveway across the street. I’ve also read that the FBI is looking for the man in [Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah] Palin’s audience that yelled, 'Kill him.'"

"… With the nasty tone of the campaign and of e-mails in the back of the minds of those of us who remember how the campaigns of George Wallace and Bobby Kennedy ended is the worry that someone will feel justified to step forward from a crowd and get his name in the history books."

With obvious delight and imbecility, Sarah Palin accuses Obama of "pal'ing around with terrorists." It's not a chance remark, but part of the broad McCain campaign strategy to demonize the opponent.

And it's not all happening "out there." A Hays man, writing for the Reader Forum of the Hays Daily News, recently labeled Obama "as contemptuous of life as Adolph Hitler… and Osama bin Laden."

The next week, another Hays (Kansas) reader called Obama a Muslim, then lumped all Muslims together "whose main theme in life is to destroy America and the freedoms it possesses." That Haysite speculated darkly that Obama may "feel some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father" and destroy this country from within like "Hitler, Mussolini, and Saddam Hussein" destroyed their countries.

And here's the latest floater in the e-mail sewer -- this one from a Bible prophecy jackass. Says the message:

"According to the Book of Revelations [sic]: The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal ... the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, destroy everything ... And Now: For the Award-winning Act of Stupidity of all time the People of America want to elect A Male of Muslim descent who is the most extremely liberal Senator in Congress (in other words an extremist) and in his 40's…"

Syndicated columnist Richard Reeves received a copy. He says the managing partner of a Cleveland investment firm has been spreading the Bible prophecy claim.

I'm sick of the haters.