Mudslinging in Washington state. "The key to the doctors' strategy is obvious: prey on the unpopularity of trial lawyers.

They put up a campaign Web site called 'theirlipsaremoving.com' — the punch line to the joke 'How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?'

Their TV ads are filled with demeaning images of lawyers: giving each other high fives while throwing darts at a picture of a doctor and stuffing fat wads of cash in their pockets (presumably their take from another medical-malpractice 'jackpot').

One ad features a split-screen image — on one side a doctor gives a child a checkup; on the other a lawyer wags a big cigar. 'When your health matters,' the announcer asks, 'do you believe your doctor or [in a sneering voice] lawyers?'

When Seattle pollster Stuart Elway asked almost that very question in a statewide survey earlier this year, 66 percent sided with doctors, compared to 6 percent for trial lawyers.

As Frank Luntz, a Washington, D.C.-based Republican pollster, once noted, 'It's almost impossible to go too far when it comes to demonizing lawyers.'"