As many reporters noticed, Gov. Palin dropped her “Bridge to Nowhere” lie from her stump speech during her trip to Alaska last week, presumably because too many locals knew about her actual role as a major supporter of the project. So I’d been wondering whether the line would return once she returned to the lower 48. Sure enough, today in Carson City, Nevada, she’s back at it.

Yesterday I asked what consequences John MccCain might face for repeated instances of lying if he were still in the Navy. The UCMJ covers official lies and, more generally, immoral conduct. But there’s also the US Naval Academy Honor Concept. The USNA makes clear it’s not a ‘code’, in that it’s not a specific set of rules but a general statement of moral conduct. But in the more colloquial sense most of us understand, it’s the Academy’s honor code, the rules of conduct midshipman are supposed to live by and against which they are judged.

The first two lines of the Concept are …

Midshipmen are persons of integrity: They stand for that which is right.

They tell the truth and ensure that the full truth is known. They do not lie.

Obama raises $66 million in August.

The Democratic National Committee took in $17.3 million last month, on top of the Obama campaign’s $66 million. That and other political news in today’s Election Central Sunday Roundup.

The Obama campaign has now clearly taken the leap into openly attacking John McCain for the series of lies and fraudulent statements he and his campaign have now told over the previous two weeks. The evidence is beyond question and even mainstream news organizations which place balance over accuracy in reportage have confirmed his deceptions. Presumably they will soon move to the obvious and more consequential corollary. If voters can’t trust John McCain to tell the truth about even the most basic facts of the campaign, how can they trust him when he says he’s going to bring change?

Edsall ….

The McCain campaign, in running TV ads which defy prior political standards, is gambling that the traditional rules governing what is permissible in presidential contests — as defined by the mainstream media — can safely be discarded this year.

The normally cautious and even-handed Associated Press on Thursday declared, “Even in a political culture accustomed to truth-stretching, McCain’s skirting of facts has stood out this week.” The controversies have surrounded McCain television commercials and stump speeches asserting that Barack Obama “supports” comprehensive sex education in kindergarten, that Obama called Sarah Palin a “pig in lipstick,” and that Palin stood firmly against the “bridge to nowhere” — despite videotape evidence that the Alaskan governor provided support for the earmark before she opposed it.

So far, based on polling over the past two weeks, McCain’s roll of the dice has paid off. Not only has McCain made substantial gains, pulling modestly ahead in most national polls, but his assaults on Obama appear to have damaged the Democratic Party as well, raising Republican hopes of minimizing House and Senate losses.

Now Army Times finds another McCain lie.

As Greg Sargent reports, the Obama campaign is launching its first ad hitting McCain for his lying and his mendacious adver-sleazements.

Remember Joe Biden? He’s got some pointed new rhetoric on what McCain’s campaign tactics say about the way he will govern. That and the day’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.

Gov. Sarah Palin still won’t say whether she endorses the re-election of her state’s GOP stalwarts: Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young.