How I'd respond

You may have noticed the latest phony controversy manufactured by the conservative movement. First, I would do what Obama did (his response is contained in that link). But then I'd go further and say something to this effect:

Look, what this is about is an attempt to divert the attention of the American public away from the real issues of this election. For example, while the McCain camp has been engaging in pretended outrage and indignation over this fake controversy, there's a real scandal in the news. At the Minerals Management Service, which collects about 10 billion dollars a year, we now are hearing has been run - under the watch of man whose policies McCain plans to continue - as a means of scoring drugs, sex and graft from the oil industry.

The report says that eight officials in the royalty program accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski and paintball outings; meals and drinks; and tickets to a Toby Keith concert, a Houston Texans football game and a Colorado Rockies baseball game.

The investigation also concluded that several of the officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.”

The investigation separately found that the program’s manager mixed official and personal business. In sometimes lurid detail, the report also accuses him of having intimate relations with two subordinates, one of whom regularly sold him cocaine.

The culture of the organization “appeared to be devoid of both the ethical standards and internal controls sufficient to protect the integrity of this vital revenue-producing program,” one report said.

This isn't just another case of "bad apples." This is a direct consequence of the ideology of the conservative movement being put into action. It's what happens when you hold the notion of civic service in contempt, when you exalt private interest over public interest; this is crony capitalism at its finest (worst.) And this is the movement to whom John McCain has entered into some kind of Faustian bargain with, having betrayed his own stated principles and values in order to secure the Republican presidential nomination.

And so this is what you can expect if vote for four more years of President Bush style "conservatism."

Ok, I'm no speech writer (and I'm writing off the top of my head,) but you get the general idea. Every single time the McCain camp and the Republican Noise Machine tried to make this campaign about nonsense I'd tie McCain to any one one of the seemingly never ending stories of corruption and incompetence that have been happening under the watch of President Bush and the movement that empowered him.

Update: For a lucid book length explanation of why "This is a direct consequence of the ideology of the conservative movement being put into action" see The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank.