It’s official. The first personal insult of the season is out there. Via The Page, Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign chief of staff Jim Messina (no relation to Loggins, I assume) went there this afternoon. Speaking to the Iowa delegation at the Democratic National Convention, Messina called Sen. John McCain a “schmuck.”

“If Senator McCain continues to be the schmuck he’s being, we’re going to play there [in Arizona], you know, and go tell some truth.“

A schmuck! Granted, there’s been lots of thinly-veiled disparaging remarks and borderline patriotism-questioning, but a schmuck? Them’s fightin’ words.

Or could this Yiddish insult be a brilliantly devious scheme on the part of the Obama camp to taunt McCain into selecting Sen. Joe Lieberman [I-Conn.] as his running mate — to fight fire with fire?

A hiltsener tsung zol er bakumn!