Terry Anderson. Do you remember Terry Anderson?

Back in the 1980s, he was working as a reporter for the Associated Press in Lebanon. Hezbollah kidnapped him and held him for more than a year in captivity, trying to use his capture in order to negotiate for advantage. It didn’t work, and a few years after he was released he returned to Lebanon to confront his abductors and tell them off.

There’s a photograph that was taken of Terry Anderson in the same room as his captors as he shamed them. When Terry Anderson ran for the Ohio state senate in 2004, his Republican opponent Joy Padgett put the photo on the TV and added a voice-over that saying that Terry Anderson was “soft on terrorism.” The gall.

But do you know what? It won Joy Padgett her election, because she kept on falsely using that photo, and she kept on saying it, and she freaked out enough residents of Southeastern Ohio to get the votes she wanted. She still hasn’t apologized to Terry Anderson for it.

And now, two years later, Joy Padgett is running for Congress in Ohio’s 18th District. Guess what she’s calling her opponent, Zack Space? That’s right: “soft on terrorism.”

Terry Anderson is having none of it. In this morning’s Columbus Dispatch, he has summoned all his dudgeon and written a righteous letter:

State Sen. Joy Padgett, R-Coshocton, who won that seat two years ago in part by attacking me for being “soft on terrorism,” and her buddies in Washington have clearly decided that what works, works.

They are now spending $1 million a month trying to label her Democratic opponent for Ohio’s 18 th Congressional District seat, Zack Space — surprise, surprise — soft on terrorism.

It’s a stretch.

Space has absolutely nothing on his record, in his lengthy community service or in any position he has taken that would warrant such a label.

But then, neither did I. That didn’t matter to Padgett then, and it doesn’t now.

If you can tell a big enough lie often enough, maybe somebody will believe it.

And that’s the real issue.

Padgett is desperate to distract voters from her recent $1 million personal bankruptcy filing, her close connection with Ohio’s highly unpopular Gov. Bob Taft and his failed policies and, most especially, her close relationship with U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Heath, whose seat she is trying to fill.

Ney pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges after months of denials (and open support in those denials by Padgett).

Padgett’s campaign tactics again show her moral, as well as financial, bankruptcy.

She cares nothing for the truth and obviously has nothing but contempt for the voters if she expects them to keep swallowing this bull.

Do the residents of Ohio really want this person to replace Ney?

Thankfully, the smell of corruption in Columbus and Washington is so strong that even the biggest lies can’t cover it up.

Space, who is not a professional politician and vows he will put his constituents ahead of any special interests, remains at least 10 percentage points ahead of Padgett in this congressional race, with just a month to go.

Sometimes good guys do win.

Shame on you, Senator Padgett.
Way to go, Mr. Anderson.