Kerry and the Democrats have finally decided to play the Saudi card:

In the final month of the campaign, Democrats are increasingly tying the White House to the Saudi Arabian royal family, a line of attack that they say is highly effective, but it has stirred concern among Saudi officials.

Senator John Kerry and the Democratic Party introduced two new advertisements this weekend that criticize President Bush's administration as giving the family "special favors" and as having an overreliance on Saudi Arabia for oil.

And the Media Fund, a Democratic group, said yesterday that it would spend $6.5 million to run advertisements hitting the Saudi theme still harder in Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin during the next couple of weeks.

Officials with the Media Fund said they decided to do so after a test run in St. Louis late last month produced what they said were unexpectedly good results with voters.

The line of attack is reminiscent of "Fahrenheit 9/11," the anti-Bush documentary by Michael Moore that highlights what it call Mr. Bush's ties to the Saudi royal family.

Mr. Kerry's new advertisements imply that ties between the president and the Saudis have caused Mr. Bush to take a slack line against the Saudis on oil prices - a message Kerry aides say they hope will resonate particularly well in the days before Mr. Kerry's Friday debate on domestic issues with Mr. Bush.

"The Saudi royal family gets special favors, while our gas prices skyrocket," an announcer says in one spot as the screen flashes a picture of Crown Prince Abdullah. In another, Mr. Kerry says, "I want an America that relies on its own ingenuity and innovation, not the Saudi royal family."

Tad Devine, a senior strategist for Mr. Kerry, said in an interview: "The heart of their policy is to benefit the powerful and the privileged. Bush is beholden to powerful interests and not the American people."

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Mr. Bush, said: "It's the mainstreaming of Michael Moore. What's unusual is that conspiracies would be adopted as mainstream messages by John Kerry, who's running for president of the United States."

Personally, I'd like to see Saudi money entirely out of U.S. politics. I'd also like to see regime change in Saudi Arabia, although it's a valid concern that many alternatives to the present setup could turn out to be worse.

These last minute hardball strategies invite similar tactics, and, while the Democrats are also infected with Saudi money (and thus in no position to play the Saudi card successfully), there's also the issue of entanglement and funding of radical Islamist causes. And why does Kerry have such a pliant attitude towards the Iranian mullahcracy? Might it be that he doesn't want to offend certain top contributors?

Perhaps the last-minute Saudi strategy is meant to coincide with today's release of Michael Moore's latest DVD. As a longterm campaign theme, it wouldn't have worked.

Still, I think this is just a warmup.

The last minute attacks have yet to begin in earnest.