How egregious have the latest McCain ads been?

Even Karl Rove thinks they’ve gone to far:

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove said Sunday that Sen. John McCain had gone “one step too far” in some of his recent ads attacking Sen. Barack Obama.

For the record, Rove also criticized Obama’s ads as well.

But it’s nonetheless a telling miscue, the kind of gaffe that can put an entire campaign in context in a way no op-ed column can.