Just in case you thought dirty tricks at Donald Trump’s rallies were a new tactic, emails from WikiLeaks dumped Friday show the Democrats plotted to harass John McCain in 2008.

Paul Begala and other top Democratic consultants plotted to have McCain, then leading the field in the GOP primary, followed around by a man in a George W. Bush mask.

“All we’d need is a volunteer who would be willing to wear a blue suit, blue shirt, red tie — and a Bush mask.”

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Democrats not only sought to tie McCain to the then-unpopular president, but also no doubt, hoped to agitate McCain who was known to despise Bush.

LifeZette has previously reported that McCain’s surprise win in the South Carolina GOP presidential primary in 2008 caused panic among Democratic consultants, who feared he was the strongest Republican candidate to face Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the fall of 2008.

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The consultants considered dumping disingenuous phone calls into Republican households in other states to hurt his chances and perhaps get a weaker Republican nominated.

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On Friday, WikiLeaks produced another email, sent to Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta, that Democrats considered the kind of harassment and dirty tricks they have been alleged to use this year against Donald Trump.

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“Have a guy in a Bush mask go to McCain events with a sign that says, ‘John, Give Me a Hug,'” Democratic consultant Paul Begala wrote in an email to several other big shots, including Podesta. “And-or he could shout out, ‘Hey, John, give me a hug!’ We could have one at every McCain event. The cost is minimal. How much does a rubber Bush mask cost? All we’d need is a volunteer who would be willing to wear a blue suit, blue shirt, red tie — and a Bush mask. If we really get our act together, we could have a chorus of Bushes begging for hugs. It’s sure to get free press — especially that all-important local TV.”

Sure enough, demonstrators wearing Bush masks began showing up at McCain and Republican events to taunt McCain.

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The news of dirty tactics as far back as 2008 is bound to raise the issue of how much disruption and dirty tricks the Democrats have been up to during presidential races.

Earlier this week, conservative undercover journalist James O’Keefe dropped a bombshell when he published undercover videos of boastful Democratic operatives. Some of the operatives, paid directly by the Democratic National Committee, boasted about hiring mentally ill and homeless people to disrupt Trump events, and even causing fights.

The Democratic operative, then working for People for the American Way, said the Democrats were also working on inflating the vote totals illegally in swing states.

“It’s a very easy thing for the Republicans to say, ‘Well, they’re busing people in [to vote],'” the Democrat said to an O’Keefe videographer. “Well, you know what? We’ve been busing people in to deal with you f***ing [people] for 50 years, and we’re not going to stop now. We’re just going to find a different way to do it.”