The Republican incumbent blasts Democrats for high gas prices. A long-shot Democratic challenger, in a video titled "Checks for Free," excoriates the Republican Senator for burdening future generations with trillions in national debt.

Still another Democratic outsider casts an opponent — a veteran Democratic Party insider — as a "Convenientcrat" trotted out by big-money party officials to muscle-out upstarts like himself.

Welcome to the 2008 Georgia campaign for the U.S. Senate. It might appear to be an under-the-radar battle. A few yard signs have sprouted here and there. But there has been a noticeable absence of television ads or even high-profile debates.

There is a very real political war taking place, however, on the Internet, complete with dueling videos on YouTube, pot shots on MySpace and Facebook and an occasional tweak or two on Twitter.

YouTube and the social networking sites are hardly new, but are finally finding their footing in 2008, say the experts. The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently published a study that found 40 percent of Americans have gotten information on this year's political campaigns from the internet, up sharply from the 2004 election cycle.

"It's cheap because I write, direct and produce them myself," said Democratic candidate and YouTuber Josh Lanier of Statesboro, who says his Senate campaign is short on money, but long on ideas. "They're not so much attacks as parodies of the political system."

So far, he's put four videos on YouTube, including his "Checks for Free" shot at incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss. The video takes its title from a Dire Straits song, "I Want My MTV", which plays in the background. Lanier spent $200 for rights to the song.

Chambliss, whose campaign coffers are brimming with cash, has fired back with his own YouTube attacks, one titled "Thank A Democrat" where he assails the other party for skyrocketing fuel prices.

"Make no mistake about it Congress, and especially the Democrats in Congress, are to blame to skyrocketing gas prices," Chambliss tells viewers in his YouTube video. "The next time you fill up your car or truck, call a Democrat an thank him or her for the high prices."

Lanier, meanwhile, has fired back at Chambliss' video in a YouTube spot called "Translation," which copies Chambliss' original video and inserts Lanier's own typed comments beneath the senator as he speaks.

The sites, especially YouTube, are becoming key players in the five-way race for the Democratic nomination to run against Chambliss and Libertarian Allen Buckley in November. Lanier, Atlanta businessman Rand Knight, former WSB-TV reporter Dale Cardwell, DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones and former Democratic state legislator Jim Martin will face each other in the July 15 primary for the right to run in November.

Cardwell and Lanier have both vowed not to take money from special-interest groups, known in the political world as PACS, or political action committees. That has left both with thin campaign wallets, which doesn't matter in the YouTube landscape, where production costs are minimal and postings free.

"I hope not to spend more than $15,000 on an entire race," Lanier said. "I have not held a fund-raiser. I don't send out solicitations. Money has corrupted the process."

Cardwell has raised about $160,000, but only has about $15,000 on hand, so his ability to put ads on TV is limited.

"You've got to do what you can do," said Cardwell, who has posted three YouTube videos, including his "Convenientcrat" attack on Martin. "As long as people can see there are three people in the race, that it's not just between Jim and Vernon, then I'm viable."

Jones has posted two YouTube videos touting his candidacy, and has pages under development on MySpace and Facebook, said spokeswoman Candace Reese. In one YouTube spot, Jones faces the camera, a giant U.S. flag in the background, and details his support for U.S. troops in Iraq while stressing the need to "shift responsibility" for the war to the Iraquis.

So far, Marin has not posted any YouTube spots, but will in the near future, said Martin spokesman Ellery Gould.

"It will certainly be a part of our campaign," Gould said. "People get very excited about what they see on it."

Chambliss spokeswoman Michelle Hitt Grasso said that when the GOP senator first ran six years ago the well-funded campaign had a primitive web site, but otherwise minimal Internet presence. This time around Chambliss has YouTube videos, Facebook and MySpace pages and a Twitter account. Twitter is a site that lets users send out short announcements to a social network, in this case potential voters.

"It's [Chambliss' Internet push] targeted to younger voters," Grasso said. "Traditionally you used TV to reach voters. The younger voter is typically not at home watching the six o'clock news. They hang out on online."