WASHINGTON (AFP) - John McCain's camp hit back on Sunday after Barack Obama's campaign charged his White House bid was based on "disgusting lies," accusing Democrats of reeling in "full throated panic." The Democratic hopeful meanwhile said he had smashed his own record and raised 66 million dollars in August, grabbing a leg-up in the frenetic seven weeks of no holds barred, coast-to-coast campaigning until the election. Republicans went on the offensive after Obama launched a fierce counter-attack last week as his poll numbers ebbed and Republicans rode a wave of enthusiasm following McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. "The Democratic Party is in full-throated panic over Sarah Palin," said McCain ally and former top business executive Carly Fiorina, on ABC News "This Week," lambasting US columnists who accused McCain and Palin of telling lies. Fiorina also complained "ageism" was rampant, with Obama partisans arguing that Palin, a first-term Alaska governor and 44-year-old mother of five, was too inexperienced to serve as vice president. The Obama camp raised the age issue implicitly last week when it ran an ad mocking the 72-year-old McCain as out of touch and oblivious to the Internet revolution. Democrats accused the McCain campaign of adopting a scorched earth policy against Obama, after charging he called Palin a pig and backed teaching sex education to kindergarten children. Obama spokesman Bill Burton accused McCain of "running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history.  "His discredited ads with disgusting lies are running all over the country today. He runs a campaign not worthy of the office he is seeking." Obama Sunday announced a record-breaking August, in which he piled up 66 million dollars for the crucial run to the Nov 4 election. McCain raised 47 million dollars in August, his best month so far. But the Republican has accepted public financing for his effort, which limits his spending to 84 million dollars until the Nov 4 election. Obama is the first presidential candidate to shun public financing, confident that he can keep reeling in small and large donations from his army of givers, which now numbers more than 2.5 million people. Obama has over 77 million dollars in cash on hand, according to aides and will seek to press home his advantage through large-scale advertising blitzes, seek to stretch McCain's limited resources across the electoral map and fire up a massive get-out-the vote effort. Latest polls Sunday showed a tight race, with a slim advantage to McCain. The Republican led by three points by 50 to 47 percent in Sunday's tracking survey by Rasmussen. Gallup's latest snapshot on Saturday had McCain up 47 percent to 45 percent. But Obama opened up a 12 point lead in the midwestern battleground of Iowa, 52 percent to 40 percent, according to a Des Moines Register poll. The state went Republican in 2004.