People for the American Way has created an ad that is now playing in potential Democratic-pick up Senate seats, targeting Susan Collins (Maine), Norm Coleman (Minnesota), Elizabeth Dole (North Carolina), John Sununu (New Hampshire) and Gordon Smith (Oregon).

As part of People For the American Way's Save the Court campaign, we're running ads in key states targeting senators who voted against their constituents' interests by supporting George W. Bush's extreme judicial nominees.

The ads below call out senators who sided with Bush when it came to judicial nominees whose decisions had very real — and negative — impacts on families in their state.

I'm a member of PFAW. You can join as well, and your donation will help buy ad time and hopefully help us increase the Democratic majority in the Senate.

By the way, one of the reasons that Dole faces such a tough race? The perception that she is nothing more than an empty suit. In 2006, she only spent 13 days in her state and was rated by Congress.org as 93rd most effective senator. In a field of 100, that's gotta hurt.

VetVoice:

The ad features Peter Granato, Iraq War Veteran. In the ad, Granato fires shots from an AK-47 through the kind of flak jacket troops were given early on in the war, and modern Body Armor, featuring (Stand Alone Protective Insert (SAPI) plates. The shots go through the older vest, but are stopped by the newer armor. Granato explains that Chambliss voted against funding to give American troops the newer armor.

Chambliss did so twice, voting against an amendment offered by Senator Christopher Dodd in 2003 (S.Amdt. 1817), which would have appropriated $300 million more for needed equipment for the troops, including proper Body Armor, to make up for a funding shortfall that did not meet the request of the US Army. He also voted against an amendment by Senator Mary Landrieu ( S.Amdt. 452) in the same year that would have appropriated $1 billion for equipment on a list of priorities from the Marines, also including Body Armor, as Landrieu made clear in her press release on the amendment at the time.

"Senator Chambliss should be held accountable for these votes, and troops and veterans are doing just that," said Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org.

Chambliss, the man who smeared triple amputee Max Cleland to win his seat in 2002 is now locked in a really close race against Democrat Jim Martin -- in fact, the state of Georgia is now a swing state -- and with your help, his seat could be part of our filibuster-proof 60 seat Democratic majority.

You can help Jim Martin at Act Blue. Do it for Max.

The group America's Voices put out this ad which exposes John McCain's lying ad that says Obama killed immigration reform.

On Friday, Senator John McCain released what the New York Times editorial board blog has denounced as a "fraudulent" Spanish television ad, accusing Senator Obama and other Senate Democrats of "killing immigration reform."

The Washington Post blog also weighed in with a scathing piece that argued, "Obama supported the bipartisan John McCain-Edward Kennedy efforts to enact such reforms and voted for their final proposal last year."Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement released by the Obama campaign Friday.

"The man who said he would vote against his own immigration bill during the Republican presidential debates, who was unwilling to stand up to his own party when they approved an anti-immigrant platform, cannot attack Democrats on immigration in Spanish, while pandering to the extreme right Tancredo wing of the Republican Party in English

McCain seems to forget that it was Republicans and the psycho right wing blogs and talk shows that killed the immigration bill, not Obama. McCain tries to say that he stands up to his party, but in a huge bill that he supported with Ted Kennedy, he backed down and caved. No Maverick here, folks

This week, John McCain's campaign launched a TV ad in Spanish which blamed Barack Obama and the Democrats for the death of comprehensive immigration reform. Is it true?

Not at all. The ad covers up the fact that it was Republicans who voted down immigration reform, giving into a fired-up, anti-immigrant base. In fact, just this month, John McCain's own Republican Party unveiled an anti-reform platform on immigration. It went from bad to worse.

Download | play    Download | play   (h/t Heather)

Hmmm, I still can never trust this guy, but when facts outweigh talking points, even Rove points out the obvious.

Rove: McCain has gone in some of his ads similarly gone one step too far in sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know...beyond, beyond, beyond the, the 100% truth test.

Rove has to stutter when he talks about honesty and the McCain camp...He made Elmer Fudd proud. What percentage of honesty does Rove base his truth-o-meter on?

During this historic campaign it will be far too easy to throw the "racist" and "sexist" terms around.  But this ad is racist...and it's time to call them on it.  From the excellent blog, Commonplace Book:

Ordering a black man to show you respect is pretty over the top in 2008. I'm sure McCain's constituency in the South and perhaps right here in Indiana will recognize the terminology from their (thankfully) long ago heydays of sundown towns and lynch mob gatherings, ...and respond accordingly.

There's only one response to that ad:  "That's racist!"  Read more...

  I wonder if McCain was expecting a soft-ball interview today on "The View" because he sure didn't get one. Joy Behar and Barbara Walter grill McCain on how he could possibly approve of ads that are so riddle with distortions and outright falsehoods.

Download | play   Download | play  

"There are ads running from your campaign... Now we know that those two ads are untrue, they are lies. And yet, you say at the end of it you 'approve these messages.' Do you really approve these?"

Who would have thought the ladies of "The View" could be so hard-hitting?: 

CNN: McCain Gets Grilled on The View. 

Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, appearing Friday on ABC's "The View," was aggressively pressed on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's qualifications to be vice president as well as his new campaign ads that several independent fact-check groups have called misleading...read on

HuffPo has more clips.

  PolitickerME: 

Senate candidates Susan Collins (R-Bangor) and Tom Allen (D-Portland) both denounced an ad that hit Collins on her support of the Iraq War.

The ad is from the third party veterans' organization VoteVets.org that opposes the Iraq War.[..]

The campaigns for both Collins, the incumbent, and Allen, a current U.S. Representative, released statement on the ad.

First, the Collins campaign called on Allen to denounce the ad, citing a recent promise Allen made to denounce all third party ads.[..]

One hour later the Allen campaign responded. Communications director Carol Andrews said that Allen would in fact denounce the ad.[..]

Andrews then turned to both candidates' records on the war, criticizing Collins for opposing a deadline for withdrawal.

"Because he feels so strongly about a deadline for withdrawal, Tom Allen has repeatedly voted against measures for funding that do not include binding deadlines for withdrawal," Andrews wrote. "Susan Collins has repeatedly opposed setting timelines or deadlines."

Help me out, why is a Democrat denouncing a VoteVets ad against his rival?  Why have they not figured out that they have public sentiment with them to go hard on this Iraq issue?  I understand not wanting to go negative yourself, but that's what proxies are for...don't hamstring them, especially when it's the truth.

While John McCain and Barack Obama met with Rev. Warren at the Saddleback Church this weekend, the progressive Christian PAC Matthew 25 unveiled a new ad featuring religious leaders supporting Obama. In the ad, Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell - the Methodist minister who married Jenna Bush - takes a not-too-subtle dig at McCain over what McCain acknowledged to be his "greatest moral failing" at the forum - the failure of his first marriage.

h/t Dan Manatt at techPresident.

More background at Strategy '08.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that John McCain would match Barack Obama's $5 million ad buy during the Olympics with a $6 million campaign of his own. Surely McCain wouldn't be dumb enough to sour the uplifting national mood fostered by the Olympics by running a fear-mongering attack ad, right? Wrong.

Here's Obama's positive ad about the direction in which he wants to take America:

And here's McCain's:

Which do you find more effective?

I've seen these ads at least five times each over the past few days. Putting myself in the shoes of your average voter, McCain's ad (by the second viewing or so) comes across as overly offensive and divisive while trying to drive home the exact same point. Obama's positive message is "I want to take the energy policy of this country in a different direction." McCain's negative message is "Obama is a celebrity who can't be trusted to take energy policy in a new direction, which is what I want to do by proposing the same policies as Obama." The McCain campaign must have internals numbers showing the "celebrity" meme gaining some traction. It's going to be interesting to see if McCain's decision to go negative backfires. To rational, level-headed undecideds, it just might.

(Here's s link to the ad) John McCain attacks Obama in another low brow ad, but uses Taco Bell to attack Obama with. Say, what? Since Rove and his pals have been calling Obama an elitist who eats arugula salads and goes to exotic places---the use of Taco Bell only weakens their argument. And that has been much of what they are trying to do to Obama. Make him a light weight. A fly on the wall of big thinking politicians.

I do disagree with Josh Marshal about the race angle on this ad though. I think we have to be careful because we run the risk of losing the argument if it's not clearer to the American people when McCain's camp actually does use it. (And you know it is part of their playbook.) It will only give Rick Davis the opportunity to come out yelling and screaming to the media that Obama is the one actually playing the race card again and he will win because the media is intimidated by him. By the way, the AFL-CIO in Ohio wants Davis fired because...

The deal was made possible in 2003, when McCain and high-priced lobbyist Rick Davis, McCain's current campaign manager, both pushed to allow the German company Deutsche Post to take over DHL and get around antitrust laws. Davis' lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, was hired to help both companies deal with Congress, where objections over DHL's foreign ownership arose. Davis and a partner earned their firm $185,000 for the DHL-Airborne Express work that year, and $405,00...read on

The trailer to Oliver Stone's upcoming film about President George W. Bush, draws on his "heavy partygoer" days.

CBS:

The movie appears to portray the young Mr. Bush as a beer-drinking, hard-partying screw up who looks chastened during a lecture from his father, George H.W. Bush.

"If I remember correctly, you didn't like the sporting goods job," the elder Bush says in the trailer. "Working in the investment firm wasn't for you either, or the oil rig job. You didn't exactly finish up with flying colors in the Air National Guard, junior."

Though Stone's depiction seems sure to draw some criticism, Bush has "openly admitted to past drinking problems" and to having done "things as a youth that he was not proud of." Despite a few appearances that could plausibly suggest otherwise, Bush has long claimed to have gone "cold turkey in July 1986" and not had a drink since.

Also, you may recall a couple of weeks back when two members of the cast of Stone's movie, including Josh Brolin, the actor playing "W," were arrested following a bar fight in Shreveport, Louisiana that apparently began after "a couple of good 'ol boys" taunted Brolin and co. with a "few profanity-laced barbs about Stone, his politics and the reported anti-Bush tone" of the film.

C&L posted earlier this week about FOX News possibly trying to make McCain look a little younger, well now it appears that the McCain campaign is going out of their way to make John look like a new man---25 years younger or more with this campaign ad.

Download | play   Download | play

One Man has the Experience.

One Man has the Courage.

One Man has our Trust.

John McCain for President.

Check out this ad that was picked up off of this article Germany's English  paper called The Local. At the very end there is the above graphic to represent what John McCain looks like.   Hmmmm, looks like a completely different man to me. One that is much younger. Is this running only in foreign markets? I emailed the McCain camp for comment.

"You don't know insurance company rules? Oh, they're so sweet..."

Disclaimer: "Insurance company rules not compatible with Health Care for America Now. Which side are you on?"

h/t Jax

UPDATE: John Amato: Progressives fire back at insurers

Health Care for America Now announced Friday that it plans a news conference and a rally next week to counter the insurance industry's Campaign for an American Solution, which launches in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday with a roundtable discussion among uninsured locals.

"They're pretending that the health industry represents the American public, and we need to make it really clear to them and the public that all they represent are their own profits," said Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for.

On Tuesday, the group plans to rally about 300 supporters outside the Columbus YWCA, where America's Health Insurance Plans will hold its roundtable.

The $40 million it plans to spend by year's end will put 100 organizers in 45 states to hold town hall meetings, go door to door, staff phone banks and take action outside insurance offices. Already, the group has aired television spots in an extensive adverting campaign.

UPDATE:  There appears to be a coding problem with the YouTube.  The original video is at John McCain's campaign website.  

Or try this: Download | play   Download | play   (h/t BillW)

Did you catch it?  At the beginning of the ad, the title burns onto a picture of Obama, but the order is striking.

A L   Q   D   C MT RY

(screengrab courtesy of JedReport)

al Qaeda Commentary?  al Qaeda Cemetary? al Qaeda Documentary? Who knows?  But it's not accidental.   In fact, Alex Castellanos is reportedly now working for the McCain campaign.  Who is Alex Castellanos?

There is speculation in the blogosphere that Alex Castellanos is behind this video. Who? This guy:

The Republican media consultant Alex Castellanos has been called the father of the modern political attack ad — an appellation he might not offer up himself, though we suspect he’s kinda proud of it. Although Castellanos has served on the GOP media team in every general election since 1988, his most infamous spot ran in the 1990 North Carolina Senate race between Jesse Helms and Harvey Gantt, the former mayor of Charlotte, who also happened to be an African-American. The commercial was called “Hands,” and it showed a white guy sitting at a table, the camera trained on his mitts as he crumpled up a job-rejection notice. “You needed that job and you were the best qualified,” intoned the voice-over. “But they gave it to a minority because of a racial quota.” Ugly? Sure. But it won reelection for Helms. In this year’s Republican race, Castellanos worked on Mitt Romney’s primary bid, but today he sits on what’s known as the McCain Ad Council, a group of A-list Republican admen serving as outside media advisers to the GOP standard-bearer.

  FDL offers some more on Castellanos

Senate Guru:

Norm Coleman sides with union-busters, while Al Franken sides with hard-working Minnesotans. Meanwhile, Franken releases a new ad that actually blew my mind with an overwhelmingly simple message - very worth the thirty seconds to watch:

Franken: In Washington they debate whether former members of Congress should wait one year or two years before they can become registered lobbyists. How about never? Right now hundreds of former Senators and Congressmen are lobbying for big oil and special interests. No wonder gas is at $4 a gallon. ...

"No wonder" is right. Franken's vow to work to change the rules to prevent members of Congress from ever becoming lobbyists is one other Democrats would do well to emulate.

A 2005 study by Public Citizen found that 43% of Senators and Representatives who left office since 1998 went on to become lobbyists, and that was well before likes of ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert and ex-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott abandoned their elected offices before their terms expired to join their ranks. Instead of running for office to serve their country and the public good, politicians (53% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats) increasingly have instead (ab)used their offices as a stepping-stone so they can cash in, and it's no secret we all suffer for it.