Remember that ad in the Washington state Senate race, that uses Sen. Patty Murray's comments about Osama bin Laden building "day-care centers"? Here's what Thomas Shapley, Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist, had to say about it:
The Nethercutt ad — cheek-to-jowl with Osama the mass murderer and the smoking ruin — replays Murray's remarks, sans the contextual "We've got to ask" line.
Nethercutt then intones, "I'm George Nethercutt and I approved this message because winning the war on terror means fighting terrorists — not excusing them."
"Excusing them"? By that standard, fighting crime by trying to figure out what drove Gary Ridgway to murder 48 women is excusing him of the crimes. Sorry, that Doberman won't hunt.
If it's fighting terror you want, compare Murray's record as a leader on port security and getting proper equipment to our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq with Nethercutt's House record as Bush apologist.
Any discussion of boneheaded remarks must include Nethercutt's own malapropism trying to shill for the administration on the Iraq war on Oct. 13 of last year, saying that progress in Iraq, "is better than we might be led to believe in the news. I'm just indicting the news people, but it's, it's a bigger and better, more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day, which, heaven forbid, is awful."
Yes — heaven forbid — it is awful. Perhaps the congressman should take the P-I's recent editorial advice and count slowly to 1,000 — oops, now it's 1,054 and counting.
Nethercutt is right; Murray got caught saying something that sounded naïve.
And Murray is right; Nethercutt's running a sleazy, fear-mongering ad that exploits shamelessly in the finest traditions of Karl Rove and Joseph Goebbels.
The real value to voters is that politicians' ads — and politicians' responses to them — can say a lot about a candidate.
What Murray's response says is that she's pissed off at being slimed in an outrageous ad late in the campaign.
What Nethercutt's ad says is that he's sufficiently desperate to recruit Osama bin Laden for his campaign staff.
What's most important about what they're saying is that it should help you decide which of them deserves to represent Washington in the U.S. Senate.
I am sure Jonah as a ton to say about this phenomenon, but the message from the left is clear: Their opposition are Nazis (or want to recruit Osama bin Laden)and should be treated as such.
