VoteVets, which produced last cycle's amazing body armor ads, released this ad hitting Susan Collins for her obeisance to George Bush on Iraq:
Predictably, Collins's campaign flipped out, denouncing the ad as somehow unfair:
Spokesman Kevin Kelley said the ad is false, noting legislation Collins sponsored that shifts the costs of reconstruction projects to the Iraqis.
"The ad that is currently airing on Maine television stations ignores Senator Collins' efforts to change the mission in Iraq and to force the Iraqis to pay more of the costs of securing and rebuilding their own country," a press release from the Collins campaign stated.
Sorry, even if we graded this an "E" for effort, meekly trying (and failing) to apply a few band-aids to the mess she's created does not get Collins off the hook. Collins had a little more success, though, in browbeating Democrat Tom Allen to denounce this ad, too:
"Tom Allen is the only candidate to denounce false, negative tv and radio ads by third parties. He knows there is too much at stake for outsiders to disrupt the conversation he is having with Mainers on the important issues of energy, health care, the economy and Iraq," Andrews wrote in a release.
Jesus Christ. This ad is eminently reasonable - for Allen to attack it is just ridiculous. But taking orders from Susan Collins is far worse. When you let Republicans boss you around, you wind up looking pathetically weak. And if Tom Allen really thinks that going after a left-wing organization will inspire the right-wing groups currently blasting him over his support of the Employee Free Choice Act to back down, then he's sadly mistaken.
