Robert Menendez Blasts Sharron Angle Ad As 'Racist' And 'Despicable' (VIDEO)

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the DSCC, piled on the recent criticism of Sharron Angle's Latino-based attacks ads, calling her latest spot "despicable" and agreeing that it is indeed "racist."

Speaking with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell Tuesday, Menendez pounded the ad and claimed that it was part of what he saw as an effort to discourage Latino voters on election day.

"It tries to portray all Latinos in this country in a negative light in a state that has such a large, vibrant and productive population," Menendez said. "And it goes hand-in-hand with what Sharron Angle is doing to try to suppress that vote in Nevada."

Menendez continued:

"In the tactics that are reminiscent of the Republican Party in the past: taking pictures of minority voters going to vote in the early vote, passing out literature, trying to intimidate them. This ad is along the line, it is a despicable ad and I hope and I believe it will backfire [on] her in this last week of the election."

Menendez is far from the first to condemn Angle's brazen anti-illegal immigrant ad campaign, though he may be the highest elected Democrat to do so in such an open fashion.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, speaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press" called an earlier, equally criticized, Angle campaign spot the "most overtly racist ad of this campaign season."

Joy Behar was so outraged by that earlier spot that she erupted on "The View" Tuesday, calling Sharron Angle a "bitch" who was "going to hell."

The controversy over Angle's advertising content hasn't been confined to liberal pundits, however. Last month, a spokeswoman for her campaign derided her candidate's use of "propaganda" commercials seeking to "blame Mexicans as the only problem."

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