The National Republican Senatorial Committee has been launching an all out ad campaign against Al Franken in an effort to protect Norm Coleman's Senate seat. And on Tuesday, they trotted out a group of B-list celebrities in a spot that claimed Franken is an extremist even by the standards of his old profession.
The GOP should have done a better job vetting its spokespeople. Seconds into the NRSC ad, Victoria Jackson, a former Saturday Night Live member herself, said of Franken: "We don't all write dirty articles for Playboy."
This charge, of course, has only questionable relevance (if any at all) to the Senate campaign. But coming from Jackson it seems a bit absurd. During the course of the campaign, the comedian/actress has said far more outrageous things about Barack Obama, including an assertion that the Illinois Democrat "bears traits that resemble the anti- Christ," is a "communist," a "racist," and is not a Christian.
"I don't want a political label," she wrote on her website, "but Obama bears traits that resemble the anti- Christ and I'm scared to death that un- educated people will ignorantly vote him into office."
Later in the posting she wrote: "We must in all seriousness ask if Barack Hussein Obama could be a Muslim terrorist sympathizer or a Marxist mole. His closest friends include Communists, domestic and Muslim terrorists, racists and convicted felons. In his book Audacity of Hope, Barack Hussein Obama says, 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'""
On a related issue, a reader points out another potential goof the NRSC made in a separate ad targeting Franken. Released on Monday, that spot claims "Al Franken Humiliates Minorities." The source for such a charge: UCLA's student newspaper, the Daily Bruin.
"Now that's some authoritative journalism for you!" writes the adroit reader, a UCLA professor.
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