In Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is going on the offensive in his re-election fight against Republican challenger Sharron Angle.
A new television ad from the incumbent Democrat's camp fires a familiar line of attack by charging the Tea Party-backed contender with being "just too extreme."
The 30-second spot zeroes in on comments Angle made last month characterizing BP's $20 billion victims' compensation program as "a slush fund."
"The Gulf disaster, devastating, thousands out of work," says a narrator in the ad. "BP caused it, they should clean it up. But when BP was pushed to set aside $20 billion for clean-up and to help those who've lost jobs, Sharron Angle denounced it, called it a 'slush fund' -- the same Sharron Angle, who wants to abolish the Department of Energy and the EPA calls it a 'slush fund' when you make polluters pay."
The attacks hurled by Angle's campaign are no less hard-hitting.
A press release issued by the conservative contender's camp on Tuesday came with the eye-popping headline "Harry Reid's Plan to Save the Nevada Economy: Coked-up Stimulus Monkeys."
ABC News reports on the stimulus-funded project taken issue with by Angle:
[It] entailed research on how cocaine affects monkeys. The Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center was awarded $71,623 to study what [a report from Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)] calls, "Monkeys Getting High for Science."
Bonnie Davis, a spokeswoman for The Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said the "small grant has helped protect very important research that will have significant impact on public health in regards to cocaine addiction and the issue of relapse."
Angle is attempting to capitalize on Reid's support for the stimulus, which some have viewed as an indication of the Senate leader's success in delivering federal aid to Nevada.
Angle's camp is out with a new campaign ad -- sans monkeys -- aiming to hit Reid over the economic issue: