It's not surprising that ultra-conservative, anti-public-option Democrat Ben Nelson would want to run this ad, but why would the Democratic National Committee pay for it? Is that what our contributions to the DNC go for, reinforcing fearmongering Republican memes about a supposed government "takeover" of the health care system and bragging how the Senate health care reform bill creates a system that is "not run by the government?"
As Sam Stein at Huffington Post asks, "the real question was why the DNC would pay for ads that maligned government-run insurance at the same time the party was rallying behind that very proposal." So far, Tim Kaine's DNC has not addressed the issue directly, only talked about how they were "defending a Democratic senator from attacks from the health insurance industry and other special interests for his support of reform." Riiiiight...so how does repeating and reinforcing the lies of those attacking health care reform help said Senator exactly?
More importantly, how does it help the broader Democratic Party - branding, candidates, fundraising, "base" enthusiasm, etc? Does the DNC care about anything other than short-term tactics, without any care for long-term strategy? Heckuva job, guys!
Blue Virginia
