Apparently hoping to soften him up for a possible 2006 challenge by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, the NRSC is buying ads this weekend attacking Sen. Robert Byrd. Here's
the ad.
Nineteen fifty-two . . . War in Korea . . . and Robert Byrd went to Congress. Lot's changed since then . . . Byrd voted for soldiers in the fifties . . . Today, against body armor in the War on Terror. Back then, he stood with working families . . . Today he votes higher taxes for the middle class. Then, Byrd protected our flag . . . now he votes to allow flag burning. Senator Byrd . . . We agree he's changed. But is it good for West Virginia? The NRSC is responsible for the content of this ad.
Lots of text, but basically two themes.
1.)Byrd is old and it's time to put a fresh face in the Senate.
2.)Byrd has forgotten the values that he had when you elected him, and now he's a loony liberal.
I guess this is an effective ad, since the GOP needs to drive down Byrd's 60%+ positive ratings if they want to push their candidate over the top. And they're smartly ignoring the KKK talk you hear on right-wing TV and radio, which was hurled against Byrd in his 1982 campaign by a candidate who ended up losing in every single county. Byrd's only serious challenge would come from Rep. Capito, who has a loud, vocal, flip-flop record on Social Security privatization, so they've got to go negative quickly. And they are.