The DSCC has put together a website on Steve Kirby, the Republican expected to challenge Senator Tim Johnson.
On that site, they posted an ad ad run by Republican Attorney General Mark Barnett in 2002, (embeded below) discussing his ownership of the Collagenesis, a company that kos mentioned the other day. What is Collagenesis? They buy human skin from organ donors (meant for burn victims) and send it to comsmetic surgeons for use in such important procedures as penis englarement.
As Kos notes in The Hill:
Collagenesis specialized in processing donated skin off cadavers into cosmetic surgery products, and was subject to a blistering five-part investigative series by the Orange County Register beginning on April 17, 2000. "Burn victims lie waiting in hospitals as nurses scour the country for skin to cover their wounds, even though skin is in plentiful supply for plastic surgeons," read the lede of the Register report. "The skin they need to save their lives is being used instead for procedures that could wait: supporting bladders, erasing laugh lines and enlarging penises."
Lovely, eh?
In 2002, Kirby and then Attorney General Mark Barnett ran two incredibly nasty campaigns against each other, and each spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on tough tv ads (like the one here). In the end, Mike Rounds a nice enough state legislator that didn't run a single television ad, beat both Kirby and Barnett, shocking damn near everyone.
There are a number of Republicans in the state that have never forgotten (or forgiven) Kirby for his actions in that race, and the whole "trafficking body parts" thing is pretty tough to get over - particularly for someone who claims to be a social conservative.
Kirby has said he'll make his decision in the next few days. Stay tuned.