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Absurd NRCC Attack Ad Blames Jerry McNerney For Solyndra

NRCC Attack Ad

NRCC Attack Ad

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of the House Republicans, has posted scores of attack ads on YouTube already over the course of this campaign cycle. But a little-noticed February spot — targeting Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA) — may be the most laughable ad so far this cycle. The 30-second video contains the narration:

They say money can’t buy you love, but don’t tell Jerry McNerney. McNerney backed Obama’s plan, feeding half a billion to Solyndra, the solar company that was heading for bankruptcy. And Solyndra’s big investor? Also a big investor in McNerney’s campaign. The same investor who raised big money for President Obama. McNerney, Obama, Solyndra. Apparently, money can buy you love.

Watch it here:

The committee’s press release for the ad was subtitled “McNerney Happy to Waste Taxpayer Money in Order to Receive Donor Checks.”

The vote the ad mentions is the February 13, 2009 House roll call on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the stimulus package. The bill’s funding for Solyndra and other alternative energy development efforts were just a tiny fraction of its hundreds of billions of dollars in investments. Though McNerney was one of 246 House Democrats who voted for the bill, he was not one of the bill’s authors. So the inference that McNerney’s vote for the bill just to receive a donor check strains already strained credulity.

But the unnamed Solyndra investor to whom the ad refers is George B. Kaiser. An examination of Federal Election Commission records reveals that Kaiser did indeed donate $2,400 to McNerney’s campaign — in 2010, i.e. after he could have bought a vote on the Recovery Act. McNerney raised over $3.2 million for his 2010 re-election efforts, making Kaiser far from a “big investor” in his campaign before or after the stimulus vote.

The NRCC told a local paper that it would spend just about $6,000 to air the ad on cable television — perhaps a sign that even they knew how comical its charges were.

To believe the NRCC’s ad, you would have to believe that McNerney’s vote for $787 billion in economic stimulus came only because the less than 0.1 percent of the bill benefited a company whose investor had given him no significant contributions at the time and would give him not that much afterward.

But, as the NRCC must know, money can buy you really bad attack ads.

NEWS FLASH

Republican List Of Latino Candidates Includes Non-Latinos | In an effort to reach out to Hispanic voters, The National Republican Congressional Committee, responsible for electing Republicans to Congress, put out a list of 27 non-incumbent Latino GOP candidates running for House seats in 2012. But as the Huffington Post’s Elise Foley reports, “There’s just one issue: Some of the candidates on the list aren’t actually Latino — or even registered Republicans.” Many of the candidates said they had never had contact with the NRCC before announcing their bids, and two said that while they were married to Latinos, they were not Latino themselves. One of the candidates isn’t even a registered Republican. And the accounting gimmicks don’t end there — six of the candidates are running in three districts, meaning all of them couldn’t possibly get to Washington.

NEWS FLASH

Rachel Maddow Is ‘Flattered’ By NRCC’s Keystone XL Parody Of Her | On her show last night, Rachel Maddow mocked the National Republican Campaign Committee’s attempt to use her to promote the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. In an online ad, the NRCC parodied a Maddow spot praising the public Hoover Dam with the argument that the private foreign pipeline was equivalent. “I am very flattered that I have been chosen for the rare and special honor of being the new face of the National Republican Campaign Committee,” Maddow said. “You guys nailed me. You got me exactly right!”

Climate Progress

FACT CHECK: The Keystone XL Pipeline Project Is No Hoover Dam

A Republican online advertisement for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline mocks a Rachel Maddow spot praising New Deal public infrastructure spending. The Republican National Congressional Committee’s amateurish parody of Maddow’s “Lean Forward” Hoover Dam spot criticizes President Barack Obama for the administration’s decision to reconsider approval of TransCanada’s pipeline after Nebraskans and climate activists raised objections. Approval of the dangerous pipeline is opposed by Republicans and Democrats, ranchers and labor unions.

A young woman in a curly brown wig, playing “Rachel Maddow,” makes the false claims that the economy-threatening pipeline would “provide energy security and up to 130,000 jobs”:

We’ve got a project like this waiting for the President’s go ahead – supported by Republicans and Democrats, labor unions. It’d provide energy security and up to 130,000 jobs. We’ve got to figure out why the President thinks we’re not a country that can think this big.

Watch it:

ThinkProgress Green has prepared a helpful checklist explaining how the American Hoover Dam is different from the foreign Keystone XL pipeline:

Hoover Dam Keystone XL Pipeline
Public federal American project Private Canadian oil company project
5000 people employed for five years 2,500-4,650 people employed for two years
Built to reduce the risk of catastrophic floods Increases the risk of catastrophic oil spills
Manages water supply for farmers, ranchers, 8 million people in Arizona, Nevada and California Threatens water supply of farmers, ranchers, 2 million people in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas
One of the largest concrete structures in the world, a tourist attraction for over a million visitors a year A pipe buried in a trench
Provides electricity to 1.3 million Americans Will pump oil to Texas refineries for foreign export
Sale of electricity benefits state governments Sale of tar sands oil goes to foreign TransCanada oil company
Over its 80-year lifespan, has helped build the West Over expected 50-year lifespan, would accelerate civilization-threatening global warming

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