Dems bicker over campaign video

Democrats plan on running a campaign video showing, among other things, flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. soldiers. Surprisingly, the flags were not set ablaze by the Dems' core, but I digress.

Anywho, incumbent Democrat Congressman John Spratt has asked his cohorts to pull the ad. I don't know if he finds it offensive or distasteful, or if he just feels that it could backfire on his party this November. Plus, he has a big battle on his hands this November against a popular Republican state legislator.

Anyway, the Republicans are predictably howling mad over the ad. From Breitbart/AP:

Republicans are howling over a Democratic political Web site ad that displays flag-draped coffins and a fake police mug shot of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, arguing that the ad politicizes war casualties and is an insult to the families of the troops killed in Iraq.
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"For the Democrats, everything is about politics," said Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the Republican campaign committee. "This crosses the line."

Reynolds noted that Emanuel has on occasion appeared on the House floor to remember fallen soldiers by reading their names into the Congressional Record. "It takes a galling level of smug self- righteousness for Rahm Emanuel to invoke our honored dead one day and put their coffins in an ad the next."

The outrage is reminiscent of Democratic complaints in 2004 when President Bush's campaign launched an ad that included an image of firefighters carrying a flag-draped coffin from the ruins of the World Trade Center.

"It was despicable when the Republicans used the photos of 9/11 for political purposes. Was that despicable?" House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said to reporters Thursday. "I think it is despicable that young peoples' lives are being lost more than 2,500. Republicans are in denial about that. Yet they talk about politicizing war."
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It ends with a still shot of Bill Clinton beaming with his arms outstretched, a curious counterpoint to the ad's title: "America needs a new direction."

I have a few observations:

1. I have to concede something that Pe-loser said: Republicans used 9/11 in political ads in 2004, and I had no problems with that. After all, we're not in a 9/10 world anymore, even if the left doesn't see that. So if the GOP wants to (rightfully) reference 9/11, then let the Dems pimp the corpses of the war on terror's fallen. Personally, I think that voters would be offended, but I could easily be wrong about that.

2. One thing I will whack Pe-loser on, though, is this statement: "It was despicable when the Republicans used the photos of 9/11 for political purposes. Was that despicable?" She asks the question secondly, then answers it firstly. She's saying that the GOP's use of 9/11 photos were despicable, right?

Then she must believe that HER party's use of flag-draped coffins are equally despicable, in which case one wonders why Dems would try to "out-despicable" the GOP: "Hey, we Dems can be despicable, too, you know!" Or, she believes that using 9/11 photos is wrong, but using dead soldiers' coffins is right, in which case I would LOVE to hear that explanation!

3. "It ends with a still shot of Bill Clinton beaming with his arms outstretched, a curious counterpoint to the ad's title: 'America needs a new direction.'" A "new direction", being touted by an old president? What's next, a commercial with Jimmy Carter in his sweater saying that "America needs a successful energy policy"?

Ultimately, I think Tom Bevan at RCP has the proper logical conclusion:

Let me see if I have this right. If you were against Bush using images of 9/11 in 2004 but aren't opposed to using images of flag-draped coffins in 2006, you're a hypocrite. So far so good. But if you weren't opposed to Bush using images of 9/11 in 2004 but are now up in arms over the use of an image of a flag-draped coffin, doesn't that also make you guilty of hypocrisy?

I certainly find the coffins ad to be very distasteful, but isn't it true that "What's good for the goose is good for the gander"? I think the Dems will be punished for their horrible anti-defense stances coupled with this exploitation of the soldiers (which is fake sympathy). But let 'em do it.