GOP ads in Senate races attack Democrats for defeating stimulus plan

WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans launched an advertising campaign Friday in five key Senate races, saying that in a time of national unity, ''partisan Democrats'' scuttled President Bush's economic stimulus plan.

Officials said television commercials would air for the coming week aimed at Sen. Max Baucus in Montana; Tim Johnson in South Dakota and Jean Carnahan in Missouri. Radio commercials will run targeting Carnahan as well as Sen. Paul Wellstone in Minnesota and Sen. Tom Harkin in Iowa.

All five have been targeted for defeat by the Republicans next fall as part of their effort to overcome a one-seat Democratic majority in the Senate.

Bush, whose popularity is in the 80 percent range in public polling, is in all of the commercials his image as well as his voice on the television ads.

In rebuttal, a Democratic spokeswoman said it was Republicans who had declined to compromise on the stimulus legislation.

''Time and time again we put forward proposals that would have done a lot of good for people who are out of work and hurting in this country and they (Republicans) didn't vote for them either, said Tovah Ravitz-Meehan of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Republican officials declined to say how much they would spend on the commercials, or how intensively they would air.

Ads of this type are customarily financed by a national party committee, in this case the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which sends money to the local state parties to purchase advertising time.

The commercials seek to tap into a spirit of national unity that swept the country in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

''When times are tough, Americans unite,'' the commercials say. ''We put aside our differences and do what's best for the nation.''

They say that President Bush and moderate Democrats agreed on a compromise plan for the economy a reference to the three moderate Democrats who joined with Republicans.

''Sadly, partisan Democrats'' voted against the bill, the television commercials say.

The radio ads, worded a bit differently, say ''partisan Democrats put their interests ahead of national interests.''

Republicans launched the commercials in the wake of the apparent collapse this week of efforts to pass economic stimulus legislation in the Senate. Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., pulled the issue from the floor after both the Bush-backed bill and a rival Democratic plan failed to gain the 60 votes needed to overcome delaying tactics.

It marked the second time that Bush's legislation had been stymied in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Daschle blocked a vote on the White House-backed bill on the last day Congress met in 2001.

Republicans had planned to air commercials attacking Democrats in January, around the time of Bush's State of the Union address to Congress, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Those plans were hastily put on hold after Daschle announced he was bringing the issue back to the floor for more debate.

Both parties are making early and aggressive use of ''soft money'' advertising this election year, a reflection of the stakes involved.

Democrats struck first last week when they began airing ads criticizing Republican Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina for attending a fund-raiser given in September by Enron's then-chairman, Kenneth Lay.

Republicans responded swiftly, basing an ad on the same spirit of unity that pervades the commercials beginning to air this weekend.

''America must be one nation,'' said the commercial in defense of Dole. ''And President Bush is bringing us together. Yet some politicians are trying to tear us apart.''

''Sadly, partisan Democrats'' voted against the bill, the television commercials say.

I don't know why they had to make things up. The truth is that Daschle knew the bi-partisan bill would pass and refused to bring it up for a vote. If he brought it up for a vote a Senator could have filibustered it, but then Bush would have a face to use when talking about Democrap do-nothings in the Senate. I think the fact that Daschle refused to allow an up-or-down vote on this and the energy bill (or else force a Democrap to filibuster it) is a much stronger message.

What do I know, I'm just some regular guy-- the NRSC are those folks that turned what was approaching a veto-proof majority into a minority.

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