Not ready give up on the candidacy of Robin Carnahan, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee has released a new ad depicting her opponent, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, as a Washington insider who mugs grandmas on behalf of special interests.
Blunt, a former Most Corrupt Member of Congress award winner, is a stooge, all right. But Democrats picked a dubious example to make the case that he lines the pockets of his tuxedo with IOUs from corporate America.
Dems are harping on Blunt for voting for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the economic rescue package that most Democrats in Congress supported when it was Deal or No Deal time.
TARP was the politically ugly but probably necessary program that the Bush Treasury Department put in motion in the fall of 2008, as the U.S. economy locked up like an arthritic dog's hind leg. Recognizing the need for action, the U.S. Senate approved the measure on a bipartisan vote of 74 to 25. The man Carnahan and Blunt are seeking to replace, Republican Kit Bond, voted for the bill, as did Missouri's other senator, Democrat Claire McCaskill.
After initially rejecting the plan, the House voted 263 to 171 in favor of the plan. Blunt was one of 91 Republicans to join with the majority.
TARP is easy to hate because most of the money went to financial firms. The recipients included Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, those darling authors of your credit card bills. Vampire squid Goldman Sachs was awarded $10 billion.
To be sure, Blunt is a tool. He once tried to cram a present for Philip Morris -- his then-girlfriend's employer -- inside the bill establishing the Department of Homeland Security. But banging on his TARP vote seems like bad sport, given the number of Democrats who thought the bailout was necessary to keep the economy from continuing its fall down the mine shaft.
Here's the ad:
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