It may not be the dogs of war, but in the U.S. Senate race, it has become the battle of the puppies.
As Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, the Republican nominee, had predicted in an earlier TV ad, Democrats have begun attacking him on TV, even suggesting he didn?t like puppies. Steele held a black-and-white Boston bull terrier in the commercial.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee began running an attack ad that uses that image. It tells voters that while Steele “likes puppies ? he loves George Bush,” showing a photo of Steele with the president.
Backed up with numerous newspaper citations, the Democratic ad says Steele “supports the war in Iraq ? supported Bush?s veto of embryonic stem cell research” and is “against a woman?s right to choose.”
Steele is responding with his own new ad, where the bull terrier puppy has a speaking role, growling about the “nasty ads from the Washington crowd.”
Steele responds to none of the Democrats? charges, but promises “straight talk about some real differences,” and goes after his opponent, Rep. Ben Cardin.
“I support cheaper medicine from Canada,” Steele says. “Congressman Cardin took money from drug companies and voted against cheaper medicine. Ben Cardin?s taken money from special interests for 20 years. I want to ban gifts from special interests.”
“Want more of the same?” Steele says. “I?m not your candidate.”
The positions of both Steele and Cardin are considerably more complicatedthan the ads indicate. Steele has talked in the past about how aspects of the Iraq war have been mishandled, though he has not addressed the issue recently.
Steele is opposed to abortion, and he is opposed to certain types of stem cell research, clear differences from Cardin?s positions.
While taking some contributions from pharmaceutical interests in past campaigns, Cardin has fought to have the government under Medicare negotiate the same sort of discounted drug prices as found in Canada. He opposed the Medicare Part D prescription plan for a number of reasons, including its lack of price controls.
