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Are Any GOP Campaign Ads This Year *Not* Lying to Voters?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today nd here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Punchbowl News, when I came across this item by Max Cohen.

Voters in the country’s most competitive House and Senate races face a deluge of Republican ads focusing on the dubious claim that Democrats have empowered the IRS to hire an army of 87,000 new agents to target the middle class.

Since Aug. 1, Republican candidates and groups have spent more than $12 million on roughly 24,000 airings of ads warning of a massive influx of IRS agents, according to an AdImpact analysis. The spots are targeting vulnerable Senate Democratic incumbents in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and New Hampshire, as well as toss-up House races from Michigan to Kansas.

But at the heart of the attack ads is an argument the IRS itself says is “inaccurate.” Experts say that the IRS is mainly seeking to replenish its aging workforce and beef up its outdated tech, not hound average Americans.

What the hell, Doc – all these Republican grifters just get to lie their way into office?

– GOPsmacked

Dear Smacked,

That seems to be the general drift of this election cycle. Then again, $12 million is lunch money in the big scheme of this year’s U.S. Senate races, as evidenced by this Katherine Huggins piece at MarketWatch.

Outside spending is pouring into the 2022 Senate races, as Democratic control of the chamber hangs in flux.

Nearly $450 million in outside spending has been spent on Senate races so far this cycle, according to OpenSecrets, a watchdog group that tracks money in politics. Just over 80% of that sum, or about $360 million, went to the 10 races deemed competitive by Cook Political Report.

Lunch money or not, $12 million in lying ads is not nothing, as Punchbowl News points out, especially when it puts falsehoods like these on the public radar screen

→ Senate Leadership Fund, the GOP super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, accused Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) of voting “yes to 87,000 new IRS employees to audit the middle class.”

→ SLF also assailed Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) for his vote “to hire 87,000 new IRS employees to dig even deeper in middle class pockets.”

None of that is true. Here’s what is true: “The IRS expects up to 50,000 of its current 80,000 employees to retire in the next five years. And despite facing a far broader set of responsibilities, the agency is operating with far fewer employees than it was 30 years ago, when the IRS boasted 117,000 workers.”

So most of the new hires will simply replace the departing staffers. Beyond that, the IRS is about as technologically sophisticated as Donald Trump, so a bunch of the other new hires will be tech geeks, not jack-booted tax auditors.

The GOP’s deceptive campaign ads don’t stop there, though, as Judd Legum reported in his Popular Information newsletter.

One of the challenges of attacking any Democratic incumbent on crime is identifying a basis for the attack. Democrats have controlled Congress for two years and, for better or worse, have not done anything to reform the criminal justice system or reduce the power of law enforcement. Both the Senate and House have passed legislation, the Invest to Protect Act, that would provide tens of millions of additional funding to local police departments.

That didn’t stop Republican candidates and the groups that support them from running 53,000 commercials on crime during the first three weeks of September. Over the same time period, “50 percent of all Republican online ads in battleground states…focused on policing and safety.”

Cue Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund, which “is running ads claiming that [Georgia Senator Raphael] Warnock “chose felons over Georgia families.”

As Legum notes, however, the windfall for felons was a bipartisan gift.

The ad claims that Warnock voted “to send almost a billion in COVID relief checks to hundreds of thousands of convicted criminals in prison.” There are similar attack ads currently being run against Democratic Senate candidates in Ohio and Florida. And the NRSC has made the same claim against Democratic Senate candidates in New Hampshire, Arizona, and Nevada.

These ads, however, are extremely deceptive. If Democrats “chose felons” over law-abiding families, so did almost every incumbent Republican Senator and former President Trump.

To top off the general GOP mendacity, we have Amy Gardner’s piece in today’s Washington Post.

A majority of GOP nominees — 299 in all — deny the 2020 election results

Experts say their dominance in the party poses a threat to the country’s democratic principles and jeopardizes the integrity of future votes

A majority of Republican nominees on the ballot this November for the House, Senate and key statewide offices — 299 in all — have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Candidates who have challenged or refused to accept Joe Biden’s victory are running in every region of the country and in nearly every state. Republican voters in four states nominated election deniers in all federal and statewide races The Post examined.

The worst part? “Although some are running in heavily Democratic areas and are expected to lose, most of the election deniers nominated are likely to win: Of the nearly 300 on the ballot, 174 are running for safely Republican seats. Another 51 will appear on the ballot in tightly contested races.”

The Post piece also includes a helpful Election Denier Finder.

The 2022 GOP LieAthon: Ask for it by name!

Is Student Loan Forgiveness Really the ‘Rich Kid Bailout’ a GOP Ad Claims?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Punchbowl News, when I came across this item.

The American Action Network, the non-profit aligned with House Republican leadership, is running a new spot calling President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive student loans a “rich kid bailout.” The spot is running in Denver, New York, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Detroit, D.C., Pittsburgh, Phoenix and Charlotte.

Is that true, Doc – half a trillion taxpayer dollars to make Richie Rich . . . richer? What the hell?

– Loan Wolf

Dear Wolfie,

That’s a legit question, given Lorie Konish’s CNBC report that “the average burden per U.S. taxpayer for the new federal student debt cancellation will be $2,503.22, according to new estimates from the National Taxpayers Union, a fiscally conservative advocacy group.”

Then again, that figure is wildly deceptive, as the CNBC piece itself clearly indicates. First of all, “[the] estimated cost per taxpayer is based on the assumption that policymakers would need to make up for the total tally of the forgiveness through tax increases, spending cuts, borrowing or a combination of those strategies.” Fiscal projections don’t get much vaguer than that.

Beyond that, consider the actual breakdown of who would pay what.

Low-income taxpayers, earning less than $50,000, would have an average additional cost per taxpayer of $190. That would increase to about $1,040 for those with adjusted gross incomes between $50,000 and $75,000; $1,774 for those between $75,000 and $100,000; and $3,791 for incomes of $100,000 to $200,000.

Taxpayers who make between $200,000 and $500,000 would have an average additional cost of $11,940.

Not to mention, the estimated costs would be spread out over ten years.

With those numbers in mind, let’s look at the American Action Network TV spot.

So we have an auto mechanic, a landscaper, and a waitress – all good Americans, the Doc gladly stipulates, and all worthy of our respect.

But . . .

Let’s be generous and assume they all make $100,000 a year. That means they’d pony up $1,774 over ten years, or $177.40 per annum, or 48¢ a day.

So that whole “my family will figure out how to get by with less” kind of boils down to “I can park on Newbury Street for eight fewer minutes every day.”

The White House says that among borrowers who are no longer in school, nearly 90% of the relief will go to those earning less than $75,000 a year. Others dispute that. You can sort it out for yourself here.

But one thing’s for sure: Richie Rich ain’t getting rich off this particular bailout.

What’s Up With RadioShack Re-Branding Itself As RadioShock?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and waltzing through the Wall Street Journal, when I tripped over this Megan Graham piece about RadioShack’s latest marketing campaign.

Some RadioShack Dealers Aren’t Happy as the Brand Leans on NSFW Tweets

RadioShack’s crass new marketing strategy is disappointing some of the brand’s independent dealers, including one retail partner that says it is ending the relationship in response.

RadioShack’s Twitter account, once a source of electronics deals and blast-from-the-past ads, this year became a collection of porn-themed memes, sexual jokes and crypto-related posts.

C’mon – Radio Shack is where I used to buy cassette recorders and fuzzbusters. Now I need to buy into porn, too? What the hell, Doc.

– Buzzbuster

Dear Buzzie,

Yeah, right? Here’s RadioShack’s 2014 re-branding, which was launched in a minute-long Super Bowl ad.

And here’s some of the retail chain’s current re-branding via Twitter.

In July, The Verge’s David Pierce posted this overview of RadioShack’s “increasingly unhinged and sex-crazed Twitter account.”

In addition to tweeting things like “due to inflation 6 inches is now 9 inches” and “Just took an upper decker in @Applebees ama” the company has also gone big into cryptocurrency and NFTs. RadioShack would be an excellent meme stock if it hadn’t declared bankruptcy and then been bought by Tai Lopez’s company REV, the same investor that now owns Dressbarn, Pier 1, Linens-n-Things, and Modell’s Sporting Goods . . .

It seems a bit odd to see a brand go the shitposter route, but hey, it’s worked pretty well for Elon Musk, so why not give it a try?

Pierce also noted that 1) RadioShack nearly doubled its Twitter followers in the first two weeks of the campaign, but 2) the new campaign hasn’t seemed to help the chain’s stock price very much.

The Doc’s diagnosis? Just a RadioShuck.

Exactly How Dopey Does Ron DeSantis Look in His ‘Top Gov’ TV Spot?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Politico Playbook, when I came across this item: “HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE — ‘New DeSantis fighter jet ad conjures 1988 Dukakis tank debacle,’ by WaPo’s Gillian Brockell.”

Here’s how the Post piece begins:

Clearly, what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was going for was a comparison to Tom Cruise.

Hence the “Top Gov” label at the beginning of his latest political ad, which resembles that of Cruise’s “Top Gun” movies, and the slo-mo shots of the Republican governor zipping up a flight suit over an energetic guitar music track. DeSantis “briefs” an out-of-view team — presumably Florida voters — about the “rules of engagement” for “dogfighting” with the “corporate media.” At one point, he sits in the cockpit of what appears to be a fighter jet, flight helmet on, and says, “Alright, ladies and gentlemen.”

Granted, DeSantis was only 10 years old when the Duke-in-a-Tank ad ran, but no one around him could’ve stopped this? What the hell, Doc.

– Helmet Head

Dear Helmet Head,

Exactly how dopey does Ron DeSantis look in his TV spot? Exactly this dopey, courtesy of the Post.

Also instructive is a compare ‘n’ contrast viewing of the two misbegotten ads.

Let’s start with Mike Dukakis’s tanking his 1988 presidential campaign, as he tried to butch up his image on national defense. Here’s the spot that George H.W. Bush ad ran in response.  (Politico’s Josh King wrote a great piece on “the inside story of the worst campaign photo op ever.”)

Cut to Ron DeSantis trying to butch up his image with some Tom Cruise cosplaying and corporate-media bashing.

Cue the Twitterverse nailing DeSantis as a twit.

For more Twitter mockery, check out David Moye’s HuffPost piece.

Meanwhile, Rule #1 of political campaigning remains: Never put anything – especially anything feathered – on your head.

Hats off to JFK for that.

Did Robots Really Write Kayak’s Latest Ad Campaign?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Patrick Coffee’s Wall Street Journal piece headlined “Robots Turn Creative as AI Helps Drive Ad Campaigns,” when I came across this passage.

Kayak worked with New York advertising agency Supernatural Development LLC, whose internal AI platform combines marketers’ answers to questions about their business with consumer data drawn from social media and market research to suggest campaign strategies, then automatically generates ideas for advertising copy and other marketing materials.

Supernatural’s AI found that Kayak should target its campaign largely toward young, upper-income men, who it said would respond to humor about Americans’ inability to agree on basic facts in politics and pop culture, said Michael Barrett, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Supernatural.

Tell the truth, Doc – are robots going to take over the world?

– Robby

Dear Robby,

The Doc doesn’t know from robots taking over the world, but they sure might take over advertising if the Kayak spots are any indication.

As the Journal piece noted, “[most] travel ads focused on ‘the family reunion space, soft piano music, the get-together on the beach,’ said Matthew Clarke, vice president of North American marketing for the Booking Holdings Inc. company. Kayak took a different approach with the ‘Kayak Deniers’ campaign, which went live in January and poked fun at the rise of online conspiracy theories.”

To wit:

Beyond that, there’s this totally depressing news from marketing technology website MarTechSeries.

Waymark, a pioneer in using artificial intelligence to scale up video production, has launched a revolutionary AI-powered tool that allows users to create ads in minutes with no creative expertise required. Waymark AI Video Creator empowers local media companies to instantly create high-quality ads and get them to air quickly, shortening sales cycles and creating new opportunities for growth with local businesses.

So that’s umpteen ad guys and gals soon to be pounding the pavement.

Then there’s Patrick Kulp’s piece in Adweek documenting Heinz-sight in ketchup advertising.

Heinz Taps State-of-the-Art AI to Design Its Next Ad Campaign

Heinz tapped an artificial intelligence-powered art generator to create a clever demonstration of the ubiquity of its brand in the condiment aisle.

The company’s marketing team fed a series of generic ketchup-related prompts into research group OpenAI’s state-of-the-art machine learning algorithm, Dall-E 2, which conjures up eerily detailed images from simple text inputs.

The results are all over the place—from a Tron-like neon-shaded bottle to a cute container in the shape of a dog—but the one commonality is that most seemed to have adopted the trademark fringe, shape and lettering of a Heinz label.

The Doc’s diagnosis? It’s time for copywriters and art directors to catch up. How they do that, though, might take some machine learning.

How Is Herschel Walker Still a Viable Candidate for U.S. Senate?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Politico Playbook, when I came across this item.

AD WARS — The most striking new political ad this week is the Republican Accountability PAC’s spot against Georgia GOP Senate nominee HERSCHEL WALKER, which features his ex-wife describing domestic abuse in shocking detail: “The first time he held the gun to my head, he held the gun to my temple, and said he was gonna blow my brains out.” It’s a six-figure ad buy in Georgia from the anti-Trump GOP group, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein.

Seriously, Doc – this guy might become a U.S. Senator? What the hell?

– Gun Shy

Dear Gun Shy,

Herschel Walker’s not the only looney toon among the current GOP crop of U.S. Senate candidates. Check out this bookend from New York Times columnist Michelle Cottle headlined, Why Is Ron Johnson Still Competitive Despite, You Know, Everything?

But back to Walker. Here’s the spot from the Republican Accountability PAC, spearheaded by the redoubtable Sarah Longwell.

The spot comes hard on the heels of this viral video from the Republican Accountability Project in which Walker 1) falsely claims he was an F.B.I. agent, 2) tells a story about heading down Route 183 to kill a man who disrespected him, 3) asks the Lord to help him, 4) walks toward the truck to kill the guy, and 5) sees a bumper sticker on the truck that says Honk If You Love Jesus.

“And that’s what calmed me down,” Walker concludes.

The Doc – who did seven years in the Midwest – always preferred the bumper sticker Honk If You Are Jesus.

But de gustibus, yeah?

Really? Americans Think Advertisers Are More Trustworthy Than the News Media?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and checking out MediaPost’s Marketing Politics Weekly, when I came across this Joe Mandese piece about the industries Americans trust most.

Americans Deem Ad Biz More Trustworthy Than Media, Both Trail All Other Industries

The good news is that as far as brands go, the ad industry is deemed more trustworthy than much of the media it buys to reach consumers. The bad news is that the ad business, “news media,” and “social media” all rank at the bottom of all brand categories American consumers were asked to rate as trusting “a great deal” recently.

The findings, which were announced Tuesday via a press release from brand researcher Brand Keys noting that “media brand trust took a nosedive” in its most recent tracking study, which surveyed 6,850 U.S. adults in July.

What the hell, Doc – hucksters get more respect than government officials and journalists? That’s messed up, yo.

– Trust Busted

Dear TB:

Wait – so this survey is saying that a buck hustler like Spike Lee is more trustworthy than, say, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt? That would be the same Spike Lee whose ad last year for Coin Cloud conned untold numbers of Black people into investing in cryptocurrencies.

Lee brazenly played the race card in touting crypto’s currency: “Old money, as rich as it looks, is flat out broke,” he says in the video, which has garnered about 1.5 million views on YouTube. “They call it green, but it’s only white. Where’s the women? The Black folks? And the people of color?”

Where the Black folks and people of color are, according to Madeline Garfinkle’s Entrepreneur piece last month, is in the red.

‘We’re the First Group Who Loses Out’: Black Americans Hit Hard By Crypto Collapse

As digital currencies continue to fall, a new report found Black investors to be disproportionately vulnerable.

Digital currencies have dropped drastically, with bitcoin alone losing more than 50% of its value this year.

With consistent reports of plunging value, the question looms: Who’s really getting hit?

A study by Ariel Investments found that, on average, Black Americans own significantly more cryptocurrency than their white counterparts. About one quarter (25%) of Black Americans own crypto, and when examining investors under the age of 40, that number jumps to 38%.

The Black community, Garfinkle adds, has a longstanding distrust of the establishment financial system. Crypto offers “[the] draw of gaining financial independence with a low barrier to entry . . . further enhanced by celeb endorsements.”

So, to recap: Americans apparently believe that Mr. Do The Wrong Thing, who has leeched off widespread losses by Black investors in cryptocurrencies, is more credible than, say, CNN’s Don Lemon?

That’s gotta leave a sour taste, no?

Will ‘Who the F–k Is Greg?’ Viral Ad Help Sink Greg Abbott in Texas Gov Race?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and tooling around Vanity Fair, when I came across this piece by Kelly Rissman about a digital ad getting a lot of attention in the Lone Star state.

An ad criticizing Texas Governor Greg Abbott has gone viral, emphasizing his harsh abortion laws, as his re-election campaign presses on.

The ad by Mothers Against Greg Abbott PAC—the “other ‘MAGA’”—depicts a doctor telling a pregnant woman and her partner that their child has “a catastrophic brain abnormality,” and will suffer horrifically, experiencing seizures and choking on her own fluids; she will only live a few hours, if she survives at all. The doctor says he will need a decision on termination, but can’t advise the couple: “I wish I could tell you what to do, but there’s only one person who can make this choice — and that person is Greg.”

What’s the deal here, Doc, in your professional opinion?

– Death and Texas

Dear D&T,

Once again we need to begin with this Federally mandated warning: Dr. Ads is not a licensed physician.

Whatever.

The ad refers to Texas’s bounty-hunter abortion law, “SB 8, a law that [allows] private citizens to sue anyone who ‘aids or abets’ performing abortions” after the sixth week of a pregnancy. That deeply cynical piece of legislation, designed to short-circuit any judicial oversight, is taken to its imagined extreme in the Mothers Against Greg Abbott ad.

While Vanity Fair’s Rissman says the ad “probably won’t help the governor’s re-election campaign,” the Real Clear Politics polling average in the race has Abbott up by six points over Democrat Beto O’Rourke, 47.8% to 41.8% (although the most recent poll – Quinnipiac’s in early June – had Abbott up by five).

The Texas Newsroom’s Sergio Martinez-Beltran reported this yesterday on NPR’s All Things Considered.

On immigration, guns, abortion and just about every other issue, Beto O’Rourke and Abbott have polar opposite views. And O’Rourke is trying to get the votes of Republicans and independents who are turned off by Abbott’s rhetoric. O’Rourke is seeing some gains. The latest statewide polls show him trailing Abbott by just five points. O’Rourke also outraised Abbott by $4 million in the last fundraising period. However, Abbott has more money than O’Rourke.

O’Rourke is clearly hoping the voters of Texas will be asking “Where the F–k Is Greg?” after November 8th.

Will John Fetterman Ever Stop Trolling Mehmet Oz in PA’s Senate Race?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Frank Bruni’s op-ed in the New York Times, when I came across these paragraphs.

The Fetterman campaign operates in extreme meme mode, trolling Oz in particular for being a New Jerseyan in unpersuasive Pennsylvania drag. It deconstructed the décor in an Oz campaign video to show that he was speaking from a room in his New Jersey manse. It hired the “Jersey Shore” star Nicole (Snooki) Polizzi to beckon Oz home in a video clip that got more than three million views on Twitter.

It followed that inspired mischief with a video in which another recognizable ambassador for New Jersey — the guitarist Steven Van Zandt, who plays in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and had a role in “The Sopranos” — cautions Oz about his Pennsylvania misadventure.

What’s your diagnosis, Doc – is this troll roll working for Fetterman?

– John Betterman

Dear Betterman,

Yeah, the Doc was all over the Snooki troll, not to meantion Fetterman’s petition to have Oz installed in the New Jersey Hall of Fame. The Van Zandt troll is equally inspired.

So what’s next for the Fetterman trollmeisters? Maybe they could resurrect some of the characters memorialized in the New Jersey Turnpike rest areas to help buck up the celebrity pill-pusher.

Maybe Vince Lombardi (“Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing”).

Better yet, how about Walt Whitman (“I celebrate myself, and sing myself/And what I assume you shall assume . . . “).

Like, see you in Jersey November 9th.

Won’t Democrats Eventually Get Burned By Their Ads Boosting GOP Crazies?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Charlie Sykes’s Morning Shots newsletter at The Bulwark, when I came across this item linking to a Lachlan Markay piece at Axios.

FFS. “Democrats boost right-wing challenger to GOP Trump foe.”

A new TV ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee portrays Republican John Gibbs as the true pro-Trump conservative in his effort to unseat Republican Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) — aligning with Gibbs’ own campaign messaging.

  • Trump endorsed Gibbs’ challenge after Meijer voted to impeach the former president over his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 Capitol siege…

Be smart: The spot is couched as an attack ad, saying “the Gibbs-Trump agenda is too conservative for West Michigan.”

  • Despite the framing, it hits on precisely the issues any Trump-backed Republican would want to be elevated before a primary contest.

What the hell, Doc – does this seem like a prescription for victory in November?

– Dimocrat Watcher

Dear Watcher,

The Doc has been on this gambit by Democrats like Brown on Williamson for the past two months (see here and here).

But there are plenty of others in the punditocracy also dissecting it.

Let’s begin with the ad “attacking” John Gibbs that Lachlan Markay noted in his Axios piece.

The Bulwark’s eminently sane and always readable Jonathan V. Last had this to say about that spot.

Here are the relevant facts:

  • Gibbs is an insane conspiracy theorist—Hillary does Satanic rituals!—who is manifestly unfit for office.
  • Gibbs should lose this primary. So the add serves no “preparing the ground for the general” function.
  • The ad will help Gibbs because he’s struggling with name ID and hasn’t been able to run his own ads.
  • Again: Meijer is one of the ten Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump.

JVL’s conclusion: “[Going] into a race purely in the hopes that maybe the insane person will pull an upset over Meijer is not just foolish and dishonorable, but dangerous, too . . . This is the bad kind of boosting. The kind that the DCCC absolutely should not be doing.”

Then again, consider the gubernatorial race in Maryland, where the Democratic Governors Association poured over a million dollars into promoting Republican candidate Dan Cox, who, according to Vanity Fair’s Chris Smith, “pushed for Donald Trump to seize voting machines in the month after the 2020 presidential election, and . . . pals around with QAnon supporters.”

“It’s crazy like a fox,” says Cornell Belcher, a strategist who worked on both of Barack Obama’s winning presidential campaigns. “If you can impact the odds of winning on the front end, it’s hard to argue with doing it. If I have the ability to run against someone who I know is going to be the weaker opponent, I shouldn’t do that? That’s la-la land shit. The likelihood that Maryland will go Republican in November is a lot less today than it would have been if the Hogan-like candidate had prevailed in that primary.”

The jury’s still out, however, at the Jan. 6 Committee, as Alayna Treene noted in Axios Sneak Peek.

Representative sample:

Between the lines: Public backlash intensified yesterday when it emerged that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is boosting an election denier in his primary against Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) — one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

  • Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chair of the DCCC, said on MSNBC this morning: “If you’re talking about trying to pick your opponent, you might see us do that, sure. And I think sometimes it does make sense.”

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, told Axios: “No party, Democrat or Republican, should be promoting candidates who perpetuate lies about the 2020 election and try to undermine our democracy.”

Karma being the corkscrew that it is, there’s a non-zero chance that at least one of the MAGAts Democrats have been boosting – call the roll: Doug Mastriano in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race; Darren Bailey in the Illinois governor’s race; John Gibbs; Dan Cox – will squeak through in November.

As the feller says, lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.

Flea powder sold separately.