Behold the ad that actually takes on Allahpundit’s challenge and beats out Alan Grayson’s sleazy attempt to call Daniel Webster a draft dodger, after Webster’s attempt to enter the service was blocked for medical reasons (and four years of ROTC, too). The new winner? Alan Grayson, who wants to keep his seat in Congress in the worst possible way, and is at least succeeding on the means. In this ad, he paints Webster as a dangerous religious extremist by showing Webster quoting a rather well-known part of the Bible, an association that would make a whole lot of Democrats and Republicans “extremists” by connection, which is merely foolish and tone-deaf. Grayson manages to sink completely into the effluvium and into infamy with his new nickname for Webster, however:
Gee, I seem to recall how Democrats used to shriek hysterically about having people impugn their patriotism for opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, suddenly, quoting either Ephesians 5 or Colossians 3 makes one the equivalent of a terrorist group that is our enemy in the field? TPM avoids taking any kind of a principled stand on this smear, noting only that “reporters and partisans argue about dubbing a Congressional candidate a member of the Taliban[.]“ Do they really “argue” about it? Which reporters, or even rational partisans, think that calling a candidate “Taliban Dan” is somehow both instructive and reasonable? The only one making that argument even on a general basis is Markos Moulitsas in his book American Taliban — an argument that even many on the Left rejected as extreme.
TPM also calls the quote “damning,” which may be true only if one has never actually read the Bible and this particular passage in context. In both Ephesians and Colossians, the text does call for women to submit to their husbands as they do to the Lord — and also for husbands to “love their wives” (Colossians), and to do so “as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy” (Ephesians). In other words, wives submit to their husbands, and husbands sacrifice themselves for their wives and children. It’s a passage intended on underscoring the necessity of both spouses to act in sacrificial ways to each other for marriages to become a sacrament, as well as to succeed in the normal, prosaic manner.
Far from showing Webster as some sort of Wahhabist, this ad exposes Grayson as completely ignorant of this particular, well-debated section of the New Testament and a bit of a bigot regarding Christianity, as well as an empty suit completely unable to offer anything other than ad hominem namecalling as an argument for his re-election.
Update: Oh, and let’s not forget the faux-Arabic font on the graphic, too, which adds to the overall offensiveness of the spot.
09-27-2010, 10:45 AM
Video: Worst political ad ever?
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