"Someone Needs to Say It"

Tom Tancredo, palpably tired of being overshadowed by his House colleague Ron Paul, is up in Iowa with this ad, "Tough on Terror."

Islamic terrorists now freely roam U.S. soil. Jihadists who froth with hate, here to do as they have in London, Spain, Russia.

That's some of the boilerplate accompanied by footage of a shadowy, hoodie-clad villain walking into a mall and leaving an explosive book bag. "Tancredo: Before It's Too Late."

It's being compared to LBJ's Daisy ad, its obvious inspiration. But it reminds me more strongly of some forgotten 2004 ads I wrote up two years ago in "When Patriots Dissent." Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, the only member of the World's Greatest Deliberative Body to vote against the PATRIOT Act, was being challenged by a deep-pocketed Republican who wanted to exploit that vote.

One showed video of the smoking Pentagon, with a voiceover declaring, "Ninety-eight senators vote to pass the PATRIOT Act. One senator votes no." Another ad pumped up the drama, showing a menacing Middle Eastern actor stalking over some Wisconsin hills before opening up a spy kit and taking pictures of a nuclear power plant. Michels himself then appeared on screen. "Unlike Russ Feingold," he said, "I will support renewing the PATRIOT Act, because we need to be able to track and stop terrorists before they strike again."

In a pretty decent year for Republicans when George W. Bush nearly won Wisconsin, Michels lost by 12 points. I'm going to go out on a limb—without even checking InTrade!—and predict Tancredo will lose, too.

More on negative ads here.