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The Republican candidate for the Illinois 14th Congressional District (Dennis Hastert’s seat) is running this ad against Democrat Bill Foster. This ad mentions “cut[ting] off funding for our troops” and Foster is accused of wanting to “raise the white flag”. It ends: “I’m Jim Olberweis and I approved this message because I’ll never turn my back on our troops.”

This is their brand. This is all they have. Republicans from John McCain on down will repeat the mantra that Democrats want to surrender, that we aren’t supporting the troops, that we would have won in Iraq if we didn’t stab them in the back.

It is tired, pathetic, and just plain wrong. I hope Democrats push back very forcefully on this sort of breathless Republican attack.

Update:

Markos Moulitsas has more on the IL-14 race in his column in The Hill.