The third-party ad against Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, based on the metaphor of a leaky bucket. "Bucket" begins with a bucket filling up in a sink and an old male narrator saying in a creaky voice, "We send tax money to Washington, and what does Senator Russ Feingold do with it?"
The bucket springs leaks as the narrator begins spewing Republican hogwash. "$800 billion for the jobless stimulus." "$2.5 trillion for a health-care plan that hurts seniors." "A budget that forces us to borrow 9 trillion dollars."In fact, the stimulus was not jobless, and arguably saved the economy; the health-care plan was designed to help seniors, not hurt them; and the budget deficits came courtesy of George W. Bush and his Republican Congress, not Russ Feingold.
So who is behind the American Action Network, which beams this nonsense into Wisconsin from its base in Washington, D.C.? As a 501(c)(4), the group doesn't have to disclose its donors, but it's not hard to figure out who they are. You just have to listen to that creaky old man's voice in the ad.
It's the voice of a greedy millionaire from central casting -- one of those guys who don't want to pay taxes or rein in the insurance industry. I'm surprised that the American Action Network didn't try to cover up its greedy-millionaire bias with a more sympathetic narrator.
Isthmus TV critic Dean Robbins will assess candidate commercials throughout the 2010 fall elections in this regular feature. Read more reviews of political campaign spots.
