EGREGIOUSLY STUPID

The AP reports with a dateline from Syracuse, NY at 8:44pm last night that the NRCC is running a campaign ad so scurrilous in its accusations that the Republican candidate and the attacked Democratic candidate are both decrying it. It accuses Democrat Michael Arcuri of billing taxpayers for a call to a phone sex line. Arcuri is a district attorney and has threatened to file a lawsuit as the ad is "clearly libelous".

"The ad, which began airing Friday, shows Michael Arcuri leering at the silhouette of a dancing woman who says, 'Hi, sexy. You've reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line.'

Arcuri's campaign said an associate mistakenly dialed an 800-number sex line two years ago from Arcuri's New York City hotel room, and released records supporting the claim. The number shares the same last seven digits with the number for the state Department of Criminal Justice Services, which was dialed the minute after the first call was made."

The ad was called "'an egregiously stupid accusation'" by a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.

The NRCC is standing behind their ad. Of course they are.