Republicans Spend Quality Time With MoveOn.org Ad

It is not often you see Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) bandying about a copy of The New York Times. But with Republicans eager to keep the heat on MoveOn.org over its ad in the newspaper, Cornyn was parading it around for all to see on Tuesday. 

On Monday, the liberal group took out the full-page ad accusing Petraeus of betrayal (“General Betray Us”) and of manipulating intelligence to help sell President Bush’s troop surge strategy in Iraq. And Republicans have seized on the ad, eager to link congressional Democrats to the far left. 

“Even by the standards of the poisonous atmosphere in Washington, this ad is out of bounds,” Cornyn said. “It is character assassination of the first order.” 

Cornyn also introduced a Sense of the Senate resolution condemning the ad, following a similar Republican resolution in the House on Monday. 

Later Tuesday, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) turned the ad into a big chart and carried it with him onto the Senate floor, calling it “the worst of the worst.” 

For the most part, Democrats have had little to say about the brouhaha. 

Asked to comment on Republican calls for Democrats to return MoveOn donations, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) shrugged off the controversy as “just politics.”