NRCC releases second ad against Kanjorski

National Republicans, doubling down on their efforts to unseat U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Nanticoke), are set to unveil a second attack advertisement today targeting the veteran congressman.

The spot takes direct aim at Kanjorski for saying Democrats oversold their ability to end the war in Iraq during the 2006 midterm elections.

“Paul Kanjorski admits he is willing to stretch the facts when it suits his needs,” an announcer says in the 30-second spot.

“…(W)e sort of stretched the facts — and people ate it up," Kanjorksi is then shown saying.

“He’s already had to apologize for smearing Paul Kanjorski,” the announcer continues. “You just can’t believe Paul Kanjorski.”

The television ad, which hits Scranton-area airwaves today, was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee and the campaign of Republican challenger Lou Barletta. An NRCC spokesman declined to specify the amount of the ad buy, only saying it was “significant.”

Kanjorksi made the comments about the Iraq war, which would later be posted on YouTube, during an August 2007 town hall meeting.

"We really in this last election — when I say we, the Democrats — I think pushed it as far as we can, the envelope. Didn't say it, but we implied it — that we, if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war,” Kanjorski said.

“Now anybody who is a good student of government would know that wasn't true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts — and people ate it up."

Kanjorski has said that at the time he was simply expressing the frustration of his constituents towards President Bush and Senate Republicans for continuing the war.

Democrats responded by charging that Republicans were aiming to distract voters.

“No amount of money or negative campaigning can cover up the fact that Lou Barletta stands with President Bush’s failed Iraq war policies and Social Security privatization scheme -- he is the one who cannot be trusted to change Washington because he supports a status-quo agenda,” said Carrie James, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Democrats haven’t been shy to take on Barletta on the airwaves. The DCCC has already released two ads hammering the Republican on social security, an issue of major importance in the hardscrabble district.