The Washington media establishment was abuzz this week over the soft-money group running ads in South Carolina to heap praise on John McCain for his support of veterans' health care legislation.
McCain swiftly disavowed the group, which is spearheaded by one of his former advisers, as his fellow GOP candidates leapt to criticize the campaign-finance reformer for benefiting from a twisting of the rules.
What no one seems to have noticed is the actual legislation that the TV ads claim is mired in Democratic pork-barrel spending. The veterans' health care bill passed Congress in September as part of the annual defense authorization, which the pro-McCain group claims was held hostage to "mandates for troop withdrawal and other politically controversial policy initiatives."
As it happens, there is only one controversial policy on that bill - which Congress is expected to send to the president this week - and it's controversial only to George Bush. He has threatened to veto the measure because it expands the federal hate crimes ban to gays and lesbians. In fact, just last week Bush approved $73m in spending on the veterans' bill that he plans to veto.
But I suppose a commercial explaining that full truth would leave less room for fancy shots of the flag.
