Updated:  The video was removed. Good thing I saved it.  As soon as I will upload and have it available for viewing.

Correction-  The archived clips, the downloadable wmv and mov versions and all links, are gone, but the original link for the embedded flash player is still good.

The Video is here

Updated:  The video was removed for real this time.  Anyone interested, email and I will upload it.

I will be fair and say that the video I will link to below may not necessary reflect the views of ALL Democrats, so this is not a blanket indictment against all Democrats, nor even against all Congressional Democrats.

This is directly and solely directed at the DCCC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Their shiny new campaign video accuses Republicans of selling out, being corrupt in general, and blames them for global warming, high gas prices etc ad naseum.

In the beginning of the clip in the anti war section is a lovely clip of coffins on a military transport.

Now hang on a second.  Seems to me I recall President Bush coming under considerable condemnation by Democrats (and others) for exploiting 9/11 in his campaign commercials, because he tried to portray it as an area where he showed leadership.

So why is it OK for them to use dead soldiers?  Were the families of these soldiers consulted?

I doubt it.  Once again in DC, the pot calls the kettle black.  I don’t know why this surprises me.  I should be plenty jaded and used to it by now.

http://www.dccc.org/multimedia/archives/new_directions_wmv/

If the video changes, or is removed, it is OK, I downloaded it.  Just let me know.

MORE:  The reaction from the Republicans is in.

GOP Howling Over Democratic Web Ad

Republicans are howling over a Democratic political Web site ad that displays flag-draped coffins and a fake police mug shot of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, arguing that the ad politicizes war casualties and is an insult to the families of the troops killed in Iraq.

The 75-second ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee begins with a somber musical score and images of war, high gas prices, the coffins, pollution, breached levees, followed by pictures of Texas Republican DeLay, disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Washington Republicans have sold Americans out," a banner states. "American families are paying the price."

The National Republican Congressional Committee promptly gathered more than a dozen GOP members of Congress, many of them former service members, to denounce the ad and call on Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the DCCC chairman, to apologize.

"For the Democrats, everything is about politics," said Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the Republican campaign committee. "This crosses the line."

Reynolds noted that Emanuel has on occasion appeared on the House floor to remember fallen soldiers by reading their names into the Congressional Record. "It takes a galling level of smug self- righteousness for Rahm Emanuel to invoke our honored dead one day and put their coffins in an ad the next."

The outrage is reminiscent of Democratic complaints in 2004 when President Bush’s campaign launched an ad that included an image of firefighters carrying a flag-draped coffin from the ruins of the World Trade Center.

"It was despicable when the Republicans used the photos of 9/11 for political purposes. Was that despicable?" House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said to reporters Thursday. "I think it is despicable that young peoples’ lives are being lost more than 2,500. Republicans are in denial about that. Yet they talk about politicizing war."

But at least one Democrat, Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina, called on Emanuel to take the ad down, specifically objecting to images of coffins and of a helmet draped over the butt of a rifle, the sign of a fallen soldier. "I strongly recommend that you pull this ad and delete both of these clips before running it again," Spratt wrote in a letter to Emanuel.

Spratt is the second ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee and faces his most difficult re-election in 10 years.

The Democratic ad is not all doom and gloom. After about 30 seconds, the music makes an abrupt upbeat shift and the images change. A helicopter pilot offers a thumbs up. Windmills stretch out across the landscape. Relief workers put up new walls. Smiling Democratic leaders replace the scowling Republicans. "But America is strong enough to change," the ad states.

It ends with a still shot of Bill Clinton beaming with his arms outstretched, a curious counterpoint to the ad’s title: "America needs a new direction."