You Were Against Ethanol . . . Before You Were For It

First it was Illegal Immigration.
Then Iraq.
The latest . . . Ethanol.

Claire McCaskill said those are three issues that Senator Talent's campaign and the Missouri Republican Party are trying to mislead voters on. "I've never seen this before," McCaskill said in Willard Friday. "I'm not used to making up what my opponent's stand is. That's occurring in this campaign."

On this blog, we've outlined the alleged distortions over the illegal immigration debate.

On Friday, the Missouri G.O.P sent out a press release blaring that McCaskill was calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. "McCaskill's campaign told the Associated Press yesterday that McCaskill believes it's 'time to allow the Iraqi people to govern themselves and to redeploy troops for other security interests in the region,'" the release claimed. McCaskill's camp was quick to say there was no change in her position.

"I never said I was for immediate redeployment," McCaskill said in Willard. "They just made it up . . . just made it up."

As McCaskill toured the state with her farm plan, the Missouri G.O.P. slammed her with this headline: "McCaskill Fails Missouri Farmers, Ranchers By Opposing Energy Bill and Renewable Fuels"

Republican communication director Paul Sloca included a 2004 interview with Missourinet, which he says proves McCaskill was opposed to ethanol standards.

"I am uncomfortable at this point mandating an ethanol additive for all Missouri fuel because I think in the long run it's not going to help the farmers as much as the big corporate groups that are the middlemen in these deals," McCaskill said in transcripts of the interview, according to Sloca.

McCaskill has always said she would have voted against last year's energy bill because she says it gave away $14 billion dollars in tax cuts to oil companies at a time corporate profits were setting records and gas was approaching 3-bucks a gallon. "Let me tell you, I'm not ashamed of being against the energy bill," McCaskill said. "I'm proud to say I would've voted against the bill. Did I support the ethanol provisions in the bill? Of course I did."

McCaskill put the 2005 energy bill this way: "The bill gave the oil companies a steak dinner and the ethanol companies the saltine crackers.

And by Friday afternoon, the Missouri Democratic Party had dug up its own dirt on ethanol, blasting this release out to reporters: "Talent Opposed Key Ethanol Measures as St. Louis Representative, Now Belatedly Jumps on Ethanol Bandwagon"

The release targets two specific votes by Talent in 1988 and 1990. Democrats claim that in 1988, as a state lawmaker, Talent voted against a reduction in taxes on gas containing ethanol. Then-representative McCaskill voted for the measure.

Two years later, McCaskill said Talent helped Governor John Ashcroft sustain a veto of Democratic legislation that would have devoted about $126,000 to jump start one of Missouri's first ethanol programs.

You can see the ad-making now . . . My opponent was against ethanol before he/she was for it, before she/he was against it!