OH-02: Schmidt Responds to DCCC Radio Ad With Another Falsehood

Serial misleader Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) has responded to the new DCCC radio ad running over the Independence Day weekend with yet another whopper - continuing a streak of reckless disregard for the truth that includes plagiarizing an opinion piece, claiming a college degree she didn't earn, touting endorsements she doesn't have, and asserting on the floor of Congress last month that the Chinese are drilling off the coast of Florida. (She cribbed that last one from George Will and Dick Cheney, who have since recanted - but Schmidt has not.)

The Cincinnati Enquirer blog "Politics Extra" posted about the DCCC radio ad here. The ad has a Bush impersonator saying to Schmidt, "‘Preciate you voting to keep giving billions in tax breaks to the big oil companies." In her response to the ad, Schmidt says the vote in question occurred before she went to Congress:

[T]he 2005 Energy Package to which they refer to was taken before I entered Congress, but let’s not get the facts in the way of a good attack.

However, the script doesn't thank her for voting to create the tax breaks but to keep them. As Schmidt knows perfectly well, the tax breaks were created before she got to Congress, but Schmidt voted against removing them earlier this year (February 27th). That bill, HR 5351, passed despite her opposition. It was a high profile bill and has been much discussed since it passed -- there is no way that Schmidt doesn't know what the ad is about.

But hey ... let's not let the facts get in the way of a good attack.