Colorado Republicans' Obama attack ad passes mouse misinformation

"Dick Wadhams Has a Greeting for Barack Obama," a February 16 blog, shared the text of a full-page ad financed by the Colorado Republican Party and published in both Denver dailies on the day President Barack Obama visited the city to sign the $787 billion economic-stimulus package. Unfortunately, one of the best zingers in the copy appears to be entirely fictional.

The ad's text implies that newly appointed Colorado Senator Michael Bennet voted for the package without reading it -- and when he eventually does, "he will stumble across tens-of-billions in old-fashioned political pork spending projects, like $30 million for a mouse habitat in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district in San Francisco." (Yes, the phrase was indeed printed in bold lettering.) However, the left-leaning Colorado Media Matters eviscerates this assertion in an item tagged "9News Noted Colorado GOP's Anti-Stimulus Ad, But Not That It Promoted False 'Mouse Habitat' Claim." Among its evidence: An article from the San Jose Mercury News published on February 13, several days before the ad ran in Denver, in which an aide for House Minority Leader John Boehner confirms that the stimulus bill contains no mouse money at all.

When and if Bennet does read the legislation, Wadhams should join him -- because clearly he hasn't read it, either.