The Torture Chamber

You knew the NRCC wouldn't keep its new toy to itself. Indeed, it only took the NRCC 14 days to repackage Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (CA-08) CIA torture comments into a TV ad.

-- And Frank Kratovil's (D-MD 01) CD is not a bad place for them to start with the attack. The CD gave John McCain 59%, while giving Kratovil just a 2,852K-vote win. Pelosi's numbers are down since she made her controversial remarks (her fav/unfav rating went from a 16% net unfav before the remarks to a 26% net unfav after), and they're certainly down in Kratovil's CD.

-- But Pelosi's not a new boogeyman; The NRCC tied her to Zack Space (D-OH 18) and Tom Perriello (D-VA 05) in the cmte's first TV ads earlier this cycle. In these types of GOP-leaning CDs, Pelosi may be as unpopular as Newt Gingrich was just before he resigned in '98 (Then, he had a 24% net unfav rating).

-- The one name you won't find in any of these ads: Pres. Obama. That's not surprising, considering he's enjoying sky-high approval across the country. But McCain won these three CDs with an average of 54% in '08.

-- The GOP may make some hay beating up on Pelosi. But until it can knock around the big dog, it may not be able to break through against many of these battle-tested Dems in GOP-leaning CDs. Still, considering Pelosi's ratings, it's not a bad place to start.