GOP Uses Photo from Byrd Memorial Service in Attack Ad

There is simply no way this is good politics:

The family of the late Robert C. Byrd blasted the GOP nominee for his U.S. Senate seat Sunday after he used an image from Byrd's memorial service in a TV ad attacking the Democratic nominee.

The ad by Republican John Raese's campaign seeks to link President Barack Obama to Gov. Joe Manchin by displaying an image of the two Democrats at the state Capitol ceremony marking Byrd's June 28 death.

The campaign of Republican John Raese, who waged a losing campaign against Robert Byrd in 2006, told the Associated Press that it "had no idea it was from the memorial service." Perhaps. But they're not walking away from the ad. The AP article quoted above posted several hours ago, but as of the time of this blog post (some eight hours after the AP article went on Washingtonpost.com) the ad continues to be featured on Raese's campaign homepage. Take a look at the screen grab below the fold. It's not subtle. Nor is it particularly tasteful.

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