Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has released a new television ad going after Sharron Angle for one of her most provocative and alarming remarks.
With voice-over narration by a Republican NRA member, the Nevada Democrat turns Angle's repeated calls for "Second Amendment remedies" to Congressional Democratic policies against the Tea Party favorite.
"Sharron Angle goes way over the line," the narrator says. "It's crazy. But what she is actually talking about is armed resistance. Look I'm a member of the NRA and a Republican. But that kind of talk is dangerous and way too extreme."
The ad reflects the sometimes difficult-to-understand dynamics of Nevada politics, where believing in gun-rights is a true virtue but clear boundaries exist with respect to enthusiasm for the Second Amendment. It is rare, indeed, for a pol in the state to go after another candidate for their love of guns (Reid is still in the running for the NRA's endorsement). But Angle's remarks were so odd as to make them fertile electoral ground for the majority leader.
UPDATE: Reid's campaign sends over background on the narrator, Bill Ames, "a longtime Republican, NRA member and President of the Peace Officers Research Association of Nevada." They also include the following quote from campaign spokesman Kelly Steele:
Sharron Angle's repeated use of extreme and loaded rhetoric to implicitly threaten and tacitly condone violence as a political remedy is beyond irresponsible, it is utterly dangerous. The most terrifying thing about Sharron Angle's extreme rhetoric legitimizing violence as a political remedy is that it's not a gaffe - it a core belief of Angle's that has been expressed without reservation or regard for its potential consequences.
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