Satirical Campaign Video Compares Philadelphia to Libya

Republican mayoral candidate John Featherman released a campaign ad comparing Philadelphia to Libya. (Featherman for mayor)

If Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is forcibly removed from power in Libya, he may want to consider relocating to Philadelphia, a city that has a lot in common with the North African nation, according to a new satirical campaign video by a fringe Republican mayoral candidate.

In the video by John Featherman's campaign, a perky employee with the fictional Dictator Relocation Program (D.R.P.) tries to convince Qaddafi to move to Philadelphia because "it's a great place for dictators, uh leaders."

The employee cheerfully notes that Philadelphia has been a one-party town for 59 years like Libya, ruled by the "Democratic machine."

To underscore her point, she tells Qaddafi about former Mayor Wilson Goode bombing a Philadelphia neighborhood in the 1980s to remove a radical group and still getting re-elected. And how the last mayor, John Street, came under an FBI corruption probe but escaped unscathed and appointed himself the chairman of the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

"Your Democrat Philadelphia machine is admirable!" Qaddafi responds in the video's translation of his comments.

Street, the employee notes, is now under attack for allegedly steering PHA legal contracts worth lots of money to his son's law firm.

"Wonderful! My seven sons all work for my government," Qaddafi says. "They will come to Philadelphia too."

The employees suggests they could run for city council.

When Qaddafi asks about current Mayor Michael Nutter, calling him "Mayor McNutter," the employee says that he didn't do anything about the PHA problems, the violence in the school system or the increase in tolls on the bridges to the city.

But Nutter's re-election campaign hit back at Featherman and his parody ad.

"Philadelphia politics certainly has its laughable moments, but we believe Mayor Nutter and the policies and initiatives he's created have already been part of the solution -- particularly with respect to an increased high school graduation and college going rate, neighborhood improvement and especially ethics," Nutter campaign spokeswoman Sheila Simmons told FoxNews.com.

"He's making Philadelphia a place at which fewer people want to laugh and where most people really do want to live, work and raise their families," she said.

Mark Nicastre, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party told FoxNews.com that Featherman's video "obviously is in poor taste, but it does serve to show the illegitimacy of the Philadelphia Republican Party."

But Featherman's video also takes shots at the Philadelphia Republican Party for not standing up to Democrats.

"The Republicans have an arrangement with Democrats here. They don't put up any real opposition," she says. "In return, they get patronage jobs at the parking authority. In fact the Republican machine is backing a female candidate who until a few weeks ago was a registered Democrat."

The local Republican Party didn't respond to a message seeking comment.