DENVER – Republicans are criticizing TV ads that show a look-alike of a Colorado congresswoman fleecing a corpse and an American soldier during battle.
In one of the ads, a pink-clad actress with a purse climbs over rubble to rob a U.S. soldier.
"Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (search) claims nobody supports our troops more than she does, but she voted to slash veterans' benefits by $14 billion," the narrator says. The new ad also says Musgrave voted against a $1,500 bonus for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In another ad, the woman in pink creeps up to a corpse and takes off his watch. A voiceover says that while she served as a state senator, Musgrave opposed a bill that would have prevented nursing homes from billing patients after they are dead.
"I think they have reached a new low in sleaziness," Colorado GOP Chairman Ted Halaby said of the ads' sponsor, a group called Colorado Families First (search). The organization is headed by former state Democratic Party chairman Tim Knaus.
Musgrave faces Democratic challenger Stan Matsunaka in her bid for a second term. Matsunaka said he was not involved in either ad and did not contribute to the sponsors.
Musgrave spokesman Guy Short said Monday that although Musgrave did vote against the $1,500 bonus, she supported a $2,700 pay raise for troops in combat zones. He said veterans' benefits also got a 15 percent increase.
"Only funny math from the Democrats could take a 15 percent increase and turn it into a cut," he said.
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