Behind the Ad: Frightening grandma with lies (have you no shame, Grand Old Party?)

By Richard K. Barry

Who: The National Republican Congressional Committee.

Where: Three California Congressional districts.

What's going on: According to Politico, the $43,000 cable TV ads will be rolled out Tuesday through next Monday and will target three California Democratic representatives: Lois Capps, John Garamendi and Jerry McNerney.

The ads shows two sisters texting each other about the Supreme Court decision to uphold Obama's health care law. (You have to appreciate the hipness of the whole texting thing. I don't do it myself but I hear all the youngsters are really into it.)

I saw Michele Bachman on Piers Morgan a couple nights ago and you can tell the GOP is a short step away from talking about death panels for granny once again. The line in this ad is: "there goes mom's hip replacement." Precisely why mom will no longer be able to get medical care isn't addressed, of course. I guess it's supposed to be obvious. The fact is, it's all based on a recurring series of lies told by Romney and his surrogates about Medicare cuts that aren't real. Frightening people based on nothing is the approach.

Yes, making sure more people get the health coverage everyone needs is a slippery slope to socialism, no doubt. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The problem with the health care debate is that it's complicated, which makes lying about it very easy, not that Mitt Romney needs any encouragement to make stuff up. He's on old pro.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)