I'll go ahead and piggyback on the excellent post below. The Michael J. Fox McCaskill ad is also relevant to the Stem Cell Research and Cures Amendment (co-written and sponsored by former Republican senator John Danforth) we've got on the ballot here in Missouri.

All of the cynical evangelical bigoted leaders in the state are mendaciously claiming that this amendment is really about legalizing cloning (even though it prohibits cloning specifically) and every moron in my town of that persuasion has the "No on Amendment 2" sign in their yard.

As you can probably guess, Jim Talent is against the stem cell research amendment as well.

I'm really hoping Claire can send this empty suit home again to, um, Washington, D.C. to become a corporate lobbyist yet again.

BTW, here's my comment about Jim Talent from the morning after his election four years ago:

However, I love it when they say that the Republicans "Co-opt[ed] the rhetorical center" in this election. Is that now what the press calls it when a candidate lies about his or her core beliefs just so they can get elected? It's lying folks. That's all it is and the American public fell for Bush's deception in 2000 and Americans fell for that same phony tactic again in the midterms on Tuesday.

Missouri voters certainly fell for it. Jim Talent has now got four years (if you recall, Talent is filling the last four years of Mel Carnahan's term) to take far right loony positions and then, presto, just in time for the election in 2006, he'll suddenly claim he's a moderate. I was genuinely offended when Talent said yesterday he'd be a Senator like the geniune judicious moderate, Jack Danforth. Once again, as in the irritatingly moderate rhetorical pap regurgitated by Talent during the campaign, he's lying to us. Please, just spare us the charade for a little while, will you?

We knew Jack Danforth -- and you're no Jack Danforth buddy. Like many of the Republican Senators elected Tuesday, you're just a right-winger in moderate's clothing who won a painfully close election by pretending to be something he's not. The Republicans have become adept at practicing this deception. If you'll excuse the terrible pun, they have developed quite a talent for it actually.

However, I suspect Talent will pile up quite a far-right-wing record and then try what will hopefully be a futile run back to the center a la John Ashcroft. Unfortunately for us, we've got four years to wait for that I'm afraid.

Sigh.

And boy was I right about this sleazeball.