Hitler in Virginia

By Max Blumenthal, TheNation.com. Posted October 31, 2005.

The Governor's race in Virginia is heating up, but the ads produced by the GOP candidate's attack-dog media consultant are backfiring and could sink the Republican.

Nearly two weeks after Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore ran two of the most controversial commercials in recent political history, his media consultant would not stand by their truthfulness. "I'd love to belabor that with you," Scott Howell told me when I asked him about the accuracy of his advertisements. "I just don't have the--I can't stand to talk to somebody in the media and be wrong." He then described his ads as "tasteful."

Howell's circumspection was a startling inversion of his public persona. Notorious for his audacious, hyperemotional attack ads, he describes himself as "Little Lee Atwater" after the late fabled Republican negative campaign consultant who was his and Karl Rove's mentor.