Marino hits the air

PA-11th CD Republican candidate Tom Marino released his first ad today. Normally a challenger's first spot is a warm fuzzy bio piece but this starts out accusing Chris Carney of lying about the fact that Marino is a liar then gives a quick summary of his background and finishes with him being a tough prosecutor who is going to "take on the crowd in DC." It's painful to watch.


The ad does not say how Carney is lying; pa2010.com found Carney’s ad on the subject to warrant a fact-checking score of Squeaky Clean.




The Carney camp responded.


CLARKS SUMMIT -- Tom Marino's trail of lies took a new turn today, a day after an independent Ad Watch by Pa2010.com declared Congressman Carney's television ad "squeaky clean," the first ad to receive its highest rating, in asking Marino for the supposed letter he claims to have received from the Department of Justice.

Marino, in his first TV ad, calls Congressman Carney a liar -- without saying how. It is the latest effort at deception by the Marino campaign, which has yet to answer what has become a central question in his campaign: Where is the letter? Marino's campaign in the spring said it had a letter that would prove Marino received permission to provide a personal reference for a felon who was under investigation by Marino's office when he was a U.S. attorney.

In the space of the last four days, Marino's campaign has gone from claiming that "there are documents that would end this matter" to hedging whether there is any letter at all, telling the Williamsport Sun-Gazette they "don't recall" if there were documents to begin with. The truth is that Tom Marino can't say specifically what's being lied about because he is caught in his own web of lies.

"The truth hurts and Tom Marino seems intent on trying to run away from it," said Josh Drobnyk, campaign spokesman for Congressman Chris Carney. "Where is the letter? There's a simple question that Tom Marino continues to hide from. It has become increasingly obvious that Marino made up the supposed letter and now he's trying to hide behind his lies. If Tom Marino isn't straight with us now, what will he be like in Washington? The public deserves higher standards than Marino's trail of unethical behavior."

Later in the day, Pa2010.com wrote that "With boss under fire, Marino aide hedges on DOJ letter's existence."

FROM Pa2010.com...

...Now, Marino’s campaign appears to be retreating from the situation and hunkering down, hoping to ride out any fallout and shift the focus back to incumbent Democrat Chris Carney. To that end, Marino campaign’s itself implied to a local newspaper late last week that the much-talked-about letter might not exist.

“I don’t recall Mr. Marino ever referring specifically to a document from the Department of Justice that gave him permission to give a reference,” spokesman Jason Fitzgerald told The Suz-Gazette.

To add to the fun the Dems have a new attack sight up:

What is Tom Marino Hiding?

This is the successor to their spring effort:

The Unvarnished Truth on Tom Marino


Supposedly the NRCC is going to drop $500K into this race but that announcement was made before Marino's campaign imploded over this letter thing and yelling at people.

They can use a lesson on how to do a positive ad: