Skeptic Project

Spike Maynard, the Republican candidate against Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) has a new spot up that claims Rahall is tied to terrorism and that he is "good for the Middle East." This is all quite interesting when one considers that Rahall is Arab-American, a Christian of Lebanese descent.

"Five things you deserve to know about Nick Rahall," the announcer says. "He's taken campaign cash from a group with terror ties -- and from Alamoudi, now a convicted terrorist. Rahall helped Qatar, while his sister was a registered foreign agent for them. He brags, (video clip of Rahall) 'I happen to have been an early supporter of Barack Obama.' And Rahall voted for Obamacare. Nick Rahall -- good for the Middle East, good for Obama -- bad for America."

As the Huffington Post notes: "It's worth noting, for instance, that most of the report's information appears to come from a book called 'Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America,' a controversial and notedly anti-CAIR book published by Joseph Farah, founder of ultra-conservative website WorldNetDaily."

In addition, the donation from Alamoudi, 'now a convicted terrorist,' occurred years earlier -- and Rahall gave away the money. In addition, the same Alamoudi also gave money to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

This ad has some similarity to an earlier spot from a West Virginia conservative group, which attacked Rahall for having headed up the "Arab-Americans For Obama" group during the 2008 election. The interesting thing here is that it's really a mix of two attacks. The Obama-supporting stuff is certainly fair game -- but the "Arab-American" business, on the other hand...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/goper-dem-rep-rahall-who-is-arab-american-is-good-for-the-middle-east-video.php