by Randy Rieland. Sure, a bird dripping oil is a powerful image. But if you want your political spot to pack a punch, you gotta take it to the next level — say, a politician dripping oil. The Gulf spill, in a perverse way, has been a godsend for the makers of campaign ads — nothing says an opponent is a) slimy, b) dirty, or c) slick, than coating him or her with a crude patina. Greasy come, greasy go: So it goes with the raft of new ads rolling out today in selected states, the phase one of an $11 million campaign sponsored the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, the Service Employees International Union, and VoteVets.org. Three negative spots take aim at senators — Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), and Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) — who supported Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) unsuccessful bid to block the EPA from controlling greenhouse gas emissions.

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