DSCC Spokesman Calls McCain-Kyl Ad 'Hostage Video'

A new ad for Republican Senate candidate Jeff Flake of Arizona, which features Republican senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, prompted a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to call the spot a "hostage video."

Matt Canter, the communications director for the DSCC, wrote the following on Twitter:

The new McCain & Kyl #azsen ad is awful. Talk about a hostage video. Why not admit we like Carmona a lot but now he has a D after his name

— Matt Canter (@mattcanter) October 29, 2012

McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential candidate, spent several years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War. (Update: Canter has since apologized, saying it was a "poor choice of words.")

Here's the Flake ad, in which McCain and Kyl say another ad from Flake's Democratic opponent, former surgeon general Richard Carmona, wrongly implies the two senators support Carmona:

The Carmona ad in question shows video clips of both McCain and Kyl voicing their support for Carmona in 2002, during his confirmation hearings for surgeon general.

As Kyl told THE WEEKLY STANDARD last week, he supports Flake's candidacy to succeed him in the Senate and was "put off" by Carmona after approaching him about running for a House seat in Arizona back in 2006:

...Kyl approached Carmona about running as a Republican for what was then Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District.

“I had one phone conversation with him when the Republican party was looking for a candidate to run in the congressional seat [for the seat close to Tucson], and I talked to him about it,” Kyl tells me.

But the conversation was not fruitful.

“I thought his response was odd and a little off-putting,” Kyl tells me. “He seemed more concerned about the perks of the office; he specifically asked about a house and a car, in the context of, well, he wasn’t a wealthy man and he would need to consider what went with the job. And he also seemed to think that it was just a lot of work for just two years, and having to run again, he thought, well, a position in the Senate would be a lot better to hold.”

The Senate race in Arizona, once thought to be an easy hold for Republicans, has tightened in recent weeks. The most recent Rasmussen poll shows Flake with a six-point lead over Carmona.