The Crossroads GPS group headed by former George W. Bush spinmaster Karl Rove is spending $160,000 to run a new commercial about Representative Leonard Boswell on television stations in Des Moines and Omaha. Those media markets reach most residents of Iowa’s new third Congressional district, where Boswell will face Republican Representative Tom Latham in 2012.

Like the first commercial Rove’s group ran against Boswell this summer, the new ad is dominated by boilerplate conservative talking points against House Democrats. The transcript and analysis are after the jump.

The new commercial is called “Peas.”

My annotated transcript:

[Ad opens with visual of a giant pea pod in front of Capitol. President Obama’s and Representative Boswell’s faces are on the two peas in the middle, which are also labelled with each man’s name. The pea pod dominates the bottom half of the screen throughout the 30-second spot].

Male voice-over: President Barack Obama and Congressman Leonard Boswell are two peas in a pod.

Because when it comes to failing to create jobs, Obama and Boswell are in it together. [Giant pea pod remains in foreground, background changes to man sweeping floor in mostly empty room]

Boswell backed Obama’s failed stimulus. 830 billion wasted, and more unemployment. [Words appear on screen above pea pod: BOSWELL SUPPORTED OBAMA’S FAILED STIMULUS! $830 BILLION WASTED! MORE UNEMPLOYMENT!]

Now Boswell supports Obama’s new stimulus plan [Words on screen: BOSWELL SUPPORTS OBAMA’S NEW “STIMULUS” PLAN?]

with more of the same big spending and tax increases of 450 billion. [BOSWELL SUPPORTS OBAMA’S MORE BIG SPENDING!]

Tell Congressman Boswell Iowa needs jobs, not more Obama taxes and spending. [Words on screen: IOWA NEEDS JOBS! NOT MORE OBAMA TAXES & SPENDING! CALL 202-224-3121

Small print at bottom of screen: Paid for by Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies]

I doubt anyone would mistake me for an optimist about Boswell’s chances against Latham, given the composition of the district and Latham’s money advantage. That said, this ad looks like a dud to me. Republicans have been trying to tie Boswell to national Democratic leaders for years (blah blah blah Nancy Pelosi blah blah blah San Francisco values). It doesn’t stick because people know Boswell is a rural Democrat and not one of the liberal voices in his House caucus. Look at his Progressive Punch scores on 14 different issue categories. Boswell doesn’t rank among the 140 most progressive House members in any category.

Boswell did vote for the 2009 stimulus bill, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Republican candidate Brad Zaun ran lots of commercials in 2010 attacking Boswell’s support for the so-called “failed stimulus.”

Crossroads misleadingly implies that the 2009 stimulus didn’t create jobs:

“Instead of joining the bipartisan band of opposition to President Obama’s latest stimulus bill, Leonard Boswell has embraced it, even though the second round of stimulus spending is based on the same failed policies as the first one which wasted $830 billion without lowering the unemployment rate,” Crossroads GPS spokesman Nate Hodson said in a statement. “Iowans should tell Leonard Boswell that continuing to embrace Obama’s failed policies of more spending and new taxes will not create jobs.”

Non-partisan analysis shows that the Recovery Act created millions of jobs, preventing the unemployment rate from rising to an even higher level. The stimulus only “failed” in the sense that it should have been larger and should have included a higher proportion of spending on government programs that produce more “bang for the buck” than tax cuts.

I’m not convinced it hurts Boswell to let voters in IA-03 know that he supports the president’s latest jobs bill. What Crossroads calls tax increases come mostly from eliminating current tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations. The spending proposals wouldn’t solve the country’s unemployment problem, but backing infrastructure projects in your district is rarely a liability for any member of Congress. Although I haven’t seen any polling specific to IA-03, national polls suggest that Americans want Congress to make job creation a top priority. Boswell seems confident that backing infrastructure spending to create jobs is a winning issue for him.

Yesterday the Boswell campaign responded to the new Rove ad with a fundraising e-mail blast:

This morning Karl Rove’s shadowy corporate special interest group American Crossroads, began running ads blaming Congressman Boswell for America’s economic crisis. This blatant attempt to smear and distort the Congressman’s record is downright shameful.

Attack ads like these can not go unanswered.  We must immediately raise an additional $10,000 for our Rapid Response Fund to fight back against attacks like these.  Help us to raise this before Friday’s media deadline.

Contribute $10, $25 or even $50 or more today for our Rapid Response Fund before Friday’s deadline.

For 37 years Leonard Boswell has served his country with distinction and honor; first as a drafted enlisted man then an officer in the United States Army, and now as a member of the House of Representatives. Congressman Boswell has an unblemished record of putting others before himself, for standing up for what was right instead of what was popular, and doing his part to ensure a better life for the generations to follow. For an anonymous group of donors to come into Iowa and take unsubstantiated pot shots at a man of such distinction; it’s despicable.

Faceless millionaires will not sway this election! Please add $10 to our grassroots fund today. Together we can prove the people are stronger than the special interests.

Your unwavering support is the reason Congressman Boswell has been able to fight for the working families of Iowa. Together we can make sure he continues to do so. Thank you so much for all you do.

Joshua Sulier

Boswell for Congress

I am skeptical that money raised from this mailing will fund a “rapid response” in the form of paid advertising defending Boswell’s record in the next few weeks. More likely, the money will go into Boswell’s general campaign account, which lags way behind Latham’s. I have sought comment from the Boswell campaign about their “rapid response” plans and will update this post if I hear back.

Any comments about the Boswell-Latham race are welcome in this thread. The contest will be closely watched nationally because it involves two entrenched incumbents in a politically balanced district. As of July 2011, there were 161,919 registered Democrats, 159,237 Republicans and 151,641 no-party voters in the 16 counties that make up the new IA-03.