American Crossroads, the conservative group founded by GOP strategist Karl Rove, is rehashing Sen. Claire McCaskill's (D-Mo.) private plane saga with a combination of radio ads and billboards.
Unpaid back taxes on a private plane owned by McCaskill caused major political problems for the senator in March and gave Republicans fodder to portray her as out of touch and elitist. McCaskill eventually repaid almost $300,000 in taxes and said she would sell the plane.
The radio ad simulates a detective drama, interjecting sound bites from McCaskill's public statements as if she were responding to interrogation by a detective.
"I was working the truth squad out of St. Joe Airport. I found Sen. Claire McCaskill standing next to a fancy private jet," the narrator says sardonically.
"I made a huge mistake," McCaskill says.
The ad ends with the detective handing down a sentence of "guilty, for violating our trust."
The billboard, for fictional airline "AirClaire," shows McCaskill in a flight attendant-style outfit and suggests that while high air fares might be a downer for the general public, they don't affect McCaskill.
