MICKEY KAUS CALLS FOR NEGATIVE YOUTUBE ADS ON THE STIMULUS:

During the immigration debate of 2007, an emailer suggested that one way readers might influence Congress would be to “go ahead and mash up some negative ads” on the issue and post them on You Tube. Readers responded, and some of the ads were quite good. I think they had an impact–not by swaying public opinion, but by striking fear into heart of legislators by demonstrating what they might face in their reelection campaigns if they voted for the Bush-McCain semi-amnesty bill. The bill died.

It wouldn’t be hard to do the same thing with the anti-welfare-reform provisions in the stimulus bill. Again, the idea would not be to influence the public. The idea would be to directly terrify Democratic legislators worried about their reelections by giving them a taste of how their vote might play. (It helps that many politicians are generally terrified of You Tube and new information technologies that they can’t control.) Obama aide Rahm Emanuel, for one, is known to be sensitive to the political potency of “wedge” issues like welfare and immigration.

“If you build them,” he says, “I will link.” Heck, I might too. (Bumped).

UPDATE: Ask and ye shall receive — Michelle Muccio, via Cafe Hayek. Only complaint — not negative enough!