I love political overreaching. - The USA Next attack on the AARP over Social Security.

Talk about return on investment. Industry experts say it cost less than $1,500 for the conservative group USA Next to put on the American Spectator Web site for a few minutes last week an ad attacking the AARP over Social Security. But the ad was so incendiary -- it asserted that "the real AARP agenda" is to promote gay love and to belittle American soldiers -- that it caused a media sensation. CNN, MSNBC, Fox, the Associated Press and a wide range of newspapers covered the ensuing fracas, as politicians such as Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.) weighed in.

As it happens, the anti-AARP group is being advised by some of the same people who counseled the Swift Boat Veterans, whose initial ad buy of $550,000 against Kerry had a greater impact than the tens of millions of dollars spent on ads by the Democrats. But that's just coincidence: The former Swift Boat advisers say they weren't involved in last week's ad.

(2-27-05, The Washington Post.)