Sen. Paul's PAC airs ads attacking vulnerable Dems on vote not to end foreign aid

By Ramsey Cox - 10/17/12 01:49 PM ET

Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) political action committee has been buying ads against his colleagues who didn’t vote for his bill to end foreign aid to some Middle Eastern countries.

The Bucyrus Telegraph Forum reported Wednesday that Paul's PAC — Reinventing a New Direction, or RANDPAC — has been airing television ads that go after Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who’s in a tight reelection campaign against Republican Josh Mandel, for voting "to send billions of our taxpayer dollars to countries where radicals storm our embassies, burn our flag and kill our diplomats."

Before the Senate adjourned for the November elections, Paul got a vote on his bill to cut off U.S. foreign aid to Egypt, Libya and Pakistan, but the measure failed on an 81-10 vote.

Paul’s PAC is running similar ads this week in Missouri and Florida, where Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) are trying to keep their seats.

When Paul’s bill was being debated on the Senate floor, he repeatedly said the American people agreed with him that foreign aid shouldn’t be sent to countries that “don’t act like our friends” — a reason why his colleagues didn’t want to be on the record voting against his bill.

But 30 Republican senators voted with Democrats against Paul’s bill, some saying it would hurt relations with Israel and possibly jeopardize peace in the Middle East.

The Telegraph Forum said Justin Barasky, a spokesman for Brown's campaign, blasted the RANDPAC ads.

"This latest attack by one of the most extreme right-wing politicians in the country advocates a position that both John McCain and AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) disagree with in part because (it) jeopardizes aid to Israel," Barasky told the local paper.