Serna campaign video mocks Plame’s
She says he is using GOP ‘talking points’
SANTA FE — Marco Serna hopes that real, hoofed horse power is better than mechanical horsepower, as in muscle car engine size.
Serna, the Santa Fe district attorney who is running for the U.S. House seat from northern New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District, has issued a new campaign video that is a takeoff on one previously released by one of his Democratic primary opponents, former CIA operative and author Valerie Plame. Serna rides a horse in his video and mocks Plame for driving a Chevy Camaro backwards in her movie-trailer style ad.
Serna also makes attacks against Plame. In a statement Wednesday, she called his criticisms “Republican talking points” like those she faced in the past from the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney administration.
Plame’s “Undercover” video, which went viral in political circles, shows her driving the Camaro backwards over a New Mexico desert. It’s intercut with details of her life story, including the infamous outing of her as a secret CIA operative by people inside the Bush administration as payback for a newspaper op-ed by her husband, who questioned the Bush administration’s weapons claims about Iraq before the U.S. invaded that country. Near the end, the Camaro whirls around and stops in a cloud of dust. “And yes, the CIA really does teach us how to drive like this,” Plame says.
Serna’s video starts with footage from Plame’s. He says, “Some people drive fancy cars and want us to believe they’re a female version of James Bond. They think they the can impress us with make-believe lies and fairy tales about events that happened over a decade ago.”
The ad refers to part of Plame’s video that says Scooter Libby, an aide to Cheney, leaked Plame’s CIA identity to a news columnist. Although Libby was convicted on charges related to the outing of Plame, a Washington Post fact-checker wrote that Plame’s ad was wrong, which Plame disputes, and awarded it “three Pinocchios.”
The Serna ad also criticizes Plame for tweeting a link to an article from an anti-Semitic website, for which she has apologized, calling her mistake “a doozy.” The Serna ad shows a quote from former Santa Fe Mayor Sam Pick saying that Plame’s apologies “ring hallow (sic).”
“It’s unfortunate that one of my Democratic opponents is using Republican talking points to attack me and my public service, but New Mexicans know a cheap political smear when they see one.” Plame said in responding to the ad. “My late husband Ambassador Joe Wilson and I endured these types of attacks from members of the Bush/ Cheney Administration. However, we never expected such attacks would come from fellow Democrats.”
Serna’s video does show quotes about Plame from three conservative news organizations — the Washington Examiner, the Washington Free Beacon and The Federalist — but also cites the Washington Post and CNN.
Also running for the Democratic nomination in the 3rd District are Santa Fe attorney Teresa Leger Fernandez, state Rep. Joseph Sanchez, Sandoval County Treasurer Laura Montoya, environmental attorney Kyle Tisdel, former deputy New Mexico Secretary of State John Blair and Gavin Kaiser of Santa Cruz.