Blowback already?

daveweigel has a diary that links to an article by Forward (the same magazine mentioned previously) that addresses the Republican hate groups' attack on Democrats.

Some choice comments:

The National Jewish Democratic Council called the Republicans' anti-Dean ad a "vicious smear campaign." It said the ad campaign "dangerously politicizes support for Israel, threatening the crucial legacy of bipartisan support for Israel."

The Democratic council's executive director, Ira Forman, predicted the Republican ad would backfire. "It helps us when you go over the top and put a picture like that," he said.

...

The anti-Dean advertisement drew criticism from some Jewish community leaders considered sympathetic to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called the ad inaccurate and "ill advised."

"To make it accurate, it should say 'said,' because [Dean] doesn't say it now," Foxman told the Forward. He went on to question why the Jewish Republican group did not simply highlight the recent efforts of President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to promote the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The article also puts the ad campaign into the wider context of past Republican efforts to paint Democrats as sympathetic to terrorists.