Will television ad attacking Cantwell fly?

If someone produces a television commercial that puts the head of a senator on the body of a vulture, is it cutting edge, over the top or just plain stupid?

That’s a question television viewers may be asking themselves in the near future, if they catch a hit piece on Sen. Maria Cantwell put out by the Free Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., organization that really, really, REALLY hates the estate tax.

We know this not just because the organization calls it “the death tax.” Heck, almost every conservative worth the flag pin on his or her lapel does that. This group likes to compare the estate tax to vultures feeding on a carcass.

(Temporary digression for a math lesson: To be perfectly accurate these would have to be vultures that only feed on carcasses worth more than $2 million, because that’s the minimum any estate must contain before the tax kicks in. It applies to one half of 1 percent of all estates, so that’s one carcass in 200.)

But political ads are not about details. They are about feelings. The institute commercial shows vultures feeding on a carcass, then accuses Cantwell of “voting with the vultures” for opposing an absolute repeal of the estate tax, then ends with a panel that plops her head on a vulture body.

Just how long this will be on the air is uncertain. In a sense it has been “overtaken by events,” as the military strategists say, since House Republicans proposed and passed their scaled-down version of a permanent total repeal. That bill ups the floor for the tax to $25 million, but to people who oppose “taxation without respiration” on principle, it’s still not good enough.

Supporters of the House proposal are trying to get Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray to vote for that plan because it offers some relief for timber operations. We’re guessing they’ll skip the vulture references.

Among those criticizing the commercial was Cantwell’s chief Republican opponent, Mike McGavick.

“An ad that places Senator Cantwell’s head on the body of a vulture goes too far,” he said, adding that the commercial should be pulled.

This is an independent “issue” ad, so it’s a good bet the institute won’t be taking his advice.

Change of plans

Spokane School Board President Don Barlow has changed his mind about which incumbent he wants to challenge for a House seat in the 6th Legislative District.

Kicking off his official campaign Thursday evening, Barlow said he would run against John Serben; in his earlier announcements, as well as his filings with the state Public Disclosure Commission, he was running against John Ahern.

Barlow ran against Serben in 2004, and now says he wants to finish what he started.

“I came so close to winning and this year we’ll work twice as hard to win,” he said in a campaign press release.

(Temporary digression No. 2 for a math lesson: Barlow lost by about 2,400 votes, or about 4 percent of those cast. While this was much better than any other Democrat did against a Republican in a strong GOP district, it’s still not that close for a seat that was open, especially considering Barlow had more campaign experience than Serben.)

Serben greeted the news of Barlow’s challenge with the requisite amount of incumbent sang-froid.

“It doesn’t give me too much concern,” Serben said. “I’ve got five times the name recognition I had last time when I beat him.”

He’s not heavy

Gov. Chris Gregoire really likes getting to know foreign heads of state. And of course she’s had plenty of practice, with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Mexican President Vicente Fox making visits to Washington, and her trip earlier this week to British Columbia for talks with provincial Premier Gordon Campbell.

Apparently, she and Campbell got along famously. “I have a soul brother in Premier Campbell,” she told the Prosperity Partners luncheon in Spokane.

Just to be clear, she didn’t mean that in the Sam and Dave “comin’ to ya on a dusty road”/Isaac Hayes/Motown kind of “soul.”

Canadians tend to be pretty liberal and progressive and all, but they don’t have that kind of a “brother” as a premier in B.C.