Parties wrangle over new anti-McCain ad

The Democratic National Committee is attacking John McCain in a second TV ad. And the Republican National Committee is objecting again, saying it is not only inaccurate but illegal.

The new ad hits McCain for comments he made at a New Hampshire town hall meeting where he said that US troops could be in Iraq for 100 years. Democrats have jumped on McCain, saying it shows that he would indefinitely continue an unpopular war .

"If all he offers is more of the same, is John McCain the right choice for America's future?" the narrator asks.

"What John McCain doesn't understand is that the American people aren't fine with being in Iraq for 100 years in any capacity," DNC Chairman Howard Dean, who announced the ad on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, said in a statement. "The American people want a president who will responsibly end the war, not more of the same failed policy in Iraq that continues to cost $12 billion a month."

But McCain and Republicans say his remarks have been distorted. What he is really talking about is an extended presence of peacekeepers, as in Korea, who wouldn't take casualties. Those portions of his remarks don't appear in the ad.

This afternoon, the RNC said the ad is maliciously false and urged TV networks not to air it. It also accused the DNC of running an illegally coordinated campaign with the Democratic presidential candidates.

"Clearly, this ad is just another attempt by the DNC to mischaracterize and distort Senator McCain’s positions and statements," RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said in a statement. "It is unquestionable that the DNC is deliberately misleading the American people about what Senator McCain actually said. I hope that any network would consider their responsibility to protect the American people from deliberately false and misleading content."

Also today, John Hager, the Republican Party chairman in Virginia, filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission over the DNC's first ad, attacking McCain for suggesting that the economy has improved during the Bush presidency. The ad, however, does not show McCain later acknowledging that times are tough now for many American families.