Who knew?

Mary Landrieu is more liberal than Judah Benjamin! For those not well versed in civil war era history, Judah Benjamin was a U.S. Senator from Louisiana and a proud confederate who served in Jefferson Davis’ first cabinet. He was also, a la John Kennedy, a party switcher. He started out as a Whig and became a Democrat in 1859.

Who do you have to thank for this fabulous tidbit of knowledge? Why, of course, the bumbling, stumbling John Kennedy for Senate campaign courtesy of their latest tv ad:

The story doesn’t end there. Instead of taking umbrage at the ad’s factually inaccurate claims, the Landrieu campaign performed their civic duty, filling in reporters on the intriguing details of Judah Benjamin’s life story. The Kennedy campaign were less amused and quickly re-cut the ad, replacing Judah Benjamin’s name (although not his portrait) with former U.S. Senator Joseph R. West.

Check out this handy video from the good folks at Kennedy for Whatever for clarification:

Talking Points Memo made a more substantive observation:

The ad’s claim of Landrieu being the most liberal Senator ever is a bit difficult in a state that was represented by Huey Long (U.S. Senator, 1932-1935), a socialist demagogue.

Problematic? Not for the Kennedy campaign who managed to leave out both socialist demagogue Huey and his unarguably liberal son Russell from their line up of U.S. Senators.