Democratic senator's TV ad: My opponent voted to help spread Ebola so he could cut taxes for billionaires

Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor has a real doozy of a new ad in the hotly contested Arkansas Senate race, attacking his Republican opponent Rep. Tom Cotton — and it starts with scary news clips about the deadly Ebola outbreak in western Africa.

"Tom Cotton voted against preparing America for pandemics like Ebola," the announcer says after the clips, adding that Cotton was the only Arkansas congressman to vote to cut billions from medical disaster emergency programs.

The spot concludes: "Instead, Cotton voted for tax cuts for billionaires funding his campaign — rather than protecting our families."

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The ad's reference to medical disaster funds is from a vote in January 2013, when Cotton was indeed one of only 29 House members to vote against a reauthorization package for a number of public health and medical emergency programs. The later votes cited in the ad, however, are from a number of separate tax and budget measures from March and April of that year.

Still, it sure is fun to imagine Congress at some point holding a single vote to either prepare the nation for Ebola — or to instead cut taxes for billionaires. Now that would make for a really great political ad. --Eric Kleefeld