Kerry responds to Smith ad

Responding to Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon Smith mentioning their work together in an effort to highlight his bipartisanship, U.S. Sen. John Kerry responded by tagging Smith as a lockstep Republican.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Boston)"Gordon Smith is my friend but the problem is that when it's come time to vote in the Senate he's been a much better friend of George Bush," Kerry (D-Boston) said. "Voting with George Bush ninety percent of the time just isn't good for the people and issues I've fought for over a lifetime."

In the ad, Smith, who is running neck-and-neck with Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley in recent polls, touts his work with Kerry on prevents foreclosures and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on fuel efficiency.

"I choose to reach across the aisle with John Kerry to protect homeowners against foreclosure, with Barack Obama for better gas mileage," Smith says in the ad. "And when President Bush tried to cut Medicaid, the Oregon Health plan, I said 'no.'"

Kerry responded by saying that Merkley priorities, not Smith's, are far more in line with his own.

"I'm supporting Jeff Merkley because he'll vote to make health care affordable again for the middle class, and protect a woman's right to privacy," he said. "It's not personal, it's about what's best for our country and our country is in trouble because of some bad policies and bad decisions these last eight years. The inescapable fact is that electing Jeff Merkley is the only way we can win a Senate majority that gets things done for people again."

The Massachusetts Republican Party, however, responded by blasting Kerry as a party-line Democrat who shouldn't criticize Smith's efforts at bipartisanship.

"John Kerry consistently votes in lock-step with the Democrat Party on nearly every issue," said Barney Keller, the GOP's spokesman. "Sen. Kerry has a dismal record of working across the aisle to get things done, which is exactly why we desperately need a new voice in Washington, and why the voters of Massachusetts should elect [Republican Senate candidate] Jeff Beatty this November."

Here's the ad: