Oh yes, John McCain’s quite the man of character, isn’t he? Well, John, lie down with dogs, rise up with fleas, as the nuns used to say:

The ad, which has gained nationwide attention, was quickly denounced by the Ford campaign and even saw the supposed beneficiary of the ad, Republican Senate nominee Bob Corker, call for its removal from television airwaves.

While the ad ended its statewide rotation yesterday, there have been reports that it is still playing in the Chattanooga media market.

Nelson is currently an advisor to possible 2008 presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona). He is the founder of a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, Crosslink Strategy Group.

But wait, there’s more:

McCain recently hired Terry Nelson, an individual who was involved in DeLay’s corporate cash funneling scheme. While appearing on a radio show, McCain first defended Nelson saying “none of the charges were true,” but later said he “will go and look and see if any of them are true, but I’ve never heard of them before.” He may want to investigate this check.

Oh, and remember the illegal phone jamming in Hew Hampshire? Here’s a refresher:

The Union Leader today reported that “court records show Ken Mehlman’s office received more than 75 telephone calls from now-convicted phone-jam conspirator James Tobin from Sept. 30 to Nov. 22 of that year.” At the time, Mehlman–the current RNC Chair–was White House political director. This raises the disturbing question of whether Tobin, who worked for the RNC and the NRSC at the time and has since been convicted on two criminal charges for his role in the scheme, discussed the plan with one of the President’s most important political strategists.

Today’s news also has important implications for other national Republican figures. At the time the phone jamming scheme was devised and implemented, Tobin’s supervisor at the RNC was Terry Nelson, who Arizona Republican Senator John McCain recently hired as a senior strategist for his Political Action Committee. This means that McCain may have hired one of the key figures in the phone jamming scheme.