U.S. Senate candidate Rich Tarrant posted his fourth Web ad today (http://www.tarrant06.com/media/). These are ads that are posted on the Tarrant campaign Web site and e-mailed to supporters.

This one accuses Tarrant’s opponent, Bernie Sanders, of lying.

The ad shows a video of Sanders (this one was filmed by the Tarrant campaign last year, campaign manager Tim Lennon said, in contrast to the inappropriately used Channel 17 video in a previous Web ad that has since been withdrawn). The congressman tells the audience that he lied to President Clinton about his support of a piece of legislation so that he could get access to him in the White House.

Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said of the lie, “It’s up there with telling your date her dress looks nice.”

The ad then declares that Sanders sponsored 165 bills in his 16 years in the U.S. House, and just one passed.

Lennon said he has no standard in mind for how many bills a member of Congress should sponsor or pass, but that this is proof of Sanders’ ineffectiveness. “He’s clearly at the bottom of the barrel of getting things done in Washington,” Lennon said.

Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said the ad ignores the large number of amendments Sanders has introduced, which are equally effective in getting things done. Under the Republican-controlled Congress of the last decade, Weaver said, “No member of Congress has passed more amendments on the floor than Congressman Bernie Sanders.”

He pointed to the MILC legislation for dairy farmers and legislation dictating that veterans be told what benefits they are eligible for as examples.

_ Terri Hallenbeck