Their tears of desperation are oh so delicious.

In one his first ads this cycle, Pomeroy highlighted his vote against cap-and-trade…

In his latest ad, Pomeroy goes a step further, highlighting his support for the Bush prescription drug plan which he says Berg would “roll back.”

The ad opens with a bill signing featuring President Bush while a woman’s voice says, “When George Bush proposed a Medicare prescription drug plan, Earl Pomeroy voted yes, putting seniors before party.. Rick Berg would roll back prescription drug coverage.”

Note how insistent the ad is in connecting Pomeroy to Bush. They could have said “Earl voted to create Medicare’s prescription drug plan” and left it at that; instead, not only is Dubya mentioned but we get a honking big photo of him at the signing ceremony. That makes sense strategically in a deep red state like North Dakota, where Pomeroy’s now in the fight of his life after cruising to landslide wins the past two cycles, but it’s risky insofar as Bush’s Medicare expansion is one of the many counts included in the tea party’s indictment of him. After voting for TARP, the stimulus, and ObamaCare, Pomeroy’s big sop to conservatives this year is to remind them that … he also voted to expand government health care under Bush? That’s an interesting approach, but on balance probably a smart one: As a Democrat, he’s not going to win many tea party votes in the first place and whispering the magical incantation of “Medicare” will help among the famously high-turnout demographic of senior citizens. Especially since it’s that same O-Care boondoggle that Pomeroy voted for in March that has so many seniors worried about Medicare being underfunded going forward.

Anyway, I used to think it’d be funny if Bush tried to leverage his unpopularity with the public by endorsing vulnerable Democrats in purple districts, on the assumption that their polling would crater. Now, thanks to Hopenchange, I think it might help.