Remember this weekend’s “Taliban Dan” ad released by the Alan Grayson campaign in his desperate bid to remain Congress’ most despicable member? The one that shows Daniel Webster repeating a Biblical verse about wives submitting to their husbands, along with another where Webster says “she should submit to me”? Grayson used these clips to accuse Webster of being a terrorist and religious extremist. However, while no one should be surprised that Grayson took the clips out of context, it may surprise people to find out just how out of context they actually were:

So, write a journal. Second, find a verse. I have verses for my wife. Don’t pick the ones that say, uh, “She should submit to me.” That’s in the Bible, but pick the ones that you’re supposed to do.  So instead, “Love your wife even as Christ loved the church,” and so on, instead of “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands.”  She can pray that if she wants to, but don’t you pray it.

The Orlando Sentinel noticed it as well:

In an attack ad labeling his opponent ” Taliban Dan” Webster, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson uses Webster’s own words to prove the Republican thinks wives should be subservient to their husbands.

One problem: The Grayson campaign edited the original video, chopping it up and taking Webster’s words out of context. Webster actually was advising husbands to bypass those particular Bible passages, according a longer video clip released Monday by Webster’s campaign.

Webster’s wife Sandy, supposedly the victim of her husband’s “oppression,” summed it up well:

“Alan Grayson is a disgrace to this district.”

As is every Grayson campaign staffer that collaborates in this smear — chief among them Grayson’s campaign manager Susannah Rudolph, who spent yesterday attempting to defend the obviously and egregiously dishonest ad, even after the Orlando Sentinel exposed it as a fraud.  This incident shows perfectly why Grayson, Rudolph, et al have no business anywhere near power.

Update: Factcheck says that “Rep.  Grayson lowers the bar,” and notes that this is just a progression of campaign smears:

We thought Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida reached a low point when he falsely accused his opponent of being a draft dodger during the Vietnam War, and of not loving his country. But now Grayson has lowered the bar even further. He’s using edited video to make his rival appear to be saying the opposite of what he really said. …

The ad compares Webster to “religious fanatics” in Afghanistan and Iran. It says Webster opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest, which is true. But it also claims that “Webster wants to impose his radical fundamentalism on us,” and to support that claim it blatantly misuses a video clip of Webster speaking at a Christian conference in Nashville in 2009. …

Webster’s positions on abortion and marriage, and his religious views, are certainly fair game. But Grayson crosses the line when he uses manipulated video to cast Webster’s views in a false light, just as he did when he concocted a false accusation that Webster had been a Vietnam draft dodger.

Utterly disgraceful.