Michael Fox, severely afflicted with Parkinson's disease, funds and stars in a political advertisement advocating for stem cell research, for the Missouri ballot initiative to promote stem cell research in that state, and for the senate candidacy of Claire McCaskill. The ad was incredibly effective, heart wrenching, as Mr. Fox is an iconographic figure, forever in our collective consciousness as, oddly enough, the conservative republican kid Alex P. Keaton in the long running hit Family Ties.

The rightwing media machine was outraged. They went into full assault against Mr. Fox, with Mr. Limbaugh leading the charge with the claim that Fox was 'faking it', exaggerating his disease, pretending to be sick. That was odd enough, but the sad end game of Mr. Limbaugh's career has been one odd incident after another. To compound the oddness, the right has funded a counterattack ad featuring the spectacularly healthy Jeff Suppan, Mike Sweeney, Patricia Heaton and Kurt Warner. What were they thinking?

My first reaction to the counterattack ad was disgust at the people featured in it. Why would they feel the need to appear in this? On examination, I started to realize that the fabled rovian attack machine, the well oiled mechanism of lies and distortions and distractions, the media manipulation that has been so effective, this grand old propaganda machine, seriously blundered here.

Mr. Fox is quite famous. The response it seems had to be from equally famous people. Fame and wealth are neutralized between these two ads, more or less. (I think Mr. Fox, as mentioned above, is iconic and none of these befuddled athletes and minor actors are of his stature, but they are all famous and wealthy.)

So what we have is the Spectacularly Healthy vs. the Massively Afflicted. Fame and wealth mostly cancel each other out. Has the GOP Machine lost all common sense? What is the message they have put out here? The spectacularly healthy are opposed to research that could help the massively afflicted? Could they not find one afflicted famous person to come to their aid? Would not one right wing Parkinson's victim stand up to say no to research that might someday lead to a cure?

Between Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Suppan (et al) the right may just have sealed its fate.