• Congressional Quarterly, Monday, October 16, 2006 12 PM

Based on the images and sound bites of this fall's campaigns, American voters could think they face impossible choices in the midterm election. Candidates are presented not just with contrasts but extremes. "Americans are under attack from Islamic extremists in every corner of the world. Homosexuals are mocking holy matrimony, and the lesbians and feminists are attacking everything sacred. Liberal judges have completely rewritten the Constitution," a narrator says to the theme song of the old "Twilight Zone" TV show in an ad airing in a North Carolina district on behalf of a long-shot challenger.

In another ad airing in several districts and paid for by a group supporting stem-cell research, a young girl says she will soon be diagnosed with diabetes, and asks why certain members of Congress "get to decide" who lives and who dies. Tens of millions of dollars are funding the negative ads that inundate voters by television, radio, Internet and telephone.

According to data compiled by CQ's PoliticalMoneyLine, of $67.4 million spent by interest groups, including the national party organizations as of early last week, more than 80 percent--$56 million--has been spent on attacks.

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