In addition to Bachmann, the ads are targeting Republican Reps. John Boehner of Ohio, Denny Rehberg of Montana, Lee Terry of Nebraska, Roy Blunt of Missouri, and Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri, as well as Democrat Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania.

“Stain,” as the ad is titled, “highlights the cash from Big Oil and other special interests taken by Members who voted against the American Clean Energy & Security Act, a comprehensive clean energy and climate plan that will put America back in control of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet,” according to a statement from the Sierra Club.

Here’s the full ad:

The hottest Senate race in the country is getting a whole lot hotter due to multiple lawsuits alleging that an associate of Sen. Norm Coleman, Nasser Kazeminy, funneled money to Coleman’s wife through an insurance company she works for. The allegations spurred the Coleman campaign to cry foul and attack Al Franken in an ad released Saturday. Now Franken has produced his own response ad.

Coleman’s ad, featured at MnIndy here, charges that Franken knew of the lawsuit: “Al Franken’s 11th-hour attack: phony accusations filled with lies, delivered anonymously to a Minnesota paper before being filed in a Texas court. A vicious personal attack on my wife. This time Al Franken’s crossed the line.”

The Franken campaign had been relatively silent about the lawsuit since it first made the news and denies having had any knowledge of the lawsuit prior to its filing on Monday. In fact, at least one reporter has commented that while the Franken campaign is quick to send items critical of Coleman to news outlets, the Franken campaign was mum as the story broke. And, as MnIndy’s Steve Perry notes: Coleman likely brought up the issue several weeks ago himself.

Coleman’s ad has given Franken an opportunity to not only respond to the attack accusing Franken of promoting the lawsuit story to the press (”Norm Coleman is looking you in the eye – and lying,” he says), but also allows Franken to directly air the allegations in his ad without the impression that Franken is peddling the controversy. Coleman broke the ice, after all, with a very direct accusation against Franken regarding the lawsuit. To date, Coleman has not produced any evidence that Franken knew of the lawsuit before it was filed.

Before Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Oct. 17 statements on MSNBC about “anti-America views” she feared some in Congress hold, the airwaves in the 6th Congressional District were relatively quiet. But over the past two weeks well over $1 million in campaign contributions from people outraged by her comments have poured into the campaign of DFLer El Tinklenberg. Meanwhile, outrage over what conservatives have deemed a media smear-job against Bachmann have generated half as much money for her campaign.

The result has been a slew of ads pushed out by campaigns and third-party supporters — at least half a dozen in the last five days.

Flush with new money, DFL candidate El Tinklenberg has started airing his third ad of the campaign season, which includes words from former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Bachmann has released four new ads in the last five days. Two repeat a misleading message regarding Tinklenberg’s term as transportation commissioner, one attacks him on property taxes and another promotes Bachmann’s “23 foster children,” as well as her opposition to the Wall Street bailout.

Alliance for a Better Minnesota put out an ad with Bachmann kissing Bush, saying “she embarrasses us.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee attacked Bachmann on her deregulation stance on Wall Street.

Bachmann: Tax Hikes Up Ahead!

Bachmann: Google Search Tinklenberg

Bachmann: Tink’s Failed Leadership at MnDOT

Bachmann: A Brighter Future

Alliance for a Better Minnesota: Michele Bachmann – Nonsense

Tinklenberg: Crisis

DCCC: Michele Bachmann – She’s for Wall Street, not Minnesota

Meanwhile, Bachmann’s ad attacking Democratic challenger El Tinklenberg gets panned by Minnesota Public Radio’s Tim Pugmire who says, the “Facts don’t support Bachmann ad claims.”

“One of the latest twists in the too-close-to-call 6th District Congressional contest is Rep. Michele Bachmann’s accusations that El Tinklenberg broke the law when he was state transportation commissioner. Bachmann uses a TV commercial and a new web site to repeat the allegations. But there’s no indication Tinklenberg broke any laws.”

That ad after the jump.

The DCCC’s new ad targets Bachmann’s statements concerning the collapse of U.S. financial markets. The Stillwater Republican’s position is that “hyper-regulation” resulted in the collapse. The DCCC disagrees:

U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., came to the Twin Cities today to support DFL congressional candidate Ashwin Madia in his bid to replace retiring Republican 3rd District U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad with a Minneapolis fundraiser and a joint visit to Axonom, Inc., a small Edina technology firm.

The two pols discussed the need to reform health care to lessen businesses’ burden as well as the importance of education in building a skilled work force — a point Axonom CEO Clark Dircz stressed during an office tour he led. In a news conference afterward, Emanuel pitched a plan to make mandatory one year of post-secondary education.

But they could hardly ignore the current economic crisis, and Madia sketched a five-point economic plan that Emanuel duly applauded, lavishing praise on Madia as the sort of practical politician who would be welcomed in the House Democratic caucus, which Emanuel leads.

Emanuel and Madia make an interesting pair: Both are sons of immigrants with names that not everyone can spell and, after last week’s slams on Madia by Minnesota Republicans, they have both been called “carpetbagger.” In Emanuel’s case, the term was applied during an extremely rough 2002 campaign in which it took an all-faiths rally to silence harsh rhetoric many saw as anti-Semitic. In the Edina office building lobby after today’s event, Emanuel quietly counseled Madia on how to handle attacks that carry messages of racial or ethnic divisiveness.

Emanuel’s visit came on a day that Ramstad — speaking for himself as well as quoting from a statement by his predecessor, Bill Frenzel — said Madia and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are conducting a campaign of “gutter politics” against state Rep. Erik Paulsen, the Republican candidate for Ramstad’s seat. Among what Ramstad characterized as “utter fabrications” was a DCCC flyer linking Paulsen to a Las Vegas strip-club event held by a political action committee that also donated to his campaign (Paulsen campaign video and MPR audio below). A new Paulsen ad has this for a theme: “Madia lies a lot.”

Here’s a three-minute highlight reel from today’s Madia-Emanuel news conference:

Paulsen campaign video of Ramstad press conference:

MPR audio of Ramstad press conference:

The NRCC will cancel a week of ads on WCCO and has scaled back on KARE. The committee also bought $126,000 in ad time for Bachmann from October 20 to election day.

The shift is bad news for Paulsen at a time when Democratic polling shows Madia leading in their race, 44 percent to 39 percent, as the Minnesota Independent’s Chris Steller reported this morning.

For Bachmann, the news of her pardon letter to Bush in support of a central figure in the Petters Group scandal, and her backtracking on the letter, could spell trouble. In addition, the Tinklenberg campaign is touting a recent poll showing a generic Democrat leading a generic Republican in the 6th Congressional District at 45 percent to 37 percent. Despite that, however, Bachmann had a comfortable lead in a September poll of the district.

MoveOn.org, “Obamacan” (:30)

By CNN’s count, Obama has a 1745 – 1602 lead in delegates entering tonight’s primaries. By MinMon’s count, there are 111 shopping days left before the Denver convention.

Hillary Clinton: “What’s Happened?” (:30)

Barack Obama: “Hometown” (:30)

When would McCain leave Iraq if this fantasy never came to pass? Josh Marshall found additional footage of the candidate with his foot in his mouth on the same subject in a TPM-TV post earlier this month, and followed it with a cogent explanation of why occupying Iraq cannot be compared to the bases we established in Japan, Germany and other vanquished states after wars there. Highly recommended. That video is below the jump.

Continued: Click “Read More”TPM-TV: 100 years of quietude, 4/8/08 (4:50)