Republicans sharply criticized Democrats Wednesday for using images of flag-draped coffins and a makeshift grave of a fallen soldier in a new web-based video.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee distributed a link to the video "America Needs a New Direction" on Tuesday to political supporters in a fundraising e-mail.

"I hope you will watch it, forward it on to your friends and family and ask them to join our movement for a Democratic Congress and a new direction for America," DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Illinois) writes in the e-mail letter.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (New York) charged that Democrats are trying to "blatantly exploit the sacrifices made by the men and women of our Armed Forces" for political purposes.

"Regardless of what your views on the war may be, this crosses the line," Reynolds said in a statement released by the NRCC. "Rahm Emanuel owes our troops, their families, and the families of the fallen an apology."

DCCC spokesman Bill Burton said there are no plans to take the video down and accused Republicans of going to "great lengths to obscure the pictures of these brave young men and women who come home having paid the ultimate sacrifice.

"Perhaps if these Republicans had been able to summon up this same level of outrage when President Bush sent out troops off to war without the body armor they needed and the Humvee armor they required, so many wouldn't have come home in flag-draped coffins or with life changing injuries," Burton said in a written statement.

The video shows at least 12 coffins covered with flags inside a cargo plane followed by an image of a soldier staring at a helmet propped up by a machine gun that is stuck in the ground. It also shows pictures of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and successive photos of Bush, a mug shot of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Jack Abramoff and Vice President Cheney.

Republicans will continue to pressure Democrats to take down the video at a news conference today being held in the lobby of the Republican National Committee.

The video is here.

Let the Republicans beef about the ad all they want. Every mention they make of it will lead to more people watching the ad, and more people looking at the flag-draped coffins the Administration has tried so hard to keep out of sight. More complaints! More, please!

The only thing wrong with the video is the featuring of Emanuel, Pelosi and the Democratic Whip in the second half. It turned what was looking like a biting and trenchant commentary on the state of America under Republicans into a blatant commercial for another brand of politicians, about whom nobody really gives a hoot. They should have left those images out entirely, but left in the DCCC sign-up at the end, and certainly leave Clinton (the closest thing we have to a national Democratic leader) in as well.

I have a feeling that political egos got in the way of good advertising showmanship.

[Thanks to Shirley]