Slate’s Dave Weigel has a smart post about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ads in Maine and Hawaii.

In the Maine ad attacking independent U.S. Senate candidate Angus King, Weigel notes that the spot twists a quote from King gave to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The narrator, accompanied by a harpsichord evoking a court jester performance, mocks King for telling the paper that "nobody talks to me about health care or even the economy."

The intent is portray to King as dismissive of important issues because, the narrator hints, King is running from his record as governor.

However, that’s not what King told the Post-Gazette:  

"When I’m campaigning nobody talks to me about health care or even the economy," King told the Post-Gazette. "It’s ‘the system’ people talk about. Why can’t they compromise? Why can’t they act like adults? Why can’t they represent the public interest instead of the parties? People just want the problems solved."

Weigel also notes that the Chamber is blasting King’s independence while touting the bipartisan credentials of Linda Lingle, the Republican U.S. Senate in Hawaii.

Here’s the ad the Chamber is running for Lingle: