Rep. Shelley Berkley went up this weekend with a new ad on education, using those comments Sen. Dean Heller was reported to have made long ago to the Pahrump Valley Times about abolishing the Department of Education.

Heller's folks have cliamed he was incorrectly paraphrased, but the damage was done. My thought: This "debate" only exists because Democrats know the issue polls well as opposed to having any good arguments why the department should exist, while Republicans, most of whom think most of the funding should come to the states, know about the polls and always try to hedge during campaigns.

The ad was first reported by POLITICO's James Hohmann in "Morning Score."