Weigel

The new TV ad from Wayne Powell, the Democrat running against Eric Cantor, elevates this year's transvaginal ultrasound/legitimate rape meme-ery to something special.

Cantor's 7th district is, typically, strongly Republican. In 2008, Barack Obama won only 46 percent of the vote here, and it represented a huge Democratic surge from 2004. But it's interesting that Powell's strategist, Mudcat Saunders, is closing on a "watch out, women" message. Previous Cantor challengers have tried to run as country-fried populists and gotten nowhere. The recent successful Democratic campaigns -- Kaine 2005, Webb 2006, Obama 2008 -- have done a little bit of that, but pulled northern Virginia voters away from the GOP with social issues.