I happened to catch the Roll Call article from Tuesday about the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) campaign advertisement tying U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.) to President Barack Obama and lobbyist money.

Faithful readers may remember me writing that tying Tester to Obama would be the strategy for the GOP in the 2012 U.S. Senate race here in Big Sky country.

You can read the article and watch the video HERE (the link for the actual photo used in the video is right below the video box). Then come back here for my independent analysis.

It seems the staffers from NRSC accidently gave Tester some extra fingers on his left hand in the video (he is actually missing three from a meat cutting accident at the age of nine).

The Tester campaign team is probably enjoying this calamity.  The Rehberg campaign team is probably screaming at the NRSC for their ineptitude.

It appears nobody working for the NRSC studied or familiarized themselves with Jon Tester well enough to know that he is missing some fingers.

Mistakes like this happen when inexperienced people play the political game.  Anyone can make a video, but you only get a few shots in the political world to get it right.  I believe it was the NRSC boys and girls who gave us the “haircut” video in 2006 that propelled Tester into the national spotlight because it was so poorly done.  The NRSC also pulled some funding for their incumbent senator when it appeared he was behind costing him valuable momentum in the close race.

To say their track record in Montana is terrible would be an understatement.  But they bring bags and bags of money to the state just like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) does.

In 2006, the Chair of the DSCC, Senator Charles Schumer, put a political beat-down on his counterpart at the NRSC, Senator Elizabeth Dole, which ultimately led the Democrats to the majority in the Senate.

In 2011 we have Senator Patty Murray for the DSCC versus John Cornyn for the NRSC.  While Murray is not as ruthless as Schumer, she plays the political game much better than Cornyn.  I receive updates from both camps and so far the DSCC (in my humble opinion) is holding their own during a time when one would expect the Republicans to be doing very well.

Recent polls show nobody likes anyone serving in an elected office in Washington, D.C., but someone has to win every race.  The NRSC needs to play the game error free – they are supposed to win a lot of races in 2012 – so the pressure is on.

To put this in football terms – the NRSC just fumbled the ball and Tester took it in for a score. Fortunately for the NRSC (and Rehberg) it is only the first quarter.