U.S. Rep. Paul Broun hates children.

At least, that’s the case GOP challenger Barry Fleming makes in his latest ad, available on YouTube and airing district-wide beginning this morning.

Fleming chastises Broun for voting against H.R. 2517, a bill authorizing funding for missing children; H.R. 3845, which creates a task force to address online child pornography; and H.R. 3791, which requires Internet service providers to report users who upload child pornography. Text, voting records, debate transcripts and summaries are available here if anyone’s interested.

In all three cases, Broun was one of only two or three congressmen to vote against the bills. In the case of H.R. 3791, the SAFE Act, Broun has said he believes it is unconstitutional.

The ad ends a brief cease-fire when both candidates more or less suspended their daily barrage of press releases and verbal sniping. With Fleming on the air, the race is officially on.

Broun to judges: Drop dead

Broun sent out yet another denunciation today of the California gay-marriage decision, which took effect this afternoon.

“The recent ruling from the California Supreme Court is symptomatic of a much deeper and more insidious malignancy, namely, judges who refuse to submit to the rule of law, and are willing to twist the Constitutions of our land to establish an oligarchic tyranny over this nation.,” he said. “The obvious cure for this problem is for the people to reclaim their political power through voting to overturn these heavy-handed rulings.”

In other words, vote for people like me and you won’t have to worry about teh geighs wrecking our family values.

Time for truth

The candidates also sparred over a recent Fleming mailer picturing a girl kneeling by a headstone and attacking Broun for voting against H.R. 2828, a bill to compensate the families of people killed in terrorist attacks abroad. Team Fleming immediately responded. Here’s the blow-by-blow:

• Broun says Fleming’s term “on American soil” implies 9/11, not the African embassy attacks, which were only technically on American soil. Fleming says American soil is American soil.

• Broun questions whether the United States should serve as insurers for foreigners and pay for the “dastardly deeds” of terrorists. Fleming points out that the families of Americans who died would also receive payments.

• Broun, a former Marine, says the bill had nothing to do with military deaths, and using a military cemetery as a setting for the photo “trivializes the grief of families of fallen American heroes.” Fleming says three American soldiers died in the Kenya attack and Broun “should be ashamed … to claim that their sacrifice did not matter.”

• Broun says that co-sponsor Roy Blount, the House Minority Whip, is not upset with him because Blount just gave his campaign $3,000, and points out that both Georgia congressman Nathan Deal and deputy whip Eric Cantor voted against the bill. Fleming says political contributions shouldn’t sway Broun’s votes.

• Broun says it doesn’t matter because H.R. 2828, which BTW passed 409-12, is dead in the Senate. Fleming says that Broun is in the House, not the Senate, and “He should know, he already lost a race for the Senate.” (ouch!)

Broun closes by playing the trial lawyer card (this used to only work on Democrats). “As a trial lawyer, my opponent is used to twisting words,” he said. “He should have remembered the rule that when a witness is caught in a lie, then the jury has the right to expect that everything else he says is also a lie.”

What a way to spend my birthday – parsing the parsing of politicians. We’ve got another month of this ahead of us, folks. I’d advise all of you to stay away from your mailboxes as much as possible.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com