The Seattle Post-Intelligencer / AP:

A conservative anti-tax group unveiled a $1 million advertising campaign Monday that paints Democrat John Kerry as a waffler, picking up where President Bush left off last week when his campaign pulled down its ads.

The Club for Growth’s launch is much smaller than what Bush had been spending. However, the group’s ads will give Republicans somewhat of a presence on the air in certain areas during a week in which Kerry news dominates the airwaves.

Bush’s campaign went dark this week, with the campaign opting to save money for an expected multimillion-dollar advertising offensive in August.

The Club for Growth’s new 30-second ad is to start running this week in pricey Boston, where Democrats are holding their national convention, before expanding to several Midwestern states.

The ad shows Kerry’s head, torso and arm as a spinning weather vane to claim that the Democrat makes decisions depending on which way the wind blows.

“In 1996 he opposed the death penalty for terrorists. Now he claims to support it,” the ad says. “Sometimes he’s for welfare reform, sometimes he’s against it. For a 50-cent gas tax hike, then maybe not. Kerry voted for higher taxes 350 times, but now says he’d cut taxes.”

Who is Club for Growth? From the “about” section of their website:

Founded in 1999 by Steve Moore, National Review president Dusty Rhodes, Cato Institute president Ed Crane, Richard Gilder, economist and CNBC Kudlow & Cramer co-host Larry Kudlow and other like-minded pro-growth conservatives, the Club for Growth sends campaign contributions from our members to the most free-market oriented candidates in tight, but winnable races.

Members of the Club are economic conservatives, like-minded political contributors who are frustrated with the ideological drift of both parties today. Club members have a shared goal of contributing to and electing more Reaganites to Congress who are willing to stand for the issues that they as members care about most, issues like: cutting taxes, controlling federal spending, personal accounts for Social Security, ending the death tax, eliminating the capital gains tax, fundamental tax reform, providing true school choice and minimizing government’s role in our daily lives.

Some of the people who are already Club for Growth members include:

Larry Kudlow, economist and CEO of Kudlow & Co. Larry is co-host of the the primetime CNBC show “Kudlow & Cramer.”

Milton Friedman, economist, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Thomas L. Rhodes, President, National Review magazine.

Bret Schundler, former mayor of Jersey City and 2001 New Jersey GOP gubernatorial nominee.

Bill Simon, 2002 California GOP gubernatorial nominee.

These people—and over 17,000 others—have already seen the value of joining the Club for Growth.