We've been hearing a lot of nonsense from the right-wing ankle biters lately about how a Russ Feingold commercial uses the name of someone who's not a real person.


A lot of the noise has come from Charlie Sykes, so consider the source. Does the name Liz Woodhouse ring a bell?


It should. Liz was Charlie's paramour when he invited her to be a guest on his show, using a phony name. She's now his wife, and happily employed under the name of Janet Riordan at the right-wing Bradley Foundation. But that's another story.


There were plenty of reasons for Feingold not to use a real person's name in his ad, including the harassment some people have experienced from the likes of Michelle Malkin. It's the same reason you use phony phone numbers that usually start with the nonexistent 555 prefix.


But, since the Ron Johnson campaign has raised the issue -- going to Sykes when the legitimate news media legitimately said it was no story -- it's fair game to look at Johnson's spot, as other bloggers like The Chief, Illusory Tenant , Capper and others have done. I am late in piling on, but fun's fun.


So, this poor family in Ron Johnson's spot, carrying their own belongings to the moving van, clearly labeled so even a blind person could read the contents -- who are they?


A Wisconsin family that's lost its home because of terrible Democratic policies?


More likely, judging from the license plate, a family from Michigan or New York, maybe moving to Wisconsin for a new job, created by the stimulus package.


They are no doubt "real people," as a Scott Walker staffer once said of the people in a commercial who turned out to be actors. But this looks like stock footage used to illustrate a point -- not that there is anything wrong with that. Commercials are not real life.


The footage you see of a jail cell in someone's tough-on-crime spot probably isn't the local lockup. It's symbolic.


We'd all be much better off spending more time analyzing whether claims made in commercials are true, or whether they contain even one actual idea, than picking them apart frame by frame to look for some perceived gotcha.