Faced with a growing gap in primary polls, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) this week launched a provocative campaign ad charging that rival Rand Paul (R) "even wonders whether 9/11 was our fault." The Lexington Herald Leader reports that the spot backs the claim up with a clip of Paul speaking at the Blue Grass Policy Institute forum in March 2009, saying: “Maybe some of the bad things that happen are a reaction to our presence in some of these countries.”

Grayson, endorsed recently by former Vice President Cheney, has launched a Web site called RandPaulStrangeIdeas.com as part of a renewed effort to draw attention to what he feels are positions outside the conservative mainstream.

Today, Rand Paul rebuts the Grayson ad with a new TV ad of his own:

His ad includes 15 seconds of footage of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath. He says Grayson uses 9/11 "to attack my integrity and my patriotism." He says to Grayson that the ad is a "lie, and dishonors you."

We already saw 9/11 an issue in another primary this year -- when Debra Medina would not dispute the notion that the attacks were an "inside job." It ultimately stalled her momentum, but she did finish with 19 percent of the vote in that three-way Texas gubernatorial primary.

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