This just keeps getting better and better. We now have a Republican candidate for Congress putting the tall tale of Cuba being ready to drill for oil off of America's shores into a campaign ad.

Here's the new ad from John Gard of Wisconsin, who narrowly lost an open House race in 2006 and is now seeking a rematch against freshman Dem Steve Kagen:

In fact, Cuba is not "poised to drill" off of the Florida coast. Exploration leases have been granted by the Cuban government to various other countries to look for oil in Cuba's waters -- though no drilling has actually begun or is about to begin soon.

We previously caught Gard's campaign distributing fliers that claimed drilling was already happening back in June.

Okay, here's yet another twist on the false Republican claim that China is drilling for oil off American shores: Tom McClintock, the GOP nominee for the open seat of scandal-plagued Republican John Doolittle, has now asserted that China is on the verge of draining off all the oil in the Gulf!

"Meanwhile, the vast oil fields off the coast of Florida that American law prevents Americans from developing are now being drained by the Chinese government drilling in Cuban waters," McClintock wrote in a column for the Auburn Journal, pointed out to us by the campaign of his Dem opponent Charlie Brown.

"And still Nancy Pelosi and her supporters in Congress continue to block the development of these vast American oil reserves."

Question: Given how long it takes to set up offshore rigs, isn't it already too late to prevent China from taking every last drop of the oil they aren't actually drilling for?

Oh boy. Here's another Republican spreading the lie that China is working with Cuba to drill in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico -- this time coming in the middle of the House GOP's shadow energy session on the abandoned House Floor.

The latest is Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, who according to the Politico claimed that Cuba "has given a lease to the Chinese" to drill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In fact, Cuba has not given any such lease to the Chinese, who have kept their drilling activities to the more accessible shoreline areas of Cuba. Leases have been granted to companies from other countries for offshore areas, but no drilling has actually begun.

Okay, here are two new twists on the GOP myth that China is drilling for oil off America: We now have a GOP Rep. who is apparently raising campaign cash off the tall tale -- and as an added bonus, her campaign tried to deny she ever did this!

The culprit is good old Rep. Jean Schmidt, the Ohio Republican who famously called Jack Murtha a coward. In her fundraising letter -- which you can read here -- she blasts unnamed liberals who have "decided to come after me because I stood on the House Floor and pointed out that Cuba was drilling off our shores."

"Now whether they are drilling on the coast of Cuba or offshore less than 60 miles from Florida," Schmidt later adds, "it doesn't change the fact that the Communists in China understand the laws of supply and demand more than the Democrats."

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Oh, dear. You know things have really gotten out of hand with the GOP myth that China is drilling for oil off American shores when a Republican Senator pushes it, only to be called out on it by a Fox News host.

The latest hawker of this tall tale: Senator Pete Domenici, who appeared on the Fox Business Network to promote offshore drilling. He repeated not one but two GOP myths: That China is drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and that Hurricane Katrina did not cause any oil spills:

But this is the funny part. The bogus China-Cuba oil myth is now so discredited that even Fox won't stand for it! As Think Progress noted, Fox Business host Elizabeth MacDonald repeatedly tried to correct Domenici, even as the Senator dug in and refused to concede he'd said something that's entirely fictional.

A fun footnote: Domenici announced his retirement long ago, and the seat is widely expected to go the Dems. So he doesn't really have any personal stake in pushing the myth -- leaving open the possibility that he actually believes it.

Oh, boy.

Former Rep. Melissa Hart -- a Pennsylvania Republican who lost her seat in a 2006 upset and is now seeking a comeback -- just can't seem to let go of the myth that China is drilling for oil off American shores. She now admits the Chinese weren't drilling in the Gulf of Mexico when she pushed it last month -- but she says they might be drilling now.

Here's a clip from an interview with Hart earlier this week, with Pennsylvania blog 2 Political Junkies:

"The fact was that they were not at that moment drilling," Hart said. "But they may already be now."

Hart originally made the claim on May 20. This was before Dick Cheney retracted the story, so we were willing to let this tall tale slide.

Well, what do you know: We finally found a Republican who's willing to acknowledge that the myth that China is drilling for oil off American shores is, well, a myth.

We previously noted that Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican facing a tight re-election battle this year, made the false claim in June. His offices didn't return our calls.

But the Chicago Tribune asked Kirk's office for clarification, and has now gotten a retraction. "While the Cubans may have issued offshore drilling rights, Congressman Kirk has publicly agreed that the Chinese are not currently drilling for oil near Florida," Kirk's chief of staff told the paper. Score one for reality.

This one slipped our attention at first, but it turns there was yet another Republican who continued to push the China-Cuba Oil Myth even after Dick Cheney retracted it: Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama.

By our count, this makes 12 Republicans who have continued to push the story.

In a guest op-ed for the Opelika-Auburn News published on June 16, Rogers wrote:

In December 2006 Congress passed, with my support, a bill that partially expanded drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. But there is still a large area that is off limits to U.S. companies.

Since then, you may have seen China has signed an agreement with Cuba to drill for this oil. That's right: China has set up shop off the coast of Florida and is using oil our country could readily use instead.

Rogers' Congressional office has not responded to our requests for comment.

We now have our eleventh big-name Republican spreading the China-Cuba Oil Myth -- the idea that we need to drill offshore because the Chinese are already grabbing our oil in concert with Cuba. Even Dick Cheney retracted this claim three weeks ago.

Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican in a tough race against Al Franken, made the claim yesterday when speaking to a local reporter at an event in Mankato, Minnesota. Here's the video made by the Minnesota Dems' tracker, provided to us by a national Democratic source:

"At the same time, we've got to be producing more -- outer continental shelf exploration," Coleman said. "The Chinese are able to begin operating 90 miles from our shore by working for Cubans. American companies should tap into those resources."

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Oh man. We now have another Republican voicing the silly myth that China is drilling for oil off of American shores -- and not just any Republican, but Rudy Giuliani himself!

As noted by Think Progress, Rudy appeared last night on Glenn Beck's TV show and made the claim.

"You look at Cuba," Rudy said. "Cuba is going to allow China to drill for oil within 80 miles of Florida. And Florida had a 300-mile limit. So in essence, we have China drilling for American oil."

Um, no. China's agreements with Cuba extend only to shoreline areas. Some exploration contracts for deep sea areas have been sold to firms from other countries, but no active drilling is happening as of yet.

Maybe Rudy hasn't heard that the GOP's heavy-hitters have already retired this line -- Dick Cheney himself retracted it three weeks ago, though a few GOP stragglers here and there continue to repeat it.

Here's yet another variation of the GOP-pushed tall tale that China and Cuba are drilling for oil off American shores.

This latest one comes courtesy of GOP Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, who has trailed Democratic opponent Jeanne Shaheen by wide margins in all the polls, and who by our count is the eighth GOPer to push this silly myth.

Sununu's version: He's dropped the China part from the tale -- now it's the Cubans who are supposedly doing the oil drilling.

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Well how about that. We now have a seventh Republican continuing to spread the myth that China is drilling for oil off American shores: Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, a Christian Right champion from Colorado, repeated the idea to the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

The Coloradoan immediately called Musgrave on it, causing her to then refer them to her staff. To his credit, her chief of staff told the paper that she misspoke -- which is more than we've personally seen from other Republicans we've encountered.

Musgrave faces a tough race against Betsy Markey, a former top aide to Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar.

So, will Musgrave no longer repeat the myth, assuming her chief of staff has informed her of the facts, or will we be hearing it from her again?

Oh boy. We've now spotted two more Republicans who have continued to push the idea that China is drilling for oil near Florida, even after Dick Cheney retracted the claim and GOP Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida called it an "urban legend."

One is an incumbent Congressman, Mark Kirk of Illinois, and the other is Kieran Michael Lalor, a candidate running against an incumbent Democratic Congressman from New York. They do have something in common: Both are in extremely tough fights, and this is the kind of nationalist talk that can really rile up the party's base, regardless of the facts.

First up is Kirk.

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This just keeps getting more and more absurd. Now the tall tale about China drilling for oil off American shores has found its way into a House GOP candidate's campaign flyer.

And to make matters even more ridiculous, the candidate's staffers are giving us conflicting information about whether he even sent it out!

The flyer is the work of John Gard, a Wisconsin Republican who narrowly lost a Congressional race in 2006 and is now seeking a rematch against freshman Democrat Steve Kagen. It was handed out at a county fair on June 15, a few days after Dick Cheney was forced to admit that his story about China drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico was false.

And this gets even sillier still.

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This is great. We now count three House Republicans who have continued to peddle the myth that China is working with Cuba to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, even though Dick Cheney had already admitted it was bunk.

The latest: Virgil Goode, the Virginia Republican best known for denouncing the election of Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, on the grounds that Ellison is a Muslim.

Goode faces a potentially tough challenge from Tom Periello, an international human rights worker who has been aggressively advertising on Christian radio and has also been able to raise a decent amount of money. So Goode's message to his base is clear: Vote for the Dems, and you're voting for China.

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They just can't seem to get enough of this one. It looks like another Republican is still pushing the idea that China is drilling for oil in deep ocean waters near Cuba -- Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri is continuing to push it even after big-name Republicans like GOP Sen. Mel Martinez and even Dick Cheney have disavowed it, and his staff is refusing to offer any retraction of his statement.

The Missouri Democrats are sending around this YouTube of Graves, who is facing a tough challenge from former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes, pushing the China-Cuba story at local campaign events:

Graves campaign spokesman Jason Klindt is sticking to the story for now.

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Last time we checked in on Rep. "Mean Jean" Schmidt, the Ohio Republican facing a tough challenge from Dem Victoria Wulsin, she was busy demonizing her opponent as someone who conducts grisly scientific experiments on innocent human victims.

Now she's outdoing herself again, spreading a tall tale that even other Republicans know is bogus: The notion that China is supposedly drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

She's pushing this fiction in order to whip up fear about high gas prices and Democrats wanting to sell the country out to the Communists -- a clear effort to boost her base turnout against Wulsin, who nearly beat Schmidt two years ago and very well could unseat her this time around.

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