Eric Kleefeld April 22, 2010, 11:38 AM

National Republicans are standing by Nevada Senate candidate Sue Lowden, against Democratic attacks in the wake of her positive comments about the use of the barter system in order to lower the costs of health care.

We asked the National Republican Senatorial Committee what they think of the Democratic attacks against Lowden over her discussion of the use of barter for health care, and how her comments end up affecting the race.

NRSC communications director Brian Walsh told us in an e-mail: “When you consider Harry Reid’s history of lamenting that the war in Iraq was lost, pontificating on the President’s skin color or praising the fact that 36,000 more jobs were lost in February, I can’t imagine he seriously wants to engage in a debate over one-liners by the candidates in this race. Watching the Senate Majority Leader get down in the mud and desperately try to inject farm animals into his flailing re-election bid is frankly a bit pathetic.”

On Monday, Lowden doubled down on the barter idea. “Let’s change the system and talk about what the possibilities are. I’m telling you that this works,” Lowden said. “You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say I’ll paint your house.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee then rolled out a new satirical website on Wednesday, “Chickens For Checkups,” in which readers can send a form letter to Lowden asking how they can find a doctor who would treat various olden-days ailments such as rickets, “ill humours,” “the vapors” and others, in exchange for various types of livestock or even “indentured servitude.”

2010 elections, Barter, NRSC, NV-SEN, Senate '10, Sue Lowden