Republican operatives believe they have found a smoking gun against Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, who said during a 2008 debate he was against a "government-sponsored" solution for health care.

The then-congressman, who was running for an open seat in the U.S. Senate, echoed arguments made by conservatives.

"I'm not for a government-sponsored solution," Udall said. "I'm for enhancing and improving the employer-based system that we have."

In a debate overshadowed by other issues rising energy prices and the war on terror Udall's answer that July barely created a ripple. But in the context of Sen. Udall's vote for the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and his tough re-election bid against Republican Congressman Cory Gardner in November, the statement takes on new meaning.

Udall's vote for the health care law has provided fodder for a number of campaign attack ads.

"Mark Udall was elected on a lie," Gardner said. "Mark Udall promised he would not support a government-sponsored solution and he broke that promise and voted for Obamacare."

Udall's campaign says if Republicans believe they have found a smoking gun, they're simply shooting themselves in the foot because Obamacare is not government-run health care.

"They are grasping at straws," Udall spokeswoman Kristin Lynch said.

The influential PolitiFact bolsters Udall's argument. The Pulitzer Prize winning independent fact-checking website awarded its 2010 Lie of the Year to the claim that the Democratic law amounted to a "government takeover of health care."

" 'Government takeover' conjures a European approach where the government owns the hospitals and the doctors are public employees. But the law Congress passed ... relies largely on the free market," PolitiFact concluded.

See the rest here:

GOP seizes on 2008 statement by Mark Udall on health care reform