In the spirit of Halloween, national Democrats took ghoulish aim at would-be Republican challengers to Democratic U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln today with a YouTube video labeling them the “Scary Seven.”

“As the video points out, these seven candidates are simply not ready for prime time, and based on some of their actions, it’s downright scary that they are even running for the Senate,” the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee says in a news release.

The clip ridicules “ethnic slurs, degrading comments” and opposition to “common sense measures like equal pay for equal work” by some candidates who have announced intentions to seek the GOP nomination to challenge Lincoln’s bid for a third term in 2010.

The clip mentions state Sen. Kim Hendren’s reference to New York Sen. Chuck Shumer as “that Jew” at a Republican function; uses Curtis Coleman’s quote that one “might as well get a visa and shots” before traveling to Southeast Arkansas; says Conrad Reynolds implied President Obama is a domestic enemy; and suggests state Sen. Gilbert Baker dismissed the existence of inequality in the work place in opposing state ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

State GOP chairman Doyle Webb says the fact that Sen. Lincoln and her friends “are already slinging mud proves they plan to run away from the issues and focus this campaign on personal attacks.”

Also …

—Baker campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart says it’s “disappointing, although not surprising,” to see Washington-style campaign tactics injected so early in the campaign.

Stewart refers to a legislative committee’s recent approval of Baker’s proposal to study gender-based disparities in government employees’ pay.

—Conrad Reynolds, a former career U.S. Army officer, says the remark he is being attacked for questions the policies of President Obama — policies “overwhelmingly rejected by the people of Arkansas last year and strongly embraced by Sen. Lincoln today.”

He says the DSCC’s attack smacks of Lincoln’s comment this summer when she referred to people who disrupted health care forums as “un-American.” The senator later apologized for the remark.

Other GOP U.S. Senate hopefuls not mentioned in the video are Fred Ramey of Searcy, Tom Cox of North Little Rock and Buddy Rogers of Rogers.