Tammy Baldwin and Tommy Thompson are set to have their first debate this upcoming Friday, but it is the attack ads from Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS that are making the news lately.

As Baldwin notes in her latest campaign missive “We’ve worked hard for a long time. We’ve fought back against every attack. And now we’re seeing what all of our hard work has done. Seven recent polls have us either tied or pulling out into the lead. The special interests — Karl Rove, the Kochs, and their gaggle of right-wing allies — have spent a combined $6.2 million attacking me in Wisconsin. And it’s not working. September is coming to an end — and with it, the end of the final FEC fundraising quarter of the election.”

The latest ad, see top, tries to paint Baldwin as “just too extreme for Wisconsin.” It also attacks Baldwin for, supposedly, rubber stamping healthcare reform and the stimulus bills back in 2010.

Of course, the attacks on Baldwin may be blunted by the video that has surfaced of former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson saying “Who better than me, who’s already finished one of the entitlement programs, to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare?”