New Hampshire Republicans, still hoping to take down Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D), published an op-ed in a local newspaper this morning written by former state House Speaker Marshall Cobleigh (R). The piece isn’t quite as interesting as its author.

Even by 2014 standards, the Republican’s op-ed seems oddly detached from current events, referencing “skyrocketing gasoline prices,” a moratorium that no longer exists, and a House GOP lawmaker who’s no longer in the House. But given how frequently Republican criticisms bear no real resemblance to reality, this alone would hardly be noteworthy.

Dave Weigel, however, notes a more glaring problem: the author of the op-ed has been dead for several years.

What’s the matter with the column? Probably that Marshall Cobleigh has been dead for five years. In February 2009, the former speaker of New Hampshire’s often-Republican state House was felled by congestive heart failure. This op-ed is a reprint of a column Cobleigh wrote in July 2008, when Shaheen was running her first successful Senate campaign. Buzz Dietterle, the FDD’s opinion page editor, says that the New Hampshire GOP submitted the column (which originally ran in the conservative Union Leader).