David Zucker, the producer and director of "Airplane," "The Naked Gun" and "Scary Movie 4," embraced the Republican Party in 2004 and voted for President Bush, largely because of security concerns. Once a liberal activist and campaign adviser to President Bill Clinton, he made a low-budget anti-Kerry ad that ran mostly in Ohio and kept his political change-of-heart largely under Hollywood's radar. Not now. Zucker sees threats to America and Israel mounting, and he believes the Democrats are unable or unwilling to confront those challenges, so he has decided to go public with his belief that the Democrats have lost their way. Starting Oct. 9, the first of two ads Zucker directed and co-wrote will begin running on the Internet in hopes of helping the Republicans retain control of the House in the November elections. Like his movies, Zucker's edgy spots employ his trademark fast-paced, gag-a-second-slapstick humor that has made him the undisputed king of spoof. But Zucker believes his Republican boosterism carries some professional risk, as well. Hollywood happily forgives druggy actors and boozy directors, Zucker said, "but I don't think a Republican can be rehabbed." Still, at 58, he has decided to take a high-profile stand...

..."You have people like Michael Moore going into foreign countries saying Americans are the stupidest people in the world," Zucker said. "I want to tell the real America story, that America is a force for good."

Politics became deadly serious for Zucker on Sept. 11; he was disturbed by liberals who, he said, blamed America or spoke of root causes. Zucker said he found himself supporting Bush's robust response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As time passed, he tired of listening to calls for "talk, talk, talk" and the United Nations to solve the world's most tangled problems, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Despite his continued pro-choice, anti-nuclear power, pro-environmental beliefs, he found himself drawn to Republican national security policies. In 2004, he re-registered, made the anti-Kerry ad, appeared on a few talk shows to discuss his political conversion and "fell in with the dark side," quipped his brother Jerry Zucker, director of "Ghost" and "Rat Race," among other films.

"I still can't believe I'm a Republican," Zucker said. "There are just certain things ingrained in our Jewish roots. Our fathers voted for Roosevelt, and we voted for JFK, [Hubert] Humphrey and Clinton. But the Democratic Party has changed."...