{"id":8863,"date":"2006-10-25T11:09:01","date_gmt":"2006-10-25T15:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8863.html"},"modified":"2006-10-25T11:09:01","modified_gmt":"2006-10-25T15:09:01","slug":"a-very-serious-appeal-to-a-racist-sentiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-very-serious-appeal-to-a-racist-sentiment\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A very serious appeal to a racist sentiment’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Way back in March, Republicans started worrying about Rep. Harold Ford’s (D) Senate campaign in Tennessee. GOP officials unveiled what they called the “Fancy Ford” campaign, complete with a website, created by the NRSC, which included pictures of Ford and expensive restaurants, hotels, cigars, meals, and Playboy bunnies. Ford is African American — and the Playboy bunnies are all white, adding a disturbing racial element to the campaign. Indeed, as Jesse Berney<\/a> and Jason Zengerle<\/a> noted, the NRSC was basically portraying Ford as a black pimp.<\/p>\n

At the time, I wrote<\/a>, “It’s March and already the NSRC is dabbling in racism. If these guys are this desperate now, I shudder to think about what they’ll stoop to in October.” Now we know<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A political TV ad targeting a black candidate for Senate contains what critics, including the NAACP, are calling racist sexual innuendo about a black man and white woman.<\/p>\n

The Republican National Committee ad began airing Friday and features a series of characters facetiously declaring their support for Democrat Harold Ford Jr., a Memphis congressman who faces Republican Bob Corker, who is white, in the Nov. 7 election. Polls have shown the two locked in a tight race.<\/p>\n

In the ad, a blond white woman brags, “I met Harold at the Playboy party.” At the end she looks into the camera, holds her hand like a telephone and says, “Harold, call me,” before winking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hilary Shelton, head of the Washington NAACP office, said, “It is a powerful innuendo that plays to pre-existing prejudices about African-American men and white women.”<\/p>\n

Former Republican Sen. William Cohen characterized<\/a> the ad as “a purely overt racist approach” and is “a very serious appeal to a racist sentiment.” Asked if the RNC, which sponsored the attack ad against Ford, has played the racial card, Cohen said, “I think they are coming very close to it, if not doing it exactly. And I think they ought to stop it.”<\/p>\n

Even Ford’s Republican opponent, former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, has asked Tennessee television stations not to run the spot, calling it “over the top<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

And what does RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman have to say about all this? It’s a funny story….
\n
\nMehlman argues that he, despite being the head of the RNC, can’t do anything<\/a> about an RNC advertisement.<\/p>\n

RUSSERT: Ken Mehlman, the Republican candidate in Tennessee has asked that you take that ad off the air, that it is over the top. Former Republican Senator William Cohen says it’s, quote, “overt racist appeal.” Will you take that ad down?<\/p>\n

MEHLMAN: Tim, I don’t have the authority to take it down or put it up. It’s what called an independent expenditure. The way that process works under the campaign reform laws is I write a check to an independent individual. And that person’s responsible for spending money in certain states. Tennessee is one of them.<\/p>\n

I’ll tell you this, though. After the comments by Mr. Corker and by former Senator Cohen, I looked at the ad. I don’t agree with that characterization of it. But it’s not an ad that I have authority over.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are three parts to this. One, can the RNC chairman pull one of the RNC’s ads? Mehlman says he can’t, though he appears to be playing fast and loose with the truth. What a surprise.
\nhttp:\/\/www.talkingpointsmemo.com\/archives\/010547.php<\/p>\n

Two, is the ad itself racist? You can watch it for yourself<\/a>, but like Josh Marshall<\/a>, I don’t think there’s any real question here.<\/p>\n

The ad has a number of faux man on the street interviews. Each is a spoof based on GOP policy talking points. So for instance, a hunter is interviewed and he says “Ford’s right. I do have too many guns.” An older guy says “When I die, Harold Ford will let me pay taxes again.” Not my cup of tea as far as humor goes….But pretty standard fair for ‘funny’ political ads. And each addressed to a question of public policy.<\/p>\n

But then you see that one ‘man on the street interview’ isn’t quite like the rest. It’s almost like those old Sesame Street segments, one of these things is not like the other. It’s the one spot with the platinum blonde with no visible clothes on, vamping “I met Harold at the Playboy Party.”<\/p>\n

What policy issue is she talking about? It’s not connected to anything. It’s just, ‘I’m a loose white woman. I hooked up with Harold at the Playboy mansion. And I can’t wait for him to do me again.’<\/p>\n

Once you watch the ad again after realizing that, it sticks out like a sore thumb. What becomes clear is that the funny man on the street interview clips are padding, filler meant to make the ‘Harold does white chicks’ blurb appear to fit into a larger whole, just one of a number of ‘man on the street’ clips.<\/p>\n

Mehlman says he doesn’t think race is an issue in the ad. But face it, the entire ad was built around this one hot button racist appeal. It’s not even close.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And three, Ken Mehlman appeared before the NAACP in 2005, apologizing for the way in which his party has exploited racism for political gain. No serious person<\/a> considers that apology sincere now.<\/p>\n

The “Southern Strategy,” in other words, lives. I guess old habits die hard, don’t they, Ken?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way back in March, Republicans started worrying about Rep. Harold Ford’s (D) Senate campaign in Tennessee. GOP officials unveiled what they called the “Fancy Ford” campaign, complete with a website, created by the NRSC, which included pictures of Ford and expensive restaurants, hotels, cigars, meals, and Playboy bunnies. Ford is African American — and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}