1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

A New Low In Negative Campaigning: Like Mehlman, Corker “Can’t” Pull Ad

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by No Worries, Oct 25, 2006.

Tags:
Page 1 of 2
  1. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 1999
    Messages:
    30,206
    Likes Received:
    17,142
    GOP is playing the Race Card and the GOP candidate is playing the Plausible Deniability Card.

    Good Times.


    A New Low In Negative Campaigning: Like Mehlman, Corker “Can’t” Pull Ad
    So this is what's become of our political process. An "independent expenditure" negative ad, which bears the endorsement of the RNC, can't be taken off the air even when the RNC Chairman and the candidate himself "want" it removed. In the spirit of civilized discourse,

    I think ads like this have no place in politics. But at the same time, if the RNC can endorse these sorts of ads with impunity, why can't the DNC put together a patently offensive and racist ad, then just simply back away from it when there's an outcry? Although Timmeh and Wolf did a good job of pressing the issue, can you imagine the backlash the DNC would endure if they tried such a thing? If Parkinsons victims are "fair game", then what isn't?
     
    #1 No Worries, Oct 25, 2006
  2. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 1999
    Messages:
    30,206
    Likes Received:
    17,142
    Tennessee ad ignites internal GOP squabbling

    Corker calls for own party to pull spot some Republicans denounce as racist

    By Alex Johnson
    Reporter
    MSNBC
    Updated: 7:33 p.m. CT Oct 24, 2006

    With their majority in the Senate potentially hanging in the balance, Republicans were bickering among themselves over an advertisement in the particularly nasty campaign in Tennessee that even some Republicans have denounced as racist.

    The dispute pitted former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, the GOP candidate for the seat held by Senate Republican leader Bill Frist, against his own party leadership Tuesday after it rebuffed his call to pull the ad, which lampoons Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr.’s reputation as a man about town.

    In the ad, a young white actress playing the stereotype of a “dumb blonde” talks about meeting Ford, a 36-year-old bachelor who is black, “at the Playboy party.” At the end of the ad, she winks and says to the camera, “Harold — call me.”

    The ad brought immediate criticism from the Ford campaign and the NAACP, whose Washington office called it “a powerful innuendo that plays to pre-existing prejudices about African-American men and white women.”

    Ford told MSNBC-TV: “I know that they are a little desperate and doing the things that you do when you get desperate in a campaign.”

    Corker himself called the ad “distasteful” Tuesday, telling MSNBC-TV, “I think it ought to come down.” Meanwhile, Bill Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine, criticized it in an interview on CNN as “a very serious appeal to a racist sentiment.”

    Mehlman: Ad’s fine, and it’s not our fault

    But Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Tuesday that he saw nothing wrong with the ad.

    “After the comments by Mr. Corker and former Sen. Cohen, I looked at the ad, and I don’t agree with that characterization of it,” Mehlman told NBC’s Washington bureau chief, Tim Russert, in an interview as part of MSNBC-TV’s daylong Battleground America report.

    “I think that there is nothing more repugnant in our society than people who try to divide Americans along racial lines, and I would denounce any ad that I thought did,” said Mehlman, who addressed the NAACP last year, apologizing for the Republican Party’s race-tinged “Southern strategy” during the 1970s and ’80s.

    “I happen not to believe that ad does,” he said, adding that even if he wanted to pull the ad, he couldn’t.

    Even though a woman’s voice discloses that “the Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising,” Mehlman said the RNC was not, in fact, responsible. He said the ad was produced by an independent group contracted by the RNC, with whom he is prohibited from communicating.

    “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,” he said. Beyond that, he said, the RNC is out of the loop.

    Ford dismisses GOP explanation

    But Ford said Republican leaders were being disingenuous.

    “I do know that if my opponent wanted this ad pulled down, he could get it pulled down,” Ford said. White House press secretary Tony Snow appeared to support Ford on that point, telling Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” that “if he wants it to come off [the air], it’ll come off.”

    But MSNBC’s chief Washington correspondent, Norah O’Donnell, reported that Republican strategists told her that they had no intention of pulling the ad and were looking forward to its running right up to Election Day in two weeks.

    For his part, Corker noted that Ford drove up in a bus to confront him at a press conference in Memphis over the weekend, an incident that he said “called into question whether he has the temperament, the comportment, if you will, to have the statesmanlike qualities that people look for in a United States senator.”

    New headache as Corker struggles

    The controversy comes at a bad time for Corker, who is struggling to hold on to what had been considered a safe Republican seat in a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in 18 years. But the new MSNBC/McClatchy poll released Tuesday shows the race as a virtual tie, with Corker’s 45 percent-to-43 percent lead falling within the statistical margin of error.

    Corker’s lackluster campaign has vaulted Tennessee to the top of the list of too-close-to-call races that both parties believe could tip the balance in the Senate, along with vise-tight races in Virginia and Tennessee, where Democratic challengers are neck-and-neck with Republican incumbents.

    Mehlman predicted Tuesday that the Republicans would hold onto both houses of Congress, but Sen. Elizabeth Dole, chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledged that her party was in a fight for its life.

    “It's a very tough cycle,” Dole said on MSNBC-TV. “You know the midterm is always tougher when a president has been re-elected — tradition, history shows you it makes it even tougher.

    “So we’ve known for well over a year ... that this was going to be a very tough, tough cycle — maybe the toughest in 20 years,” Dole added, saying she thought the party would just pull through in the end.

    Democrats cautiously optimistic

    Democratic campaign leaders were less willing to predict outright victory, but they said on MSNBC that the picture was looking good for them.

    “I think we have a good shot in a lot of states that formerly voted for the president and his party,” said Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

    “I think people want to change, particularly, interestingly enough, in the more traditional states — the rural states,” he added. “I think we’ve got a great shot in Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia, to be honest with you. I think we can win all three of those.”

    Rep. Christopher van Hollen, D-Md., co-chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, likewise refused to go out on a limb, but he said all the trends were favorable. Traditionally, he said, races tend to shake out in the last few weeks of the campaign, but this year, races in reliably Republican districts are falling one by one into the undecided column as Election Day approaches — 58 of them now, by his count.

    “I’d rather be holding the hand that the Democrats have right now than the Republicans,” van Hollen said.

    © 2006 MSNBC Interactive
     
    #2 No Worries, Oct 25, 2006
  3. rimrocker

    rimrocker Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 1999
    Messages:
    22,324
    Likes Received:
    8,196
    "I was there. I like football and I like girls. I don't have no apologies for that."

    -- Rep Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN), quoted by the Memphis Commerical Appeal, on attending a Playboy-sponsored party at the 2005 Super Bowl.

    Good. Throw it back at them and remind everyone who would be swayed by racist appeals that the Repubs are a bunch of gay boy-lovers.
     
    #3 rimrocker, Oct 25, 2006
  4. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 1999
    Messages:
    30,206
    Likes Received:
    17,142
    Could you imagine the conservative outrage if the Dems ran a commercial with a black woman asking the Rep candidate to call her (wink, wink)?

    Harold Ford
     
    #4 No Worries, Oct 25, 2006
  5. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 1999
    Messages:
    34,174
    Likes Received:
    13,612
    This might be interesting to no one but me. But, this is the third straight D&D thread where I've seen a 'imagine what would happen if the Democrats did something like what the Republican just did' comment. Can you imagine what would happen if Basso said something like that? :p
     
    #5 JuanValdez, Oct 25, 2006
  6. Lil Pun

    Lil Pun Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 1999
    Messages:
    34,132
    Likes Received:
    1,021
    I live within an hour of Tennessee and this whole campaign is big news over there. I heard GOP officials were targeting his dad yesterday.
     
    #6 Lil Pun, Oct 25, 2006
  7. rimrocker

    rimrocker Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 1999
    Messages:
    22,324
    Likes Received:
    8,196
    How about this ad...

    Ominous Narrator: "Corker served with an admitted homosexual who preyed on young boys. When it came to deciding who would run the People's House, Corker voted for a man who made his living grabbing and holding other males and who shares his Washington DC townhome with an admitted homosexual. Corker favors the agenda of the Man-Boy Love Association. Corker: The wrong values for Tennessee." Cut to drag queen... "Corker, call me." Drag Queen blows kiss, fade out.

    Oh wait. The Republicans already have that ad up in several places. Here in AZ, Kyl accuses his Dem opponent of supporting the NAMBLA agenda while in Ohio, we have everyone's favorite guy Ken Blackwell saying his opponent for Gov. is covering up for a campaign staff member who exposed himself to children and supports the platform of NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

    I suspect NAMBLA is being used in many other races across the country.

    Dang Dems... too wimpy and never coming up with good ideas on their own.
     
    #7 rimrocker, Oct 25, 2006
  8. Buck Turgidson

    Buck Turgidson Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2002
    Messages:
    86,399
    Likes Received:
    84,941
    That's exactly what he should have said initially, instead of the weaselly & non-responsive "I have never attended a party at the Playboy Mansion."

    Also (hopefully), I don't think he said "I don't have no"; I saw it transcribed as "I don't have a ...[pause]... no excuses for that."

    Hope the ad gets pulled & hope Ford wins.
     
    #8 Buck Turgidson, Oct 25, 2006
  9. Achilleus

    Achilleus Member

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2003
    Messages:
    4,313
    Likes Received:
    24
    Corker was a mayor of Chattanooga.
     
    #9 Achilleus, Oct 25, 2006
  10. mc mark

    mc mark Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 1999
    Messages:
    26,195
    Likes Received:
    468
    I’m shocked! SHOCKED!!! That the Republican national committee would be running racist and homophobic attack ads two weeks before a national election.
     
    #10 mc mark, Oct 25, 2006
  11. rimrocker

    rimrocker Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 1999
    Messages:
    22,324
    Likes Received:
    8,196
    Yeah, well change did to "would have." And being as Chattanooga is so close to Atlanta, how do we know Corker didn't take quick trips to an Atlanta hotel where he might of met up with Mark Foley flying in from FL so they could go to elementary school playgrounds? This is just rumor at this point, so I could be wrong, but Corker needs to explain all his trips outside of Chattanooga. We also need to find out if it is true that the Chattanooga police acted as his go-between in arranging gay orgies with black male prostitutes. Again, this is just a rumor, but Corker owes us an explanation because the people of Tennessee just don't cotton to that kind of behavior.
     
    #11 rimrocker, Oct 25, 2006
  12. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 1999
    Messages:
    30,206
    Likes Received:
    17,142
    Thank God that only the Repubs have the moral clarity and authority to do whatever it takes to win.
     
    #12 No Worries, Oct 25, 2006
  13. mc mark

    mc mark Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 1999
    Messages:
    26,195
    Likes Received:
    468
    Don't you know it! The Dems only run ads like this...

    <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Jq0j80UB_c"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Jq0j80UB_c" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
     
    #13 mc mark, Oct 25, 2006
  14. rimrocker

    rimrocker Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 1999
    Messages:
    22,324
    Likes Received:
    8,196
    Indiana Rep. Hostettler Ad Links Democratic Challenger to 'Homosexual Agenda'

    EVANSVILLE, Ind. — An embattled Indiana congressman has launched a new campaign ad that warns a vote for his Democratic opponent could trigger a shift in House leadership and advance a "homosexual agenda."

    In the one-minute radio ad paid for by Friends of Rep. John Hostettler, an announcer impersonating Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" character says a vote for challenger Brad Ellsworth would be a vote for California Democrat Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.

    "Pelosi will then put in motion her radical plan to advance the homosexual agenda, led by Barney Frank, reprimanded by the House after paying for sex with a man who ran a gay brothel out of Congressman Frank's home," the narrator says.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,224999,00.html
     
    #14 rimrocker, Oct 25, 2006
  15. rimrocker

    rimrocker Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 1999
    Messages:
    22,324
    Likes Received:
    8,196
    Jungle Drums?
    _____________

    TN-SEN: Corker Radio Ad Has Tom-Tom Drums During Mentions Of Ford
    By Greg Sargent | bio

    Okay, so Election Central has just obtained a radio ad which you've got to hear: It actually has what sound like tom-tom drums playing in the background every time the ad talks about Dem Harold Ford, Jr. The ad -- which says it was paid for by the campaign of GOP Senate candidate Bob Corker -- can be heard right here. When the ad mentions Corker, the music soars and no tom-toms are audible. Throughout the entire minute-long ad, you hear the rumble of tom-toms every time Ford is mentioned. This ad, keep in mind, quotes Bob Corker himself as having "approved" the message -- meaning it wasn't the work of the Republican National Committee, as in the case of the recent "bimbo" TV ad which drew charges of racism. More after the jump.

    We got a copy of the ad from a producer from WGOW radio in Chatanooga. Bill Lockhart, the program director for WGOW, confirmed the authenticity of the ad and that it's running on the station. "They're freaking jungle-drums," Lockhart tells us. "It's racist -- it tries to conjure up deep, dark African moods. Yeah, it's overtly racial."

    It's pretty interesting that this ad is running, wouldn't you say? After all, Corker disavowed the similar tactics in the recent "bimbo" ad which stirred controversy and charges of racism. The bimbo ad, which featured an actress playing what used to be called a "floozy." As you surely know by now, she claimed to she'd met Ford at a "Playboy" party and asked Ford to "call me." For some reason, people got the idea that it was supposed to be playing on fears of interracial sex, and they got very upset about it. Corker himself has called on local stations not to run the bimbo TV spot, saying that it "went too far."

    But the RNC has been unapologic about the ad, and it's continued to run.

    Now -- despite Corker's disavowal of the racially-questionable tactics in the bimbo spot -- we get this new spot with the tom-toms. Apparently this one doesn't go "too far" for Corker at all.

    We contacted WGOW radio to ask about the ad after reader C.C. wrote in telling us that he'd overheard two local talk show hosts discussing the ad:

    This morning about 6:45 I'm getting ready for work and have the radio tuned to the local mega talk station. The hosts are talking about the heat that the Corker/RNC ads are picking up, but are pretty neutral on them themselves, suggesting that the ruckus--and the suggestions of racism--are overblown. They're going through some callers, when one says, "That's nothing. Have you heard the jungle drums on the radio ad?"...

    So they play it, and, sure enough, the caller's right. Soaring music underneath the copy when discussing Corker's merits, jungle-like drumming when cutting to Ford's demerits. The hosts were stone-silent when it finished, until one whistled, and said, "Damn." They both agreed that the drumming--and the intent--was obvious.

    The talk show hosts, apparently, did think the ad may have gone just a bit too far. The Corker campaign didn't immediately return a call for comment.

    You can listen to the ad right here.
    login or register to post comments

    http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/..._ad_has_tom_tom_drums_during_mentions_of_ford

    _________

    Here's a link to the ad... http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/2006-10-25_Corker_Radio_Ad.mp3
     
    #15 rimrocker, Oct 25, 2006
  16. weslinder

    weslinder Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2006
    Messages:
    12,983
    Likes Received:
    291
    Entire Ad:

    <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_vZF5ZTu2Go"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_vZF5ZTu2Go" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

    Color me ignorant, but how is this racist? It paints Harold Ford, Jr. as a playboy, which he is. I've gone on the record in saying that I really like Ford, he's a politician that Barry Goldwater would be proud of, but I don't understand the hullabaloo about this ad.
     
    #16 weslinder, Oct 25, 2006
  17. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2003
    Messages:
    58,959
    Likes Received:
    36,524
    [​IMG]
    HAROLD FORD ISN'T RIGHT FOR TENNESSEE

    I'm Ken Mehlman, and I approved this message, now I say I disapproved this message but can't do anything about it.
     
    #17 SamFisher, Oct 25, 2006
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2006
  18. r35352

    r35352 Member

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2003
    Messages:
    388
    Likes Received:
    0
    If this ad were playing anywhere but in the Deep South, I would agree. But it is playing in the Deep South where many whites still hold deeply racist values even if they now don't express them openly like they once did. The image of a black man (Ford) mingling with white women still deeply resonates with the Southern racists who see that as a black man soiling the purity of the white race. It was very subtle but nicely done by the GOP to appeal to these racist sentiments.
     
    #18 r35352, Oct 25, 2006
  19. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Mar 28, 2002
    Messages:
    56,814
    Likes Received:
    39,127
    There is no question that both the TV ad and the radio ad (one of Corker's) were designed to appeal to the minority of white voters who might be influenced by them. I think it is a shrinking minority, thank goodness, but this kind of campaigning doesn't move us forward, away from racism. It is a deliberate attempt to motivate those that still live in the South's past to vote against Ford, and to provoke an unthinking subliminal vote against him based on his race, instead of his stand on the issues. In my opinion.



    Keep D&D Civil.
     
    #19 Deckard, Oct 25, 2006
  20. StupidMoniker

    StupidMoniker I lost a bet

    Joined:
    Jul 18, 2001
    Messages:
    15,131
    Likes Received:
    2,160
    Why include the black woman that commented on his appearance, if that is the case? I think you have to go into those ads looking for racism in order to find it, and even then, there isn't much there.
     
    #20 StupidMoniker, Oct 25, 2006
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)
Page 1 of 2

Share This Page

Toggle Width
Style
ClutchFans Original

  • About ClutchFans

    Since 1996, ClutchFans has been loud and proud covering the Houston Rockets, helping set an industry standard for team fan sites. The forums have been a home for Houston sports fans as well as basketball fanatics around the globe.

  • Rockets Content

  • Support ClutchFans!

    If you find that ClutchFans is a valuable resource for you, please consider becoming a Supporting Member. Supporting Members can upload photos and attachments directly to their posts, customize their user title and more. Gold Supporters see zero ads!


    Upgrade Now