Democrats Cry Foul Over GOP Ad in Tennessee (charges of race-baiting)

[sabra]

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=315230&Category=23

Democrats Cry Foul Over GOP Ad in Tennessee
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- A new Republican Party television ad featuring a scantily clad white woman winking and inviting a black candidate to “call me” is drawing charges of race-baiting, with critics saying it contradicts landmark GOP statement last year that the party was wrong in past decades to use racial appeals to win support from white voters.

Critics said the ad, which is funded by the Republican National Committee and has aired since Friday, plays on fears of interracial relationships to scare some white voters in rural Tennessee to oppose Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. Ford is locked in a tight race to become the first black senator since Reconstruction to represent a state in the former Confederacy.

“It is a powerful innuendo that plays to pre-existing prejudices about African-American men and white women,” said Hilary Shelton, head of the Washington office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the oldest U.S. civil rights organization.

A former Republican senator, Bill Cohen of Maine, was more blunt. Speaking on CNN, Cohen called the GOP ad “a very serious appeal to a racist sentiment.”

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Meanwhile, Karl just grins and thanks his lucky stars

this disgusting ad is getting free play. Rove is the worst piece of shit to ever hit politics and his stench is going to linger for many years. :(

[JerseygirlCT]

19. Yes, exactly. A win-win for them. Especially because

they could care less about appearing racist. They've all embraced their inner bigot.

[BootinUp]

2. I didn't originally think of it

that way but thats me. I see what they are saying now, despicable! Bastards!

[zreosumgame]

3. gosh, what a shock!

I mean who could have thought the GOPerverts would run something like this!

:spank:

[ps1074]

4. Classical republican tactic

Create the controversy with a false ad that will appeal to the racist bastards, then let the candidate dennounce it. And you'll have it both ways - the public will see hte ad and get the message and the republican candidate will come clean.

Unfortunately racism is alive and doing well in the south...

[William Bloode]

9. Correction,

Racism is alive and well in the whole US. Those of us in the South have no lock on this market. The fact is the South is no more, or no less racist than anywhere else, Southerners just don't hide their racism. It's right out in the open where it belongs, that way you know who they are.

Also a a mention. Where i live it's not Southern folks who build big gated communities that lock those they don't like out. That would be all those great non racist folks from up North. A man from the South will build his big house right next to a trailer, or a black family, hispanic, asian, what have you.

Another small fact. My entire state has a Klan registry of a whopping 2,000 people. Thats right 2,000 Klansmen for a population of around 7 million. Thats a state steeped in racism i tell ya.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Should also demand local media to refuse those type of ads

And boycott the media sponsors as well as call the sponsors to complain, the mayor's office and city/county council people.

Have the media get heat directly from the viewers as well as their sponsors and any others they have to deal with directly.

[davidinalameda]

6. if media outlets don't broadcast this junk

it won't get out on the air

[Rose Siding]

7. Republican Cries Foul Over GOP Ad in Tennessee

Cohen Warns Conservatives Using ‘Purely Overt Racist Approach’ To Attack Rep. Ford
A new right-wing ad targeting African-American Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN), who is running for Senate in Tennessee, features “a scantily clad white woman winking and inviting to ‘call me.’” The woman “speaks in a hushed, suggestive tone and says that she met Ford at ‘the Playboy party.’”

Yesterday on CNN, former Republican senator and Defense Secretary William Cohen called the ad a “very serious appeal to a racist sentiment” and said it reminded him “of what happened in North Carolina with Harvey Gantt, a purely overt racist approach.”.....
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/24/cohen-ford-racism/

[cnlst8]

8. Ford needs to regain momentum quick. 2 polls release today has Ford down,

10/24
TN Corker 49 - Ford 47 Rasmussen
TN Corker 45 - Ford 43 Mason Dixon

Ford recent confrontation misstep and numerous of negative ads by Rep attribute to the result.

[luckyleftyme2]

10. ARE YOU SURPRISED

This administration has bent skirted or broken every law in it's way to reach it's goal.
They done a good job of snowing the christian coalition,the congress and forcing intel. to allow them to go into IRAQ.
But now the public has seen thru them,the lies won't work.The deception this sleazy administration has pulled is now common knowledge.
I have trucker friends that criss cross this country from state to state. they all say the same thing, America wants change,they have no faith in '"bush" or congress!
ITS TIME TO THROW THE BUMS OUT!
VOTE STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC TICKET IN NOVEMBER!
TAKE BACK AMERICA

[greccogirl]

16. I don't think

Ford will pull out TN. But it will be close.

[MattP]

11. Why show the whole 30 second ad

I've seen that ad on T.V. like 10 times in one hour, the full ad. Why would they keep showing the full ad and not just the offensive part.

[JudyM]

12. Interesting interview with Ford on MSNBC just now - he points out

that his opponent is pretty weak if he can't convince the RNC to pull the ad. He also made the great point that it's worth noting that the RNC is having the ad run during family viewing hours. Take that, RNC "values" idiots!

[tnlefty]

13. It's not weakness, it's typical repug bullshit.

Go here: www.hamdems.org for an accurate account of the female RNC staffer who is traveling with Corker on a daily basis. Corker claimed that it would be illegal for him or his campaign to directly contact the RNC about this ad, but he has a staffer traveling around with him. It always sounded like more lies and BS, true repug style.

[JudyM]

14. Everything comes down to spin, not substance, with them. nt

[IndianaGreen]

15. I don't like Harold Ford, particularly since he endorsed Joe Lieberman

but this "ad" is the most foul, racist, and vicious personal attack on a candidate I have ever seen. It makes me feel sympathetic towards Ford.

He should sue the bastards!

I wonder if we will see the same attack on all multiracial candidates, such as Obama if he runs in 2008. This shit has to be nipped in the bud now!

[Lurking Dem]

17. Ford blew an opportunity.

He could have won the election yesterday if he had spoken just one more sentence.

He said in an interview on the news, "I was there. I like football, and I like girls. I don't have … no apologies for that."

If after he said "I like girls" he had said, "instead of teenage boys" he would have sown this thing up. He implied it but he should have flat out said it.

[NashVegas]

18. How Is Cavorting With Playboy Bunnies Going to Hurt a Bachelor Congressman Right Now?

In the current atmosphere, I don't see how that aspect of the ad hurts Ford at all.

[Olney Blue]

20. It also could be interpreted as proof that he isn't gay.

That's bad for the GOP, isn't it?


Idiots.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

23. Ask yourself, why does the white guy talking about guns

in the commercial have burnt cork all over his face?

Many people now alive in the South remember when sex bewteen Blacks and whites was ILLEGAL. There still were anti-miscegenation laws on the books until a 1967 USSC decision on a Virginia case. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia .

IMO, the RNC ads against Fords are a real write-off of the minority vote for the foreseeable future. This will not end two weeks from now.

[sugapablo]

21. scantily clad white woman?

This thread is useless without pics. ;)

[wholetruth00]

22. Republicans cry "foul" with a wink and a nod. They know racism works