November 2, 2006--Political Mugging
No, this is not yet more about John Kerry. He in effect mugged himself. And, anyway, beside its perverted entertainment and distractive value, who cares?
This is about another political ambush, also widely reported about, but under-analyzed; and since it occurred in a race of great political and historical significance, I feel it deserves some more reflective attention. It is the Senate race in Tennessee for the open Bill Frist seat.
The mugging that was perpetrated and covered extensively with outrage and relish was the now famous TV spot that included images of a perhaps-naked woman, maybe even a Playboy Bunny, leeringly asking Democrat candidate Harold Ford, Jr. to call her for you-know-what.
The instant verdict on the part of “right-thinking” people, who in fact were right, was that it was a racist ad, playing on the bias that Harold Ford, who is African American, if elected, would come after your white sister or daughter. It not so subtly said, “You know, those N-words can’t keep their hands and other body parts off our white women.”
But there was a lot more that was claimed in the ad that was either totally untrue and almost equally bigoted. Of course, Ford’s opponent, Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker denied having anything to do with the ad—it was produced and put on the air by the Republican National Committee (which also refused to take responsibility for its creation in a version of double-denial). But when one looks at other things that Corker and his Republican handlers consciously and actively did prior to the release of the “Call-me-Harold” ad, one can get a full appreciation of how Karl Rove’s disciples operate in the dark, evil corners of plausible-deniability electoral warfare.
The ad contained two allegations that are totally untrue. The ad lied when it said that Harold Ford supports gay marriage. It also lied when it asserted that he is in favor of giving Morning-After pills to teenage girls. These assertions are not even close to the truth since Ford is a socially conservative Democrat. He, for example, is on record as very much Right-to-Life.
Hold on to this for a brief moment while I set the context for the first showing of the commercial. A couple of days before its airing there was a full-blown Corker campaign to picture him surrounded by his all-American family—vivacious wife, blonde-haired kids, pets, the whole works.
This was designed to establish, by contrast, the fact that Ford is "single.” Knowing that the public still has in mind the reprehensible behavior of the equally “single” Mark Foley, when the ad in question hit, alleging that Ford is in favor of gay marriage it set off homophobic bells and whistles: “So that explains why he’s single—like Foley, he must be gay!”
But to cover other possibilites, in case he’s not gay and thus spends his nights prowling after white women at Playboy parties, "I now know why he’s in favor of Morning-After pills!”
What a brilliant piece of political jujitsu—turn one of your own weaknesses (Foley) into a forceful attack on your opponent. Right out of the GOP playbook—another blatant example of how they operate in both the political and foreign policy arenas.
Thus I am hoping that Harold Ford, a very promising and talented next-generation politician, will somehow manage to triumph. (See NY Times article linked below.) If you have a few dollars to spend in support of a candidate, I urge you right now to send them along to his campaign via his Website. I’m about to do so.
His election would mean at least four important things—it would demonstrate that these slimy campaign tactics do not always work; a really good person would replace a really bad person in the Senate; if a Democrat were to win in Tennessee it might very well give Democrats control of the Senate (the balance is that close); and for the first time in post-Reconstruction history the South would send a black man to the Senate.
Now that’s what I call a Quinella!
This is about another political ambush, also widely reported about, but under-analyzed; and since it occurred in a race of great political and historical significance, I feel it deserves some more reflective attention. It is the Senate race in Tennessee for the open Bill Frist seat.
The mugging that was perpetrated and covered extensively with outrage and relish was the now famous TV spot that included images of a perhaps-naked woman, maybe even a Playboy Bunny, leeringly asking Democrat candidate Harold Ford, Jr. to call her for you-know-what.
The instant verdict on the part of “right-thinking” people, who in fact were right, was that it was a racist ad, playing on the bias that Harold Ford, who is African American, if elected, would come after your white sister or daughter. It not so subtly said, “You know, those N-words can’t keep their hands and other body parts off our white women.”
But there was a lot more that was claimed in the ad that was either totally untrue and almost equally bigoted. Of course, Ford’s opponent, Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker denied having anything to do with the ad—it was produced and put on the air by the Republican National Committee (which also refused to take responsibility for its creation in a version of double-denial). But when one looks at other things that Corker and his Republican handlers consciously and actively did prior to the release of the “Call-me-Harold” ad, one can get a full appreciation of how Karl Rove’s disciples operate in the dark, evil corners of plausible-deniability electoral warfare.
The ad contained two allegations that are totally untrue. The ad lied when it said that Harold Ford supports gay marriage. It also lied when it asserted that he is in favor of giving Morning-After pills to teenage girls. These assertions are not even close to the truth since Ford is a socially conservative Democrat. He, for example, is on record as very much Right-to-Life.
Hold on to this for a brief moment while I set the context for the first showing of the commercial. A couple of days before its airing there was a full-blown Corker campaign to picture him surrounded by his all-American family—vivacious wife, blonde-haired kids, pets, the whole works.
This was designed to establish, by contrast, the fact that Ford is "single.” Knowing that the public still has in mind the reprehensible behavior of the equally “single” Mark Foley, when the ad in question hit, alleging that Ford is in favor of gay marriage it set off homophobic bells and whistles: “So that explains why he’s single—like Foley, he must be gay!”
But to cover other possibilites, in case he’s not gay and thus spends his nights prowling after white women at Playboy parties, "I now know why he’s in favor of Morning-After pills!”
What a brilliant piece of political jujitsu—turn one of your own weaknesses (Foley) into a forceful attack on your opponent. Right out of the GOP playbook—another blatant example of how they operate in both the political and foreign policy arenas.
Thus I am hoping that Harold Ford, a very promising and talented next-generation politician, will somehow manage to triumph. (See NY Times article linked below.) If you have a few dollars to spend in support of a candidate, I urge you right now to send them along to his campaign via his Website. I’m about to do so.
His election would mean at least four important things—it would demonstrate that these slimy campaign tactics do not always work; a really good person would replace a really bad person in the Senate; if a Democrat were to win in Tennessee it might very well give Democrats control of the Senate (the balance is that close); and for the first time in post-Reconstruction history the South would send a black man to the Senate.
Now that’s what I call a Quinella!
posted by Steven Zwerling at
10:05 AM
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