Thursday, October 26, 2006

The GOP's Playboy bunny

Earlier this week, I wrote about a particularly underhanded attack ad aimed at Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Jr., a Democrat. The TV spot, shown in a YouTube video in my earlier post, featured mock interview sound bites from imagined voters who supported Ford on ridiculous, anti-conservative grounds. (I thought one of the interviews had an unintentionally comic effect. A guy in camouflage face paint says, "Ford's right. I do have too many guns." As if that were an outrageous position to take.)

Now the New York Times has picked up the story of the ad on the front page (thank you very much), adopting a slightly different angle. The article quotes a couple of critics who see a racial slant to the commercial, which features a bare-shouldered blonde saying she met Ford, who is black, at a Playboy party, and adding, "Harold, call me."

I can't say I even thought of the racial subtext, but the Times piece has an interesting if elliptical passage about who is behind the ad:

The spot was paid for by the Republican National Committee but was produced by an independent expenditure group that is supposed to have an arm’s length relationship with the actual campaigns. As a result, Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said he did not see the spot before it was broadcast and did not have the power to order it removed.

Seems strange that the RNC pays for the ad but can't have it pulled. Also, it's hard to see why the arm's length relationship with the campaign means the RNC can't intervene. Perhaps it's just a symptom of the byzantine rules of campaign finance, which McCain-Feingold unfortunately never laid to rest.

Posted by Evan Hughes at 01:41 PM

Print | E-mail to a friend | Permalink | Subscribe via rss