Rove Protégé Behind Racy Tennessee Ad

(CBS/AP)  A protégé of White House political guru Karl Rove produced the controversial Republican National Committee ad targeting Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Harold Ford Jr., that some have called racist, CBS News has learned.

The ad, in which a white woman with blonde hair and bare shoulders looks into the camera and whispers, "Harold, call me," and then winks, was produced by Scott Howell, the former political director for Rove's consulting firm in Texas.

The RNC ad doesn't mention that "Harold" is black, but the NAACP and others have complained the commercial makes an implicit appeal to deep-seated racial fears about black men and white women.

The race between Ford Jr. and Republican Bob Corker is among the most competitive and nasty U.S. Senate races in the nation. But it didn't just happen with a racially-charged ad from Republicans, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts.

The Democrats struck first weeks ago by playing the class card in an add which states that Corker's "personal income grew by 40 percent to $11 million."

Howell is no stranger to controversy. He was media consultant for Sen. Saxby Chambliss when his campaign ran an ad showing a picture of then-Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who lost his legs in the Vietnam War, alongside Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

He also produced an ad for Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn that accused Democrat Brad Carson of being soft on welfare while showing two black hands counting cash.

Howell also worked for Republican Jerry Kilgore in last year's Virginia gubernatorial race when Kilgore ran an ad saying that Gov. Tim Kaine wouldn't have used the death penalty against Hitler.

Race was always an element of the Tennessee contest as Ford seeks to become the first black man elected to the Senate from the South since Reconstruction. The issue slammed into the public consciousness this week with the latest ad.

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Watch RNC political ad attacking Harold Ford Jr.

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"I've not met any observer who didn't immediately say, 'Oh my gosh!' It was a race card," said Vanderbilt University professor John Geer, an expert on political attack ads.

The goal of the ad is to persuade people who don't like Ford — and who might have been thinking about sitting at home this election — to vote, reports CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger.

The RNC has taken the ad off the air after a five-day run. However it was still appearing on at least one TV station in Chattanooga — WRCB-TV — as of Wednesday. The station was still airing the ad because it did not want to run the GOP's replacement commercial. The new ad says Ford "voted to recognize gay marriage" and "wants to give the abortion pill to our schoolchildren," reports the Nashville Tennessean.

Hilary Shelton, director of Washington bureau of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the ad plays off fears some people still have about interracial couples.

"In a Southern state like Tennessee, some stereotypes still exist," he said. "There's very clearly some racial subtext in an ad like that."

The RNC, which paid for the ad, denied that it had any racial subtext. Party chairman Ken Mehlman said it was produced by an independent organization, in accordance with campaign finance law, "without the knowledge, the participation, the advice, the approval or the involvement of either the national party or the campaign."

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[roach9703]

The Republicans are destroying themselves with this kind of behavior in Tennessee. What they should be taking about is the different approaches each candidate takes to government. Yes, it seems to me that the race and *** card are being dealt in Tennessee, and this strategy may prove decisive in Ford's favor.
The Republican candidate seems tired, while Ford looks fresh, very well informed, verbally adroit,clean cut and seemingly ready to take America in a new direction,... well like Obama.

[roach9703]

The Republicans are destroying themselves with this kind of behavior in Tennessee. What they should be taking about is the different approaches each candidate takes to government. Yes, it seems to me that the race and *** card are being dealt in Tennessee, and this strategy may prove decisive in Ford's favor.
The Republican candidate seems tired, while Ford looks fresh, very well informed, verbally adroit,clean cut and seemingly ready to take America in a new direction,... well like Obama.

[roach9703]

The Republicans are destroying themselves with this kind of behavior in Tennessee. What they should be taking about is the different approaches each candidate takes to government. Yes, it seems to me that the race and *** card are being dealt in Tennessee, and this strategy may prove decisive in Ford's favor.
The Republican candidate seems tired, while Ford looks fresh, very well informed, verbally adroit,clean cut and seemingly ready to take America in a new direction,... well like Obama.

[mh4cbs1]

Hey Katie!

Why do you ONLY call it 'Class War' when hard working average citizens simply point out how unfair the Bush "tax cuts for the rich" have been? Or complain that they are sick and tired of being hammered by the Bush administration?

Why won't you call it "Class War" when Bush tries to destroy Social Security? When corporations send thousands of good jobs overseas? Why is it not 'Class War' when the minimum wage is around $5/hr for the last twenty years? Or when some Bush Billionares scheme to dismantle the inheritance tax (once advocated FOR by the likes of Andrew Carnegie)?

Why isn't it called 'Class War' when the super wealthy pay only about HALF the tax rate on their millions in investment income than I pay on my middle class wages?

Why is it only called 'Class War' if someone mentions the truth about whats going down on us?

Huh Katie? Huh?

[sassymaxx]

I CAN'T TAKE YOUR POP QUIZ BECAUSE
WHILE I THINK THE DEMOCRATS CAN WIN
THE GOP WILL STEAL THE ELECTION AGAIN. THEY HAVE A LOT OF TRICKS UP THEIR SLEEVES.
PLEASE HAVE MARK CRISPIN MILLER ("FOOLED AGAIN: HOW THE RIGHT STOLE THE 2004 ELECTION AND WHY THEY'LL STEAL THE NEXT ONE TOO") ON AGAIN, AND AGAIN IF YOU COULD, WE NEED TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY.

[CountBezukhov]

Okay, I see why there are so many multiple postings of the same message here; no doubt I've done the same, now. When one hits the "Publish" button, nothing happens, at least on the browser I'm using. I'm betting, though, that somewhere in internet ether all those attempts are stacked up, waiting to appear simultaneously. Sorry about that.

Yours truly,

John Mayer

[CountBezukhov]

Well, I, for one, didn't think of he ad as racist; I thought the Repubs were casting Ford as an immoral playboy, which probably would be the more damning portrayal in Bible-thumping Tennessee. Quite possibly Howell actually did MEAN to arouse Southern racism, but, if so, the stereoptypes Ms. Shelton speaks of were those applied to the WHITE Tennessean. I don't think the average Tennessean regards Ford's race as important in any way but as a historical milestone; after all, he's already done better than white native son Al Gore did here six years ago. Even if there is more racism here than I recognize I still can't see it being a factor. Ford himself has complained that adversaries have had to darken his image to make him appear more black; as far as pigment goes he's black in name only. Unfortunately, he's also a Democrat in name only.

I'm not voting for the Black guy OR the White guy this year. I'm voting for the Green guy.

John Mayer

[CountBezukhov]

Well, I, for one, didn't think of the ad as racist; I thought the Repubs were casting Ford as an immoral playboy lacking in family values, which probably would be the more damning portrayal in Bible-thumping Tennessee. Quite possibly Howell actually did MEAN to arouse Southern racism, but, if so, the stereoptypes Ms. Shelton speaks of were those applied to the WHITE Tennessean. I don't think the average Tennessean regards Ford's race as important in any way but as a historical milestone; after all, he's already done better than white native son Al Gore did here six years ago. Even if there is more racism here than I recognize I still can't see it being a factor in this race. Ford himself has complained that adversaries have had to darken his image to make him appear more black; as far as pigment goes he's black in name only. Unfortunately, he's also a Democrat in name only.

I'm not voting for the Black guy OR the White guy this year. I'm voting for the Green guy.

John Mayer

[bluestardad]

Guys you can feel it in the air there is an awakening of the American Electorate and we are the sleeping giant our oppressors have feared all this time. We need to make sure that we take someone to the poles on Election Day. Americans will vote against this administration in so great of numbers that Carl Rove%u2019s election stealing programmers cannot up date the election theft code fast enough to stop the landslide victory.

[TennMom1]

Pardon my indelicate language, but what in the hell is the "class card", other than a catchy phrase that reporter Byron Pitts invented to justify the Republcans' attacks on Ford? Pitts throws out a misleading tidbit, alleging, "The Democrats struck first weeks ago by playing the class card in an add (sic) which states that Corker's "personal income grew by 40 percent to $11 million."

Perhaps investigative reporting is not Mr. Pitts forte. If it were, he would have discovered that the "first strike" by the Ford campaign had nothing at all to do with class warfare. It did have everything to do with the fact that Mr. Corker's great wealth was amassed during his tenure as Chattanooga's mayor, and the fact that he used his office and influence for his own financial gain.

That is not "playing the class card", it is telling the truth. CBS could use some unbiased reporters who know the difference.