The Man Behind Those Controversial Ads

The Nation: If It's Manipulative, Misleading And Exploitative, Republican Operative Scott Howell Probably Created It

(The Nation) 
In the 2002 mid-term elections, when the Democrats held the balance of power in the Senate by one member, Howell was instrumental in shifting it to the Republicans. His decisive moment came in the Georgia senatorial race when he crafted a commercial for the draft-dodging Republican candidate Saxby Chambliss against Senator Max Cleland, a decorated war hero who lost three limbs in Vietnam. Howell simply and crudely morphed Cleland's image with those of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Cleland was defeated and Republican control over both houses of the Congress was complete.

Two years later Howell's spots contributed to the defeat of Senate minority leader Tom Daschle and Oklahoma Democratic senatorial candidate Brad Carson. Howell's ads on behalf of Daschle's opponent, John Thune, highlighted Thune's opposition to gay marriage. "Tom Daschle refuses to protect traditional marriage," said the voiceover. "He would let liberal activist judges redefine it. Most South Dakotans believe marriage should be between a man and a woman, and every child should have the chance to have a father and a mother. We're not interested in depriving anyone of any rights, but let's not allow liberal judges from Massachusetts to redefine marriage for us."

To undermine Carson, a youthful moderate Congressman, Rhodes scholar and former White House Fellow, with enormous political potential, Howell created an image of welfare checks being passed to anonymous brown hands. (The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee paid for the ad.) "Is this going to be another century of discrimination?" protested the leader of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Oklahoma City. Carson lost to far-right Republican Tom Coburn.

At the same time, Rove recruited Howell to help set the stage for President George W. Bush's re-election victory with the ad called "Safer, Stronger," which appropriated the iconic image of firefighters emerging from the wreckage of Ground Zero with a flag-draped body, a production that used actors and was condemned as phony by the president of the International Association of Firefighters.

Although Howell's ads fell flat in 2005 in Virginia, failing to prevent Kaine's comeback victory over Republican former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, Howell's reputation was burnished within Republican circles. He is more in demand than ever during the 2006 mid-term Congressional campaign.

In Tennessee, as heavily favored Republican senatorial candidate Bob Corker trailed the charismatic Ford late in his campaign, a desperate Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman dialed up his party's crack character assassin. Howell responded with perhaps his most controversial spot yet, a sarcastically-toned series of montages depicting mock Ford supporters as alternately stupid and sleazy while they explain why they're voting for the candidate to become the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction.

The ad begins with a black woman declaring, "Harold Ford looks nice. Isn't that enough?" (Blacks base their votes on the color of a candidate's skin, and not the content of his character, this scene seemed to suggest.) A procession of comical characters follows, from a seedy-looking man dismissing claims that Ford "took money from porn producers" to a camouflaged hunter stating, "Ford's right. I do have too many guns." The ad concludes with its most caustic scene, as a bare-shouldered blonde slattern announces that she met Ford at a "Playboy party." After a script reading, "Harold Ford, he's just not right," flashes onscreen, whispers her notorious line: "Harold, call me."

Initially, the fallout from Howell's ad seemed to put Corker on the defensive. While Mehlman defended the spot as "fair," a Corker campaign spokesman called it "over the top, tacky and not reflective of the kind of campaign we are running." Corker has nonetheless pointed out in a debate--without clarifying--that he and Ford "have different backgrounds." And after calling for stations to yank Howell's ad, Corker's campaign began running a radio spot that featured "jungle drums" underscoring each time Ford's name is mentioned. Coincidence?

Though the effect of Howell's ad is still difficult to gauge in a region where politicians have long exploited fears of black sexual predation of white women, it undoubtedly produced deep resonance. "He's [Corker's] having a hard time with his base, and this is the kind of ad the Republicans believe appeals to their base," veteran Democratic consultant Jim Jordan told the New York Times.

Thanks to Howell, a campaign that could determine control of the Senate for the next two years will now pivot on white sexual fears of an African-American male. Howell is comfortable conceding that his ads are emotionally manipulative and short on facts. As for stoking racial bigotry to advance his clients' political ambitions, he could care less. As he explained to me during the 2005 Virginia governor's race, all's fair in war.

"I'm not nearly as callous as they try to make me," Howell said. "You know how it is: They hate me because we beat 'em. I guess you could say it's a badge of honor in my business."