It's been widely reported that Republicans have just about given up hope of keeping senatorial seats in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Montana. Bob Menendez seems to have opened up a small lead over young Keane in New Jersey; if it holds the Democrats should not lose a single seat in the Senate this year--a remarkable achievement for any party in any election year. (Or, perhaps, a remarkable failure by the GOP.)
To keep control of the Senate, Republicans have been thrown back upon their Bavarian Redoubt: Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri. Lose two of those seats and Democrats control the Upper House (as long as Joe Lieberman keeps his promise to caucus with them).
The Republican National Committee has started running a new ad in Tennessee, targeting Harold Ford. It features a series of comments from fake men-in-the-street types, and from a woman one of my friends described as a trailer-park bimbo. Take a look at the ad here.
The ad is pretty standard low-humor negative advertising, distorting Ford's record on things like gun control. But, as Josh Marshall perceptively catches, the real point of the ad race, and it's raised by that bimbo. While the other actors talk about issues, she simpers, "I met Harold [Ford] at the Playboy Club." Now, in case you didn't know, Ford is African-American. If he's elected, he'll be the first black senator from the old Confederacy since reconstruction. This ad is directed at his race, and at ancient fears of black men having sex with white women. It's semi-subtle, but it's there.
A new low, even for this political season.
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