well with Libba Dole's makeup and demeanor she seems sorta like a painted lady, so maybe the fact she is responsible for this site sorta makes sense.  Those Republicans sure feel threatened by Mr. Ford, that's for sure.  Makes me wish I lived in Tennessee so I could vote for Mr. Ford.

George Washington Hayduke

It only lacked references to Rhythm and Tap Dancing to be the perfect piece for the closet bigots.

BTW, does anyone think that Liddy Dole only wears "Good Republican cloth coats?"

Honestly, if the liberal blogs weren't telling me, I wouldn't know Ford was black from the pictures on that page. The language seems more to be implying that he's gay... "fancy," "fabulous" and pampered, buying flowers.

—s9

I love the "Dining like Ford" section, where they assault him for eating at the Capital Grille.  I just wish they'd come out and say directly "we don't like people like him eating at our restaurants."  Actually, I'm surprised they didn't mention Ford had the gall to actually use the main entrance, and not enter through the back door like I'm sure they think he's supposed to.

Whatever -- the next time I see Dole at a McDonald's I'll be sure to praise her for being a woman of the people.  Of course, she'll probably be following the RNC's call and will have a few uniformed Marines by her side.

Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. A foomie can't get fooled again. -Our Illustrious Leader

See Atrios' post on this.  Webster's online definition of "fancy man" is

woman's paramour  see also: pimp

With the exception of the extremely pimpish purple "Party" page, I have to agree with Neil and AlAug in that it's more of an effort to make the congressman look elitist and out of touch with us "normal folk." It worked so well against John Kerry that they're still using it against the former presidential nominee. Just last month they blasted him for issuing statements from abroad where he was enjoying his time in a high class jet-set resort in Switzerland. Of course, they never mentioned that he was there attending the World Economic Forum (along with just about every wealthy Republican donor there is). No, I think one of the foremost themes we'll see in this year's Republican campaigns will be the "Democrats are elitist snobs while Republicans are down-home folk like you and me" meme. The anti-Ford site is just the opening salvo.

I'm sure the "excess on display" could easily be replicated by any member of the Republican party.  They are trying to smear Democrats in the awful stink they are wallowing in, and are stooping to amazingly low levels to try to do it.

Maybe its because I live in San Francisco, but I found this site hilarious.  "Fancy"  like look at me I'm a fancy boy!!!

The whole thing looks like a very amateurish attempt to imply that Ford is an effiminate, if not gay, black man living large on the backs of the taxpayer.

I don't see how this joke of a site can be effective.  It will probably backfire.

"If being fancy means you don't need a pill to get it up, then call me fancy."-Harold Ford

Probably won't win the Senate race anyway and ads won't hurt what he already  has.

Let me guess: this anti-Ford backlash is a direct result of his support for impeachment, right?

That could be. But I think this is a backlash from Ford's lastest ads attacking the GOP on national security with the Dubai Port Deal....

Maybe it's not a racist site.  Maybe it is merely a coincidence that the "party like ford" page references, in order, DJ Biz Markie (black), Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (black), Rep. Al Green (black), State Sen. Rodney Ellis (black), and Bill Clinton (sort of black) partying before the NBA All-Star Game (black-est sport.)  Then we get the Playboy Bunnies (white women) and lists of fancy pimp shit that could come straight out of a G-Unit video. 

Taken at face value, it's not racist.  But those who hold a single racist bone in their bodies are obviously going to pick up on this. And that's clearly the point of the site, since it doesn't even imply that Ford is corrupt anywhere.

And Republicans are shocked, shocked that Blacks won't vote for them.

 

It seems like maybe we're doing some projection here....I could be wrong, maybe the site does have a subliminal effect I'm missing, but I don't find the site racist.

Let's say Ford was a republican and you wanted to make the same point. How would you go about it without being accused of being racist?

 And if the allegations are out of the ordinary for someone in his position, we should be the first in line to ask for an explanation. The kneejerk defense of democrats is completely understandable given the lengths the opposition goes to. But we can't let that D next to politician's names transform us into whipped Republican-type dogs.

well with Libba Dole's makeup and demeanor she seems sorta like a painted lady, so maybe the fact she is responsible for this site

How so?  How is Libby the one responsible?

It's interesting that they are doing this as Ford is getting his clock cleaned according to the polls:

 http://rasmussenreports.com/2006/State%20Polls/February%202006/Tennessee%20Senate%20February.htm

Head to head he trails all three of the Republicans that are entered in the primary.

All these posts and comments show is that Atrios and Josh and most people here don't know anything about the Ford family, Memphis, or Tennesse politics.

The intent of the site isn't to show Ford as a "pimp" - it's to link him to the political corruption of the other members of his family. To people in Tennesse who know, the question isn't that Ford is "uppity" - it's where does all the money come from.  Is it dirty money like one uncle was convicted of taking and another is under indictment for taking.  His father was in and out of court for years for taking bribes from the Butcher brothers (also Democratic operatives) who were bank owners wanting help during the S&L scandals.  The Butchers went to jail but somehow Harold Sr. got off. 

South Memphis has been a political machine run by the Ford family since the mid 70s.  There are a number of seats in the city council, county court, and state legislature as well as the House seat that are Ford "family" seats that are passed around to family members.  One uncle had to resign a city council seat after an insurance fraud conviction years ago.  His uncle John resigned his seat in the state senate after a bribery and extortion indictment last year:

 http://www.newschannel5.com/content/capitol_hill_corruption/

His aunt Ophelia ran in the special election last fall to replace John's seat and won by 13 votes.  There were so many irregularities - it was proven there were two dead voters, voters were registered to vacant lot addresses, multiple registration forms were filled out and signed in identical handwriting, etc - that the senate refused to seat her.  The election has been voided and will be reheld.

  http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=4375226

People watching TV news in Tennesse have been seeing this stuff from his family for years.  This isn't about "uppitiness, it's to make people ask where the money for all this comes from.  Is it dirty money like other members of his family took?

Speaking of Libby Dole, has everyone seen this? http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/03/elizabeth-d
ole-sends-out-gop.html

"ads won't hurt what he already  has" -- yes they will, by increasing turnout in heavily racist eastern Tennessee.

Everyone who is skeptical of the racist tone of this site, with all due respect, you must not have spent much time in Chattanooga, Knoxville, or generally anywhere east of Nashville. Check out the opinion page of the Chatt Times Free Press at http://www.timesfreepress.com. The paper has two editorial pages, to represent its two merged papers -- on the left are the conservative editorials, on the right are the extreme John-Birchesque pseudo-fascist right wing screeds. That's the political spectrum in E TN, at least among most whites.

The concepts of an "uppity black man" and a "pimp" are going to be fully clear to the target demographic of voters, and no rebuttal or logical fallacy in the argument will matter. This is aimed at motivating them to vote.

El Campesino, regardless of all that about the Ford family, a racist attack is a racist attack. There is no defending it, even if we don't like Ford himself or his political pedigree.

El Campesino, regardless of all that about the Ford family, a racist attack is a racist attack. There is no defending it, even if we don't like Ford himself or his political pedigree.

I'm not defending it - I just want to point out that there is a lot going on here that Atrios and Josh Marshall are clueless about.  I can see that a racist person could look at the thing and make a racist conclusion.  If you ran the same ad and put Tom DeLay's picture and name on it would it be racist?

I grew up in Memphis and understand that this is intended to work on many levels.  One of Harold Sr.'s indicted co-conspiriters was in my Boy Scout troop.  He was white by the way, as are the Butchers.   

As poorly as Harold is doing in this race, it's obvious that the Republicans have decided to go cheap with a website rather than paying for media advertising.  Josh and Duncan have done them a favor spreading it around like this.

The main impact is that it is an attempt to fight back at, to counteract, the sort of work people like you, Josh Marshall, are doing, continuually and effectively painting an image of this Republican Congress as perhaps one of the most corrupt.

Upon looking at the site, I immediately thought of many of your K Street/Abramoff/ Cunningham stories, especially those that show interest in pushing the "living large" and arrogance meme in and of itself.

It's very easy to turn such things around and apply them to the other side, to play the "all politicians are crooks and liars" tune that much of the public buys. And as the Democratic party likes to present themselves sometimes as the party of "the people" or "the little guy," and the GOP does not try so hard or at least not very often to even play that tune, but rather, often laud wealth and success, guess who looks more hypocritical if they can be made to look to equally partake?

Very good catch.  I had been wondering when the Ford family history would start to go national.  There's just too much there that fits with old stereotypes.  The dead voters in Ophelia's voided election and John's 2 or 3 families with different wives and girlfriends.  The "Tennessee Waltz" indicted another six Democratic legislators besides John.   

     I just sent a note about this to the folks at TPMmuckraker.com, but I figured I should at least mention it here.
    After seeing the image of the Playboy bunnies on fancyford.com, I began to think to myself that perhaps these people did not have permission to use that image. If this were the case, I thought they might have obtained it using some service like Google Images.
    Sure enough, a Google search turned up an identical image, located on some DJ's website called http://www.dj-diamond.com/ . (Photo at this address: http://www.dj-diamond.com/03/image29.html) The reproduction policy of the site is straightforward, and it clearly states that all material on the site is copyrighted.
    I sent an email to the dj-diamond.com people, asking if they'd given permission. And wouldn't you know it, they hadn't:

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I have not given these people the right to use this photo. I do not know who they are, how did you find this?  Diamond

Well, whatever. If the people of Tennessee are really that racist, Ford's not going to win anyway. But at least they'll be exposed and their reputation trashed with the rest of the country.