Is Ken Mehlman kidding?
A short while ago we got this email from TPM Reader AJ …
I was just watching Tim Russert interview Ken Mehlman about the RNC’s anti-Ford ad running in Tennessee. Russert asked him point blank if he would pull the ad given the outcry over racist overtones. He said it was an independent expenditure, so he wrote a check and that was it. He claimed to have no control over the content and no power to pull it. If that’s really true, why does the legalese at the end of the ad state: “The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertisement. Paid for by the Republican National Committee and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. www.gop.com”? Wouldn’t the legalese imply that Ken Mehlman has the power to pull the ad? If not, then how would anyone ever find out who bears responsibility? Just wondering how this really works.
We had just been trying to confirm Mehlman’s statement with NBC, which we haven’t been able to do yet directly. But The Hotline just did a post which appears to confirm the key line. That is, when Mehlman says, “I don’t have the authority to take it down or put it up. It’s called an independent expenditure.”
The ad, in case you aren’t familiar with it, is a cartoonish spot which might be subtitled, ‘Harold Ford is an uppity negro who does the wild thing with white women.’ You can see it here.
But back to the issue of the ad. The ad is run by the RNC. Ken Mehlman is chairman of the RNC. He doesn’t have the authority to take the ad down? What’s he talking about? What exactly does it mean when the blurb at the end says “The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertisement. Paid for by the Republican National Committee.”
We’ll see if we can get a comment from Mehlman about whatever the heck it is he’s talking about.
