And the winner of our Front Page Promotion is … YOU, Knoxville Progressive. As near as I can tell you got the most votes. At least the way I counted. Congratulations!
Yeah, yeah, I know, I haven’t posted a diary in a looong time… I thought you might want some recent random details from the Ford – Corker campaign that you might have missed:
Ford Crashes Republican Party, Corker Donates Cash To Himself, and RNC Ad Alienates Canada
(details below the fold…)
Ford Crashes Republican Party
(No, this “Crashing Republican Party” doesn’t refer to his unfortunate comment about the NJ court case on gay marriage…)
Following up on an incident last week where Ford challenged Corker to a debate on Iraq in a Memphis parking lot where Corker was to have a press conference, Ford “took the battle over there, so he wouldn’t have to fight him here” by campaigning at the annual community barbeque event held in Knoxville by Republican congressman John Duncan Jr. Duncan said through an aide that the event was open to the public and he didn’t have a problem with the appearance, but other Republicans were not so sanguine:
[TN Republican chairman Bob] Davis said the Memphis confrontation showed Ford’s “lack of maturity.” By appearing this week at Duncan’s barbecue, Ford showed that his campaign “is struggling and he is desperate for attention,” Davis said. He said he heard that a number of people at Duncan’s barbecue were “hacked off that he was there.”
[snip]
…the Duncan barbecue, which includes live music and a receiving line for attendees to talk to Duncan, mostly attracts Republicans but also some Democrats.
For example, Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen was there, as he was four years earlier. U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, a Democrat, and state Rep. Joe Armstrong of Knoxville, a Democrat, also were there.
Did anyone complain about Democrat Bredesen being there? Davis was asked.
“I really don’t know,” Davis said.
Corker Donates Cash to Himself
I guess if the little people won’t fund your campaign…
Bob Corker put another $650,000 of his own money into his U.S. Senate campaign Thursday in a strategic move that apparently assures he can outspend Harold Ford Jr. in the last days of the most expensive race in Tennessee history.
New financial disclosures filed by Republican Corker and Democrat Ford on Thursday show that total spending in the ongoing campaign has reached $38.7 million, including expenditures by outside groups trying to influence the election and candidates who lost in the primary.
[snip]
That is below the threshold of $665,760 in self-financing that would trigger the so-called “millionaire’s amendment” under a formula incorporated into federal campaign laws.
Had Corker surpassed that amount, Ford’s campaign would have been authorized to go back to contributors who had already given the normal maximum to his campaign and accept still more money.
Corker also gave $2.1 million in personal funds to his campaign during the primary, but that does not count toward triggering the “millionaire’s amendment” during the general election.
Ford reported about $1.3 million in new campaign receipts during the latest reporting period, including a $50,000 contribution in personal funds.
Ford has reported his net worth at about $150,000. Corker has not disclosed a specific net worth figure, but an analysis of available information by The Commercial Appeal of Memphis pegged it at $35 million. Ford campaign officials have suggested as much as $250 million.
Ford reported $356,175 cash on hand as of Oct. 18. Corker had $973,171. Both candidates reported spending about $1.7 million in the period this month. [full story here]
Canadian Ambassador Files Protest Over RNC Ad
The recent controversial RNC ad for Corker (the one that no one was authorized to remove from the airwaves; the ad with the blond asking Harold Ford to “call me sometime”) featured a gratuitous slam against Canada:
The ad features comments from various “average people in the street,” one of whom says: “Canada can take care of North Korea. They’re not busy.”
This throwaway line was not lost on a certain Canadian blogger, well-known in these parts, who appropriately observed:
“Right, it’s not like we don’t have Canadians fucking dying in Afghanistan or anything.”
Apparently this taste of American political slime didn’t go over well north of the border:
One Liberal MP mocked the Tories’ campaign slogan from the last election: Stand up for Canada.
“Is this what Canadians should be expecting as the outcome of cozying up to Mr. Bush by the Prime Minister and his Conservatives?” Liberal MP Omar Alghabra asked.
“I have a question for the Prime Minister. Will he call his mentor, President Bush, and demand this insulting ad be pulled from the airwaves immediately, and stand up for Canada, but for real this time?”
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter McKay at first refused to denounce the ad in parliament:
Mr Speaker, I would suggest that the country has been greatly benefited by improved relations with the United States as well as other countries when it came to important and contentious trade [unintelligible] and other issues and I would ask the honourable member to perhaps cast his mind back to some of the attack ads that were run during the last election campaign by his party directed at people here in his own country before making these dispersions.
But now we learn the Canadian Ambassador has filed a formal complaint:
Canada’s ambassador to Washington registered his displeasure over a Senate election ad from Tennessee that implies Canada doesn’t pull its weight in international matters.
Michael Wilson expressed Canada’s concerns in a phone call yesterday to a White House official, a Canadian government source said.
The Republican National Committee said yesterday that it would phase out the television ad — but it’s unclear whether the move came before or after Mr. Wilson phoned.
Which raises the intriguing question – Who does W and Karl have more disdain for: Democrats or Canadians?