Oct. 24, 2006
 
Tennessee Senate Race Heats Up
 
By Bartholomew Sullivan
Scripps Howard News Service
 
Washington (SHNS) -- In an unscripted, unscheduled exchange in an intense campaign for the U.S. Senate, Tennessee Democrat Harold Ford Jr. confronted Republican Bob Corker on a Memphis parking lot where Corker had scheduled a press conference on lobbying reform and ethics.
 
"It's good to see you," Ford shouted as Corker approached him outside the Wilson Air Center offices, a tape of the encounter provided by WREG-TV shows. "I'd love to debate you on this Iraq thing."
 
Corker declined the invitation to debate. "I came to talk about ethics and I have a press conference," Corker says. "And I think it's a true sign of desperation that you would pull your bus up when I'm having a press conference."
 
The exchange occurred last Friday and since then, Republicans have been calling it the "Memphis meltdown," and running ads saying it shows Ford has "crossed the line" and become desperate.
 
Democrats, meanwhile, say that the confrontation energized an electorate that's already in a fighting mood.
 
It's being spun across the country on national broadcasts, along with clips of an ad against Ford paid for by the Republican National Committee that Corker's campaign manager has called "tacky," and has asked to have pulled. In an increasing rancorous campaign, Ford suggested on CNN Sunday that Corker is getting help from an RNC staffer who rides with him to campaign events, and an RNC spokesman countered that the charge is "irrelevant."
 
In the midst of the media firestorm, Ford will appear, alone, on the cover of next week's Newsweek.
 
For some, the confrontation showed Ford's willingness to take risks in pointing out that Corker, former mayor of Chattanooga, has only agreed to three televised debates, two of which already have occurred. But it also might have backfired.
 
"I know that if I were running the campaign, I certainly wouldn't have advised him to do that and probably would have discouraged him very strongly," said University of Tennessee-Knoxville political science professor Michael Gant. "I don't think it was a good move strategically."
 
Gant added that it won't be clear until the next round of polling, but he said "it wouldn't surprise me if he takes a hit."
 
Conversely, Rhodes College political science professor Marcus Pohlmann in Memphis said the move was "inspired." Ford is doing "the mirror opposite" of what John Kerry failed to do with George Bush over the Swift Boat ads attacking his service in Vietnam in the 2004 presidential campaign, Pohlmann said.
 
"Confronting (Corker) with this is kind of grandstanding, for sure, but it attracts the kind of attention and gives him the opportunity to counter it in front of a larger audience, and I think it was inspired, " Pohlmann said.
 
The Republican National Senatorial Committee reproduced 12 commentaries or news stories on the dustup Monday under the headline "Fallout from the Memphis Meltdown."
 
Tennessee Democratic Party chairman Bob Tuke said he's hearing from Democrats and independents that Ford made a smart move.
 
"Not surprisingly, the reaction from Democrats has been uniformly positive and the reason is that people are really ... sick and tired of the disgusting ads the RNC and that Corker's been running," said Tuke. "People are in a fighting mood and, because of that, Democrats and people who are leaning Ford's way were really energized and pleased to see it."
 
Corker's campaign again called attention Monday to an RNC-sponsored ad that refers to Ford's attendance at a Playboy party and to campaign contributions Ford received from Southern California pornographers _ by way of asking, again, that it be pulled. An RNC spokesman has said the party has no reason to drop the ad. Ford has never addressed whether he attended a Playboy event at the 2005 Super Bowl. He returned the tainted campaign donations when he learned of them.
 
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