• New York Times via Philadelphia Inquirer, Thursday, October 26, 2006 12:01 PM

A furor over a Republican-financed television commercial in the race for a U.S. Senate seat from Tennessee has led to the ad being pulled. Financed by the Republican National Committee, the spot--widely decried as racist--was aimed at Rep. Harold Ford Jr., a black Democrat whose campaign has kept Republicans on the defensive.

It first aired last week, and featured a series of people in mock man-on-the-street interviews talking sarcastically about Ford and his stands on issues. But the real problem was one of the people featured: a blonde white woman who says she met Ford at a "Playboy party," and ends by looking into the camera and saying, with a wink, "Harold, call me."

Even the campaign of Ford's Republican opponent, Bob Corker, denounced the ad, saying it was "tacky, over the top, and is not reflective of the kind of campaign we are running." RNC spokesman Danny Diaz defends the accuracy of the ad and rejects any racial intent. But because the ad was created by an outside group that contracts with the RNC, neither the RNC or Corker's campaign saw it in advance.

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