Tennessee’s Republican Senators Rebuke TNGOP’s Tactics [UPDATED]

By Kleinheider Posted on May 19, 2008 at 2:56 pm

The office of Senator Bob Corker has today echoed the statements of Barack Obama regarding the Tennessee GOP’s attack on Michelle Obama.

When asked how the Senator viewed the Tennessee Republican Party’s dredging up of an old comment regarding Michelle Obama’s pride in our country and Barack Obama’s subsequent response that the TNGOP was “low class” and should “lay off his wife”, Senator Corker’s Chief of Todd Womack responded with the following statement:

“After what the Republican National Committee did to our campaign with their infamous ‘Call Me’ ad - which we immediately denounced - we have strongly encouraged the national party and state parties to absolutely refrain from getting involved in negative personal campaigning, and we have asked the state party to remove their You Tube ad from their Web site. Republicans will be in much better shape if we spend our time focused on issues like reducing federal spending, lowering the cost of health care and creating a coherent energy policy.”

These words are similar to comments made by Senator Corker in the Washington Post laying blame on the RNC’s infamous ad for putting at risk his close 2006 election campaign with Congressman Harold Ford, Jr.

The request by Corker for the state party to refrain from getting involved in this type of negative campaigning also brings to mind, of course, an earlier episode in TNGOP history.

Back in February of this year, Senator Lamar Alexander, Senator John McCain, the RNC and other prominent Republican politicians called into question another TNGOP press release on the Obama family.

The release titled “Anti-Semites for Obama” which, in addition to calling attention to Obama’s alleged “anti-semitic ties”, used Obama’s middle name in an inflammatory manner and displayed a picture of the Senator in Somali tribal wear misidentified as Muslim garb.

“Anti-Semites for Obama” was removed from the TNGOP website only after repeated calls to do so by the state’s senior Senator, Lamar Alexander.

UPDATE: A statement from Senator Lamar Alexander’s spokesman, Lee Pitts:

“There are probably better ways to communicate our pride in America, and we need to focus on those.”

UPDATE II: The Corker statement has been updated with a request for the removal of the YouTube.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Hobbs, Bob Corker, lay off my wife, low class, Michelle Obama, Pride, Todd Womack