Unfortunately I can't give you the video because CBS is making YouTube take down video we post there, claiming copyright infringement, so we're no longer posting CBS's video. I can however quote CBS's Bob Schieffer from this morning's Face the Nation with Ken Mehlman.
CBS'S BOB SCHIEFFER: Why is the Republican National Committee spending its money on an ad down in Tennessee, the purpose of it seems to be to suggest that the Democratic candidate Harold Ford is an African-American?Ok, so Wolf Blitzer actually demands answers from Lynne Cheney. Bob Schieffer doesn't let Ken Mehlman get away with his usual non-responsive BS. What's next, Spock with a goatee?
RNC CHAIRMAN KEN MEHLMAN: The ad that you're talking about is an ad that is being run independently of the Republican National Committee.
SCHIEFFER: Just a minute, let's run the end of the ad, let's hear what it say.
[Woman's voice: "The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising."]
SCHIEFFER: Yes.
MEHLMAN: The way that the law works, unfortunately it's a law that I think ought to be changed, and by the way it's a law on which people on both sides of the campaign reform think ought to be changed, is that if I talk like I do on a regular basis to candidates like Mr. [Republican Senate candidate Bob] Corker then the TV ads that are run beyond a very small limit are run independently of me. This ad is down, I'm please the ad is down, and I'm pleased that the focus of that campaign is now about questions like...
SCHIEFFER: But you paid for it.
MEHLMAN: I've talked to Senator McCain and to Senator McConnell, both of whom have been on different sides of the campaign reform issue. Both agree that a law which says the Republican National Committee pays for the ad, but it's also illegal for the Chairman of the RNC, for the political director of the RNC, or the communications director of the RNC...
SCHIEFFER: But, but Mr. Mehlman, the logic... if I think something is wrong but I take advantage of a law that allows me to take advantage of that, that's pretty lame, if I may say so.
MEHLMAN: My response to that ad is the same response Mr. Ford had from a race perspective. I would not have put the ad up. I did not think that it was necessarily a racist ad, at the same time...
SCHIEFFER: But you approved of it.
MEHLMAN: I did not approve of it.
SCHIEFFER: You said you thought it was "fair." You're on the record saying that.
MEHLMAN: Well I thought some of the issues raised in that ad, the issue of taxes, I think those are fair issues, on the other hand I personally would not have put that ad up.
SCHIEFFER: But what does that say, you talk about "values" and stuff, that you're taking advantage of an ad when you know what it says is wrong and you admit that it ought not to be that way but you're willing to take advantage of it.
