Wal-mart to fire consultant for role in producing ad w/Rove protege!

[fooj]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/10/27/exclusive-walmart-to-fi_n_32610.html

EXCLUSIVE: WAL-MART TO FIRE CONSULTANT FOR HIS ROLE IN PRODUCING AD WITH ROVE PROTÉGÉ...

Hmmm...a consultant to good old maverick McCain! The repubs have become the gift that keeps on giving...

[Vidar]

1. Interesting.

[MADem]

2. Let's all learn a bit more about this asshole

Rove Protégé Behind Racy Tennessee Ad
Controversial RNC Ad Against Harold Ford Jr. Produced By Rove Consultant
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/26/politics/main2125324.shtml


...The ad, in which a white woman with blonde hair and bare shoulders looks into the camera and whispers, "Harold, call me," and then winks, was produced by Scott Howell, the former political director for Rove's consulting firm in Texas.

The RNC ad doesn't mention that "Harold" is black, but the NAACP and others have complained the commercial makes an implicit appeal to deep-seated racial fears...The race between Ford Jr. and Republican Bob Corker is among the most competitive and nasty U.S. Senate races in the nation. But it didn't just happen with a racially-charged ad from Republicans, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts.

The Democrats struck first weeks ago by playing the class card in an add which states that Corker's "personal income grew by 40 percent to $11 million."

Howell is no stranger to controversy. He was media consultant for Sen. Saxby Chambliss when his campaign ran an ad showing a picture of then-Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who lost his legs in the Vietnam War, alongside Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

He also produced an ad for Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn that accused Democrat Brad Carson of being soft on welfare while showing two black hands counting cash. Howell also worked for Republican Jerry Kilgore in last year's Virginia gubernatorial race when Kilgore ran an ad saying that Gov. Tim Kaine wouldn't have used the death penalty against Hitler.

I think this article is incorrect in that the GOP started that "Fancy Ford" bullshit well before Ford's Democratic consultants played the class card, but it is useful as it details a lot of Howell's background.

Gee, how unsurprising, he's a well-fed soft looking toad:



http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/02/insider_interview_scott_howell.html

....A Republican media consultant, Howell has been involved in some of the most high-profile (and nasty) Senate races in recent memory, including Sen. Saxby Chambliss's (R) 2002 defeat of Max Cleland (D) in Georgia and Sen. John Thune's (R) 2004 victory over Minority Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota....A look at Howell's record over the past two election cycles does show a remarkable record of success. In 2002, Howell was the media consultant for Chambliss as well as Sens. Norm Coleman (Minn.) and Jim Talent (Mo.). Two years later, Howell helped elect Thune as well as Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C) and Tom Coburn (Okla.) and appeared to have elected Dino Rossi as governor of Washington -- though a lengthy recount had Rossi coming up a few hundred votes short and Republicans vowing revenge in 2008.

Howell has a roster stacked with top-tier contests again in 2006. He will handle the television strategy for Talent's tough reelection bid against State Auditor Claire McCaskill (D), and he will serve as the media consultant for Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard's (R) challenge to Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D). In Minnesota, Howell will handle Rep. Mark Kennedy's (R) bid for the open Minnesota Senate seat, and down in Florida he is working for state CFO Tom Gallagher (R) gubernatorial campaign....After doing field work for Sen. Bob Dole's (R) 1988 presidential bid, Howell was recruited by Lee Atwater -- a fellow South Carolinian and the leading GOP strategist at the time -- to come to Washington and work at the Republican National Committee.

During his four years at the committee, Howell learned the game from the ground up as one of a handful of young people the RNC was training to be campaign operatives. He worked for the committee all over the country, including a special election in Texas where he met Karl Rove, who was then running a direct-mail firm out of Austin.

In 1992, Howell moved to Texas to work for Rove. "Karl forced you to think better on your feet," Howell said. "He showed me how a political consulting business would run."

By the fall of 1993, Howell had decided to strike out on his own. Scott Howell & Company was formed in Sept. 1993 and based in Alabama. Two years later Howell moved the company to Dallas where it remains. Although Howell said he once contemplated moving the business inside the Beltway, he decided to stay in Texas. "I don't get caught up in the bubble and it helps me," he said....