Nelson's hire is clearly a huge get, but will not come without controversy. Nelson made political headlines in the 2006 cycle as the strategist tapped to head up the RNC's independent expenditure which was responsible for that extremely controversial ad in Tennessee against Harold Ford, Jr. featuring a young blonde actress portraying a woman who met Ford at a Playboy party and who suggestively asks him to call her at the end of the ad. (It caused enough heartache for one of Nelson's other clients, Working Families for Wal-Mart, that they sought and received his resignation after the episode.) Nelson was also tied up in the recently settled New Hampshire phone jamming case and in Tom DeLay's TRMPAC troubles from his days at the RNC.
The left-leaning blogs will certainly jump on this with gusto.
A September 2006 posting by MyDD's Matt Stoller tells you what to expect from the opposition regarding Nelson, as Stoller pushes the ludicrous complaint that the anti-Ford ad was racist. Lefty blog DailyKos.com went further, implying that Wal-Mart, a Nelson client, was linked to the ad via Nelson and, therefore, racist.
DailyKos: Wal-Mart's African-American and other customers should know the type of people who profit from their consumer dollars.
Of course, Wal-Mart had nothing to do with the "Call Me" ad, and the ad wasn't racist, though it clearly was effective in re-casting Ford's image in Tennessee and likely contributed to his narrow loss in the U.S. Senate race to Republican Bob Corker.
An Associated Press article notes that Nelson's political work for Republican candidates "is separate from his company, Crosslink Strategy Group," which had a contract with Wal-Mart and with the Wal-Mart-affiliated group Working Families for Wal-Mart, which is part of a broad Wal-Mart effort to combat a labor/Left attack on the company over its wages, health insurance benefits, sourcing of products from China and other issues such as the company's impact on small businesses and the environment.
But his work for Wal-Mart - which included creation of a voter registration program for Wal-Mart employees – came under fire from labor unions and liberal special interest groups and from the union-funded WakeUpWalmart.com for its use of a white woman to portray the Playboy Bunny trying to entice Ford, who is black.
A variety of Ford supporters called the ad racist, and Jesse Jackson and WakeUpWalmart.com called on Wal-Mart to fire Nelson to show it does not tolerate racism.
While Wal-Mart initially said it was "absurd" to connect the company to the ad, the company later asked Nelson to end his ties with the retailer, according to Nelson. "It's unfortunate that this pressure has had an impact on Wal-Mart," Nelson was reported to have said.
Wal-Mart severed its ties with Nelson so as not to be caught in the crossfire of a heated political campaign, and you can't blame them for that. But Nelson's reputation is that of a winner - that's why McCain called him.
Tennessee political commentator A.C. Kleinheider says McCain's hiring of Nelson "proves he is committed to making moves that can win him the Republican nomination rather than simply win farvor with the media."
Still, you can expect the controversy over the "Call me" ad to resurface in '08.
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