Perhaps I am out of touch, but the following anti-Harold Ford website, sponsored by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Fancy Ford, comes across to me as an attempt to paint Ford as an out-of-touch, wealthy partier. (In fact, the very first thing that “Fancy Ford” brought to mind was “Fancy Feast” cat food).

However, many seem to see it as a racist attempt to paint Ford as a pimp (see: Jesse Berney, Joshua Micah Marshall, MyDD, and Atrios).

I always find these kinds of accusations interesting, because the underlying argument (or, in some cases in the pieces linked to above, overt assertion) is that the GOP is a bunch of racists, yet it is (in this case, at least) the Democrat-allied commentators are the one’s who automatically see this as a race attack–that any attempt to paint Ford as wealthy and over-indulgent means that he is being portrayed as a pimp. In short: who exactly is saying the wealthy + black = pimp?

Indeed, the “fancy” label makes me think more of accusing Ford of being effete or effeminate (not straight up homosexual, however, given the Playboy Bunnies being prominently featured on the first page of the site), rather than being a pimp.

The totality of the site seems aimed at saying Ford is a hard-partying rich boy and therefore not the kind of person who should be in that august body, the US Senate, where only hard-partying old men should apply, I guess.

On balance, the site strikes me as silly and I have a hard time thinking it will sway any voters.