Political consultants say Bouchard’s hiring of the firm may indicate that Bouchard is preparing to get in the “gutter” in the GOP nomination battle. And the history of Scott Howell and Company’s partners certainly indicates a knock-down, drag-out campaign may be in the offing for this hotly contested race to succeed term limited Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Scott Howell is an acolyte of Lee Atwater — dubbed the “Dark Prince of negative campaigning” by Vanity Fair magazine — and Karl Rove, the Bush strategist who carefully used wedge issues like same-sex marriage to rally the faithful and send them to the polls in droves in 2004 to send Bush back to the White House for another four years. Atwater engineered the infamous Dukakis-shredding Willie Horton ads for George H.W. Bush, with the younger Bush, and Howell, carefully watching the “Dark Prince” wield his doomsday scalpel.

The Chambliss/Cleland race

Take for instance the 2002 Senate battle in Georgia between Saxby Chambliss and Max Cleland, then the incumbent. There, Howell and his team crafted a message that painted Vietnam war veteran Max Cleland — a triple amputee and recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for valor — as unconcerned about protecting America. One of the ads they used, which can be seen here, invoked images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein to make Cleland appear to be soft on terrorism and unwilling to defend the nation.

That ad was immediately condemned even by Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, who called the ad “worse than disgraceful, it’s reprehensible,” and Sen. Chuck Hagel, who threatened to pay for TV ads criticizing his own party if they didn’t have the commercial pulled. Howell denies having any role in the making of that ad, but he was the media consultant for the campaign, the man who oversees the production of such commercials.

Chambliss bested Cleland.

The Corker/Ford campaign

Another controversial attack ad by Howell was created for the Republican National Committee for Tennessee Senate candidate Bob Corker’s battle with Harold Ford, Jr. in 2006. That ad was widely viewed as playing on old-fashioned fears about black men seeking out white women.

“I met Harold at the Playboy party,” a blond white woman with a squeaky voice and slinking body motions says. The ad closes with the same woman as she tilts her head at the camera, holds her hand to her head to indicate a telephone and whispers, “Harold, call me.”

That focus was labeled racist by many observers in the campaign. At the time the ad began airing, the NAACP of Washington told MSNBC the ad is “a powerful innuendo that plays to pre-existing prejudices about African-American men and white women.”

Liberals were not the only ones bothered by the ad.

Corker himself condemned the ad, which was paid for by the Republican National Committee, calling it “distasteful” and saying the ad “should come down.” Another Republican, former Maine Sen. Bill Cohen, said the ad was “a very serious appeal to a racist sentiment.”

Then-RNC Chair Ken Mehlman told Tim Russert that he did not find the ad inappropriate. Besides, he argued, while the ad was paid for by the RNC, the group had no control over whether to pull it or not because it was produced and placed by an independent group. That independent group was Scott Howell and Company.

Another ad produced by Howell in 2005, on behalf of Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore in Virginia, featured crime victims declaring that his opponent, Democrat Tim Kaine, would not impose the death penalty even on Adolf Hitler. The Roanoke Times called that ad “an insulting new low” in politics. The tactic, in fact, backfired on the campaign and is widely credited with having helped Kaine win the election.

The Bush/McCain campaign

Perhaps the most infamous dirty trick in recent history involved Heath Thompson, Howell’s partner in the company. Like Atwater, Thompson is a South Carolina legend. He helmed the 2000 South Carolina primary upset of then Gov. George W. Bush over Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

That South Carolina primary campaign featured a host of nasty attacks leveled at McCain, including allegations he had an interracial child and questioning his sexuality. That smear campaign was conducted by push polling and anonymous fliers intended to give the impression that McCain had fathered an interracial child out of wedlock.

The push poll involved calling voters in the state to ask them this question: “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?” In fact, McCain and his wife Cindy have adopted a Banglideshi child named Bridget from one of Mother Teresa’s orphanages and there were photos of them with the little girl. The push poll was clearly designed to send the false message that McCain had fathered an interracial child out of wedlock — without actually making such a claim positively. That is how push polls operate, by asking leading questions about how someone would feel if they knew a negative thing about someone that isn’t actually asserted.

And while Thompson and other Bush campaign officials deny they had a role in that push poll, such tactics do not come out nowhere. Someone has to create them, approve them and pay for them — and they do so on behalf of a candidate. And Karl Rove, for whom both Howell and Thompson worked for and trained under, is considered the king of the push poll and was tied directly to this particular one, which is widely considered to be one of the dirtiest political tricks ever played.

Bouchard dismisses Howell history

The Bouchard campaign seems unconcerned about this troubling past. Ted Prill, Bouchard’s campaign manager, told Michigan Messenger in an email, “Scott Howell and associates is nationally known as a premier communications firm whose client list includes such conservative leaders as Sen. Jim DeMint and Sen. John Thune.”

When asked repeatedly to comment on their history of highly controversial, often race-tinged ads, Prill preferred to talk about their track record of winning elections, calling Howell and Company “one of the most successful media firms in the country.”

Democratic political consultant Joe DiSano says Bouchard’s contract with Howell and Company can mean only one thing: the sheriff intends to “hit Mr. (Mike) Cox where it hurts.” Cox has consistently polled at the head of the GOP pack for the nomination for the 2010 race for governor.

“With Bouchard safely ensconced in third place, he has to take out the front runner,” DiSano said.

“You don’t hire a firm like Scott Howell and Company unless you are going to go right to the gutter.”

Yeesh. Today’s clowns are Kathleen Sebelius and Mike Huckabee, the latter causing far more cheering and veeping din than the former. If our traffic meter is any gauge, the Huckster and his so-called army are going to continue to make a bunch of noise all the way to the Republican convention, demanding the veep slot until assuaged.

Don’t ask me what “assuaged” looks like in this “with us or agin’ us” internecine squabble between the social conservatives and the fiscal conservatives within the Republican Party. The fiscal conservatives are just as piqued about Huck’s Army’s excessively zealous demands as the Hucksters are about not getting their way with a presidential candidate, and there’s no indication that a compromise is in the works.

On the other side of the political aisle, there’s rampant chatter about a handful of veep candidates. The Obama campaign could easily be messing with their constituents with visits to Indiana and Virginia, spawning alternating freak-outs among the anti-Evan Bayh and anti-Tim Kaine factions. There’s the Wesley Clark option that sets the netroots of the Democratic Party into a frenzy whenever his name comes up as a possible candidate.

And then there’s Kansas’ Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Quiet, effective, well-liked — obviously not an option, right? Can’t possibly have this much change on a ticket all at one time; the country would spin out of control if a man of color and a woman were offered up as a leadership team. That’s where the Buts come in …but Sebelius is now touring the country to campaign for Obama, as if trying out for the veep slot. She’s going to be in Michigan today and in Iowa on Thursday for multiple stops, as our sister site points out, pondering the idea that this might be an audition.

The odds are certainly looking stronger for Sebelius if futures traders are rational indicators.

Who knows; we have another month of this clown car, even if Obama makes a rumored announcement about his selection inside the next few days. Look out, here it comes now: Veep, veep!! Veep veep!!

“I haven’t sought it, I’m not running for it, I’m not asking for it,” Kaine told a crowd of reporters in Washington, [D.C.,] who waited for him to finish an interview with WTOP radio.
[snip]
“My conversations with the campaign stay with the campaign,” Kaine said, adding that he did not meet with Obama today and is not planning to do so. Obama is in Washington, [D.C.,] Tuesday for meetings.

Ironically Kaine himself may have caused the speculation with his own loose lips. On July 29 the Washington Post reported as follows:

“Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has told close associates that he has had “very serious” conversations with Sen. Barack Obama about joining the Democratic presidential ticket and has provided documents to the campaign as it combs through his background, according to several sources close to Kaine.”

The Post went on to report:

“Sens. Evan Bayh (Ind.) and Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) are also being seriously vetted by the campaign staff, according to sources with knowledge of the process.”

Of course this media scrutiny on the vetting process has only hastened the foreseeable feeding frenzy of the blogosphere. Bloggers are pitching out the pros and cons of each potential candidate. Following the blogs are, of course, the musings of the usual assortment of armchair political commentators. As a result, Bayh has suddenly surfaced as a leading prospect for the position. But even that prospect seems to be fizzling into what appears to be a trial balloon.

But a well-placed source in the Obama camp told Michigan Messenger while Obama was in Lansing that the source had heard no conversations about Bayh as a vice presidential pick, nor that Obama was intending to announce his selection on Wednesday. Bloggers have targeted Wednesday as an announcement day, presuming Obama would want to get his V.P. choice out before the onslaught of media coverage for the Olympic games in China begins Friday.

So let’s take a peek at these three men and see what they can add to Obama’s campaign for change.

Biden ended his own bungled run for the presidency in January. His campaign had barely gotten off the ground before Biden opened his mouth and promptly inserted his foot with what some thought was a racially charged comment about Obama.

From the Washington Post at the time:

Biden sought to highlight his experience on the day he declared his candidacy, but an interview he gave to the New York Observer, a weekly newspaper, overshadowed his announcement.

In the interview, Biden described Obama as “the first mainstream African American [presidential candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

“Asked during an afternoon conference call with reporters to explain his choice of words, Biden said he meant no offense in describing Obama the way he did, then lavished praise on the Illinois senator as a “very special guy” who has caught “lightning in a jar” like no politician he has seen before. “This guy is a superstar,” he added.”

While Biden has a long history with the Senate and is considered an elder statesman, that history could cause Obama problems. Obama is trying to run away from Washington-as-usual politics, and the selection of Biden would open him up to some serious criticisms for failing to continue to think outside the Washington box, an expectation he has created in his campaign.

The real choice seems to be between Bayh and Kaine.

Bayh is a former governor of a state thought “safe” for Republicans. In fact Indiana has not gone Democrat in a presidential election since Lyndon Johnson won the state in 1964. Such a move as nominating a popular senator from a traditionally Republican state could leave Sen. John McCain’s bid for the presidency teetering on the edge by putting Indiana in play.

But Bayh also would come to the table with a host of controversy dangling from his belt. He was a co-sponsor of the authorization for force in Iraq, and he served on the committee for the liberation of Iraq. On top of that, Bayh has a rating of only 50 percent with the pro-choice group NARAL, meaning Obama’s already weak support from women could be further weakened. Bayh has also supported a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning.

Kaine is a close friend of Obama’s, and was, after the Illinois governor, the first governor to endorse his candidacy for president. He is popular in Virginia, which is a state Obama is focusing a ton of energy and money into, and again this is a traditionally Republican state, and Kaine’s nomination could put that state in play. He is also outside the Washington box.

But the first-term governor has had issues dealing with Republicans in Virginia, and he has no foreign policy experience. His selection could deepen concerns from voters about Obama’s lack of experienceand could send them into the arms of the “war hero” imagery of McCain’s campaign.