Racist or homophobic?

Josh Marshall and Atrios think the National Republican Senatorial Committee's vile new attack site on Harold Ford is notable mainly for its racism. "The message is pretty clear," writes Marshall. "Harold Ford is an uppity black man" -- more gutterally, "a pimp, a black guy livin' large and probably doing white women too".

I agree the racist angle is the main one here. But a good case can be made that a secondary purpose of the site is to challenge the fact of Ford's uppity black manhood. Sure, there are those playboy bunnies, but who doesn't like playboy bunnies? Witness the obsession with all those "fancy" flowers, by which Ford "makes his surroundings pretty". "Shop like Ford" we're advised. We also learn the Ford loves him his pedicures.

I guess there's no real distinction; the stereotypical pimp, if he isn't gangsta (and they're not going for the hardass angle here), is effeminate. Which is convenient, since it helps satisfy the Republican election mantra: no bigotted overtone left behind.

"What would the folks back in Tennessee think? the site asks. Yeah, I wonder.

Update: Yikes. Pam at Pandagon has the essential take on the issue.