Cover story in today's Tennessean:

Celebrity money lines Ford coffers

So, as predicted, here come the scripted attacks from the GOP blast fax.

And like the Pavlovian pack of slobbering dogs that they are, the 30% dead enders take up the charge on the Tennessean's public comment forums... read more on the flip...

Example 1: The GOP Circus Seal

Watch for dead voters, felons voting, all sorts of voter irregularities especially in Memphis where the Ford machine is in full operational mode. He is NOT one of us, will NOT vote our wishes and will be a disaster if elected. Think very seriously about this man who gets most of his campaign cash from out of state. That simply means he can't raise his money in this state. Is Hollywierd's values your values? Do you enjoy going to movies and having all your convictions and beliefs attacked and ridiculed? If you like the views of Michael Moore, Babs Striesand, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, and the rest who NEVER earned an honest days pay for an honest days work, then go ahead and make that foolish choice. I think those who make the movies we have grown to hate should have to go out and get a REAL JOB and live like the rest of us for a while.

Note the number of regurgitated "hooks" in the script. This is a prime example of the language of the fully assimilated consumer of GOP propaganda. (Note to the Democratic Party: these voters aren't reachable. Stop trying to please them.)

Example 2: The Disaffected Dixiecrat

Anyone who would vote for a Ford is a complete idiot and deserves whatever happens to them. How many of these crooked low life scum bags are you going to elect to office? Of course I am sure he will work hard to give my tax dollars to the food stamp eating, welfare smoking, non-working trash of Memphis.

When his campaign tour came to town it looked more like a rap concert. His bus looks like it belongs to either 50 cents or a pimp.

If this is the best the Democratic party can come up with we are up a creek without a paddle.

Charming. And proof positive that Liddy Dole's money spent in cobbling together the slimy, racist Swift Boat "Fancy Ford" campaign is paying dividends.

Example 3: The Silver Bullet Theorist

When the public learns that junior can't raise any money in-state (and whomever comes out of the Republican primary will make that fact CRYSTAL clear), his campaign is dead. When the public learns he's raised more money from New York and Hollywood than from Tennessee, they'll realize junior is nothing more than a liberal Democrat trying to disguise himself as a moderate. NFW junior wins this race. I'd bet five years' salary on it.

While I've been on record saying that Ford's challenges in this upcoming election are steep, there's no single issue that might sink his candidacy. The reasons are manifold. My take is that while Ford has been creative in raising money to run a campaign (which is necessary), it is indeed curious that the money is coming to him from out of state. I think that says a lot more about the piss-poor state of the party's fundraising and organizing efforts locally than it does about the imputed motives for raising that money out of state. (The narrative that Ford is collecting "Hollywood money" is simply fodder for the black-helicopter crowd, and it doesn't belong on the front page of the paper.)

Welcome to high election season, folks. It promises to be an interesting ride this time around.

Maybe next time, the Tennessean can just print, "HEY RUBE!" on their masthead.

UPDATE: Welcome, Facing South readers. Thanks to our host and FS co-blogger R. Neal for the referral. And hey, Chris Kromm, if you're reading this -- you wouldn't happen to be the same Chris Kromm who was a Flint Hills debating ace from Topeka circa 1984 - 1987, would you?