The Week That Was
Rage against the band
The Republican National Committee tried to put a billboard of President Clinton and Vice President Gore in a big hug across the street from Gore’s Nashville headquarters. But the billboard company owner, William Levine, turned out to be a Gore supporter. And the company won’t allow the RNC billboard. The RNC planned to rotate embarrassing images on the billboard throughout the campaign. “We want to turn some heads,” RNC chairman Jim Nicholson told The New York Times.
Congressman Harold Ford Jr. of Memphis threatened to forego a Senate race unless Democrats help him raise at least $2 million before the new year. Many Democrats conceded it looks likely that Ford won’t run. That would leave the party without a credible challenger to Sen. Bill Frist in next year’s election. State Democratic Party Chairman Doug Horne started searching for another candidate. Millionaire businessman John Lowery of Memphis has always been ready to run.
Police protested the rock group Rage Against the Machine’s upcoming appearance in Nashville because the band supports convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. Metro’s Fraternal Order of Police planned a demonstration at Municipal Auditorium, where the group will play Dec. 8. Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former journalist, was sentenced to death for the 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Danny Faulkner.
