TN GOP featured strip club owner in political ad

(via the Kleinheider) A local man featured in a controversial ad by the Tennessee Republican Party once owned a topless dance bar in Nashville. Bob Pope, who is featured in the TN GOP ad saying why he is proud of America, was once the proud owner of Bob's Gold Club, according the today's Chattanooga Times Free Press.

One person featured in the video is Bob Pope, a Nashville-area businessman. Mr. Hobbs described Mr. Pope as a "big Second Amendment guy, runs a big gun show."

On the GOP video, Mr. Pope, who runs Bob Pope’s Gun Shows, says, "I’m Bob Pope, and I’m proud to be an American, because mainly of the First Amendment, the right to worship God anywhere I choose to, and the Second Amendment, I get the right to keep and bear arms."

In 1994, Mr. Pope came under criticism from state Democrats after running a full-page Nashville newspaper ad attacking statewide Democratic candidates’ stances on gun rights.

Democrats at the time contended that Mr. Pope had an ownership interest in a Nashville topless dance bar, Bob's Gold Club. In an October 1994 interview with the then-Chattanooga

Times, Mr. Pope acknowledged having a financial interest in the club.

"I am not in the direct management of it," Mr. Pope said at the time, noting he put up money for the club four years previously as an investor.

Efforts to reach Mr. Pope on Monday through a cell phone listed on his gun show Web site were unsuccessful. Bob’s Gold Club, meanwhile, is no longer listed in telephone directories.

Asked if he had known of Mr. Pope’s 1990s' ties to a nude dance bar, Mr. Hobbs said no.

The ad, which has now been seen more than 600,000 times on YouTube, came under fire yesterday after Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told the TN GOP to "lay off my wife." Offices of both of Tennessee's Republican senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander spoke out against the ad in statements provided to WKRN with Corker's offices saying they asked the TN GOP to remove the video from their website.

Sen. Corker's Chief of Staff Todd Womack
"After the Republican National Committee damaged our campaign with their infamous 'Call Me' ad - which we immediately denounced - we have strongly encouraged the national party and state parties to absolutely refrain from getting involved in negative personal campaigning, and we have asked the state party to remove their You Tube ad from their Web site. Republicans will be in much better shape if we spend our time focused on issues like reducing federal spending, lowering the cost of health care and creating a coherent energy policy."

Sen. Lamar Alexander Spokesman Lee Pitts
"There are probably better ways to communicate our pride in America, and we need to focus on those."