The Trouble with Harold Ford, Jr.
If you believe, as I do, that with the retirement of Daniel Patrick Moynihan from the U.S. Senate the brightest flame in government was snuffed, you might also marvel at how the seat that once belonged to the distinguished gentleman from New York has been eyed and picked over by only the least worthy successors. Clinton, Kennedy, Gillibrand — two beneficiaries of their own surnames with a shared sense of entitlement the size of the Hudson River, and one gubernatorial appointment who has so far made cheerful consensus and a perfect NRA rating the fresh face of New York exceptionalism.
To this sad assembly it seemed natural, not to say foreordained, that Harold Ford, Jr., a former representative from Tennessee and lately an MSNBC news analyst, Merrill Lynch executive, and Democratic Leadership Council chairman, should announce his membership.
If you read closely Ford’s extensive interview with Michael Barbaro of the New York Times this month — no easy feat in itself — then you came away with the following understanding of the prospective legislator:
1. Even though he donated to Kristen Gillibrand’s campaign two days after she’d been appointed senator in 2008, and did so solely at the request of an unnamed mutual friend, Ford sees no contradiction in opposing her now or in mildly assailing her legitimacy as unelected.
2. Most of Ford’s time in Manhattan has been spent being driven from his home to the MSNBC studio on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue — except when it’s too cold and difficult to hail a cab; then he takes the subway.
3. Ford took a guided tour of the five boroughs with Sir Harold Evans and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, and because their helicopter landed in Staten Island, he can safely say he’s been there.
4. Ford’s appreciation of New York football is limited to the time he’s spent at either team’s home venue as the invited guest of the respective owners of the Jets and Giants (the Jets win by that metric).
5. Ditto baseball (the Yanks take it).
6. Ford became a supporter of gay marriage because of the political pressure he faced as an opponent of it.
Just as your mandible begins its slow ascent back into place, Ford outdoes himself as a shameless carpetbagger in yet another hometown newspaper, the Daily News, announcing that he’s a regular Joe Chardonnay, chauffeured to work only once a week, and on strict network executive orders. Oh, and he “loves the smell of New York,” a claim that not even the Tammany princeling Al Smith, who professed to be educated at the fish markets of Fulton Street, ever hazarded.
As the blogger Adam Holland reminded me recently, there are other, more sobering reasons why Gotham doesn’t need Ford.
In August 2008, Ford mentored a Democratic primary candidate for his former congressional seat from the ninth congressional district of Tennessee, located in Shelby County and which encompasses most of Memphis. Ford’s protégé was Nikki Tinker, who was challenging the more liberal incumbent of her party, Steve Cohen, who in the event won the nomination and then re-election.
Cohen was originally elected in 2006 after defeating Tinker in that primary as well. His success represented a regional milestone as he became the only white congressman from a black-majority Southern district, a fact that rather upset Tinker, who, in her second run against him, took the tack of manufacturing or condoning anti-Semitic ads against Cohen. The most notorious of these was a semi-literate leaflet produced by Rev. George Brooks of Murfreesboro, TN, a city that falls outside the ninth district, that read:
Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the Jews Hate Jesus. So Memphis Christians must united and support ONE Black Christian to represent Memphis in the United State Congress in 2008. Simply because this Congressional district is predominantly black. And Christian, in terms of religion, who love and believe in JESUS, while Jews do not.
This is rich. Conservatives are routinely denounced as racists but blacks are given a free pass.
Of course there are black districts that will only elect blacks. The Dem party has it rigged that way so that they have permanent seats and votes. And what representatives they are: Maxine Watters, John Lewis, Charles Rangle, etc.
The larger question is what would possess a jew to run in a black district anyway? Talk about your paternalism.
Why can’t we have an actual New Yorker to run on the democrat ticket for Senator? I am getting tired of these fat cat politicians foisting their choice on the people of New York! When the republican and democrat big whigs want to grease the wheels for their chosen , they send them to New York because of the accommodating liberal party loyalists that will vote for these scum, no questions asked! The Russian revolution started over no representation of the people! This fraud ford showed up here specifically to get the nod from the powers that be! corrupt carpetbagger.
——-
Andy
The only thing missing from this Ol Southern Boys resume is a pickup truck.
Please inform him that I have a fair condition 200,000+ miles FORD F-150 short bed I will be glad to sell him for only
$36,000 dollars.
New Yorkers have had one too many carpetbaggers supposedly representing them in the Senate. Lets send a “New Yorker” from birth for a change. It just might make a difference for us all. Ford sounds a bit vapid on CNBC and fits right in with that gang. Let him stay with the Media “important annointed elites”.
“4. Ford’s appreciation of New York football is limited to the time he’s spent at either team’s home venue as the invited guest of the respective owners of the Jets and Giants (the Jets win by that metric).
Said home venue being located in New Jersey- although Ford may not actually know that. But then, hey- our White-Sox_Fan-in-Chief thinks the Pale Hose play in “Kaminsky Park.”
Harold is known in Memphis as a very smooth talker who promises everything and follows up on almost nothing. I was in a small group that met with him while he was a Congressman. I offered a number of suggestions that he liked and asked me in front of the assembly if I would serve on a special education committee. after the meeting, no one got my contact info. I was never contacted.
I asked a friend who had spent a good amount of time around Harold and he said that was an everyday occurrence. He would praise the leaders, ask them to help and never follow up. He and Obama are two birds of a feather. They want to ‘look good’. they want to tell you what to do but when the work comes around, they are nowhere to be seen.
New York, you have enough problems, you don’t need this peacock.
And i not going to bring up that his Father, the previous Congressman, called all of the white voters in Memphis “white devils” because we dared to disagree with His Highness.
Frankly, I couldn’t care less if its Ford or Gillie. What I would like to know, Michael, what I want to know is what can be done about Schumer the mic and lens hound? He is a disgrace to your fair…to your city.
I am from Tennessee. I have heard Mr. Ford speak at a Democrat rally (not a campaign speech).
Harold Ford, Jr. is a truly dangerous man, politically speaking. Imagine Obama with southern charm, common sense, and an aire of confident humility. All the ambition and back door politics as Obama… but he can do it and make you smile at the same time. The man even evokes Ronald Reagan in a positive and convincing way.
New York is quite open to imports when it comes to their U.S. Senators. A few months ago I would have said that Harold Ford is a bit too conservative for this state but after recent senate campaigns in the Northeast, he may be just what the Dems are looking for. And this should continue the trend toward the more independant minded type Senator as well, something that voters are unquestionably looking for over the past few years, but now seem to be acting on boldly. Incumbants should continue running…for their political lives !!! Good Luck to NY !
I don’t see what the fuss is all about. As New Yorkers, we should be happy that important people like Hillary Clinton and Harold Ford, Jr. are willing to represent us in the Senate. I am confident that Harold Ford will have no trouble compiling a record of accomplishments that is equal to that of Mrs. Clinton.
New York is a huge state. What does Harold Ford know about upstate’s problems? It’s an agricultural state (where did the term Big Apple come from, huh?) NYC may be the capital of the world but it ain’t the capital of the state. Go back to Tennessee, Harold. We’re not your stepping stone.
Not to quibble needlessly, but the Hudson isn’t much of a river. Maybe in a blue state but out here in fly over America it barely qualifies as a stream. In Alaska they don’t even bother building a bridge over something that small.
Paul, is that Hamburg, New York?
H. Ford or Hord, as we call him down here, was my representative for a while. I voted for him every time he ran. He’s OK, better then algore by quite a margin. Since the State of Tennessee has a smaller population then L.A., New York, Houston or Chicago ( in no particular order, not combined) one tends to get to know their representatives. I often see mine when I go for my daily constitutional. Hord is OK, for a politician.
His relatives are nutters. Redneck nutters. Black redneck nutters. Hord isn’t a racist, nor a bigot. His Uncle is infamous for driving down the Interstate in his ‘Benz shooting his pistol out the sunroof at truckers. Another Uncle is in jail for bribing a judge, I think. Something that upset the Feds. I think it was his daddy that got into a fist fight with a tow-truck driver and bit him on the arm. Waaaaay before Mike Tyson. Mom has been in and out of rehab for decades. Not that I could blame her. I suspect that if I had to associate with that pack of nutters on a daily basis I would be into something a lot more effective then Old Charter or Bombay.
So Hord is a good-ol’-boy. Ya’ll will like him lots once you get to know him. You are safe letting him hold your wallet and your whiskey but keep him the ‘ell away from your wife and daughters.
What is it, exactly, that Daniel Patrick Moynihan–the brightest light ever in the Senate–did to impress you, other than ignore his own advice when it came time to vote? Extend the due date and magnitude of the Social Security collapse?
1. blotto:
The whole race thing confuses you, that’s clear.
#12 Rosinante
Yes, I am Hamburg NY, just outside of Buffalo.
skeez@14: Elucidate please.
When the place that you are from refuses to elect you becuase you are a known scum bag, that seems to be an automatic seat in New York.
These new yorkers are without a doubt, some of the dumbest smart people on God’s green earth.
The fords are one of the most disdraced families in TN , onpar with the con artist gorbal warming ( why isn’t that liar in jail ?) , only black, kind of.
Please, do your research kids. This guy is as bad as anything ever to come out the sewer of career politicians. No one gets any more free passes after electing a known communist traitor president because of the box checked that says ‘ african American’. The fact that it is even a consideration is a disgrace.
dh.
Harold Jr is a member of the politically notorious Ford family of Memphis…back in the early 1990′s my father was driving back from having cataract surgery and lens implant at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville (yea,driving home that same day..imagine that)…as he was proceeding west on I-40 heading home to Paris,his vehicle was approached in the left hand lane by a car driven by a black man honking furiously,waving a pistol in his right hand,and motioning for Dad to pull over…Dad immediately recognized the driver as State Senator John Ford of Memphis…Harold Jr’s uncle….Dad gave a smirk and shot him the bird and continued driving till the exit for Paris….about an hour after arriving home,he received a phone call from the barracks commander at the Jackson,TN HQ of the Tennessee Highway Patrol,who was also a personal acquaintance of Dad’s….he said that Ford had filed a complaint with them accusing Dad of making an obscene gesture at a public official and left threatening to have the Major fired if he didn’t do something about it…he was,of course,very familiar with Ford family shenanigans and had and Dad had a good laugh about it…it runs in the family.
I don’t think we’ll send either FOrd or Gillibrand to the senate in 2010. Chuckie is on the list for later.
Poor Citizen. Your selection of that nom de plume may have been somewhat Fruedian, but apt. You are indeeed, as proven by your persistant, yet charmingly ineffective performance as a progressive troll, a poor citizen.
I realize this is quibbling, but the Hudson (river , around NY City), is very impressive — quite equal to the impressiveness of the Mississippi around Cairo. Its a huge body of water, and as with all large rivers, has a very interesting path back up to its roots in the Adirondacks — something that flyover states have nothing to compare too. NYS, despite its corrupt politics (which is mainly a downstate, ready NY city disease), has a lot of extraordinary beauty — something that is quite at odds with its mindnumbing politics.
To continue the quibbling. The Hudson at West Point is massive. I thought all rivers were like this. I expected the Mississippi to be even bigger. When I drove across the Mississippi it wasn’t any wider than the Housatonic which is pretty modest as far as rivers go. Sorry I don’t remember where I crossed. Guess it didn’t make that much of an impression on me.
Harold Ford is VERY thin skined. He also tends to lose his temper easily. He’s a real loose cannon. If the Democrats nominate him they WILL regret it weather he wins or looses.
Onca a Ford, always a Ford. Must be in the blood. Track his lineage.
“something that flyover states have nothing to compare too”
You mean like the Rockies?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_by_length
We can argue all day about Rivers. There is no standard of measurement for Width. It is ALWAYS more then the wet part. Length is a problem also. Tradition for Length is to use the longest possible between source and outlet, since most rivers have multiple sources AND outlets. The modern rule of thumb is the length of the longest bridge. That is nearly always the narrowest part of the river.
Rivers also wander around. Last years widest might be # 8 this year.
The best way is to either measure the area it drains or the flow rate.
The Missippi/Missouri is #4 in the world at 6,275 Km’s long, it drains 2.98 million sq Km’s and flows 16,200 meters cubed/per sec.
The Hudson isn’t on the list.
Here’s why;
“The Hudson is often mistaken for one of the largest rivers in the United States, but it is an estuary throughout most of its length below Troy and thus only a small fraction of freshwater, about 15,000 cubic feet (425 m³/s) per second, is present.”
Length is 507 Km’s. I grew bored before finding the drainage area, but I doubt that it is larger then New England, which would fit comfortably into Texas or Alaska.
If you want to compare the Hudson where you looked at it with the Mississippi, you need to go to New Orleans. The estuary there is crossed by Interstate 10. At the posted limit (50MPH) it takes about 45 minutes to drive across it. So it’s about 35 to 49 MILES across. I doubt that the Hudson is more then a couple of miles across.
Anybody from Tennessee can tell you: The real problem with Harold Ford Jr. is Harold Ford Sr. Jr. Did not fall far enough from the tree.
Nashville not Memphis is the Tennessee state capital.
Harold Sr wrote more checks than almost anyone in the House Bank Scandal and made enough money somehow as a congressman to retire to Florida with amillio dollar house. Junior’s Uncle John Ford sports multiple wives and girlfriends who he is no longer able to support from his federal prison cell where he resides as a result of an FBI bribery sting operation. Another Ford in Memphis recently was found not to have paid his utility bills for a very long time and retained his services without cutoff because of his Ford family connections.
Beyond the high jinks of his family however, what has Harold Jr actually done. He won his congressional seat in his father’s district at the age of 19 or 20. He is another who has paid no dues in private enterprise. He, like Al Gore, was raised and educated in Washington DC in private schools and has mastered the art of SMOOTH. He is a bred and trained politician in the same way that the Mannings are quarterbacks. His only roots in Memphis are ho retain his voting district. Do we really want another in the Senate of the entitled I’ll of Al Gore or one of the Kennedys? He has no qualifications. He was never even a community organizer.
No 19
And with that …coming from a George Bush Dubya, I will take your “minimal” attempt at communication…
As a compliment.
My favorite Ford story was from when one of them ran agaisnt Wild Willie for Mayor. One of each “candidates” body guards got into an arguement of a parking spot. They had a 20 minute stand-off with both men waving guns at one another.
One of My neighbors is on the SWAT team and he said the Captain walked up to them and said “It’s almost break time boys, and if you both don’t put down your pistols my sniper will shoot the last man standing.”
Since he was the same guy who ordered the ‘no prisoners’ shooting in that police hostage case ( the police shot and killed all 7 of the black cultists that had tortured a police officer they captured), the body guards KNEW he wasn’t much about fooling around. So they quit waving their guns around. The SWAT team commander got the parking spot.
The Fords are very entertaining.
This article does not even scratch the surface on the Ford family. “Junior” as he is called in Memphis, may be the only family member not in jail, or gone to trial, or gone to rehab, or accused of other improprities (sp?). Another interesting tidbit-I have been told he took the TN bar exam repeatedly and could never pass.
Say what you will about Tennessee. But we did not vote for Al Gore for president and we did not elect Harold Ford Jr as our congressman. I am sorry for NY: to get Hillary from Arkansas and now Ford from the South – would make anyone wish for “the carpetbaggers” to go home.
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