Redstate

I just wrote a diary on Ford.  Check it out.

http://j-a-davis.redstate.com/story/2006/3/6/144032/0120

In what is thus far a worrisome time for the GOP...

'Fraid-y cat.  ;)

Ford is too nakedly ambitious. In 2004, his staff spent much effort trying to figure out a way around the constitutional age restriction to allow him to run as Kerry's VP, or rather, to serve if elected. His campaign for House leader was more a publicity ploy than a serious bid to defeat Pelosi. And he's riding the Dubai ports issue for all its worth -- shamelessly so, according to Neil Boortz, the radio talk show host:

Harold Ford is running for the Senate in Tennessee.  He is a Democrat; something of a lightweight Barak Obama.  Ford went to Maryland to film a commercial for his senate race.  He stood there in the Baltimore port and said:  "The president wants to sell this port and five others to the United Arab Emirates."

Well, I guess that gives us a little insight into this particular Democrat's senate campaign.  The truth won't matter to Harold Ford if there's a political point to be made.  The Port of Baltimore is not being "sold" to the UAE, and Harold Ford knows it.  Under the deal the UAE would only have the contractual right to operate certain facilities at the port for a specified period of time.  

It's 2006 election politics.  The truth doesn't matter.  Inciting the voters does.

Still, I do appreciate Ford's willingness to stand up to party orthodoxy on issues such as Social Security.

From CNN, March 11, 2005:

KING: Democratic Congressman Harold Ford of Tennessee says he would sit down with Mr. Bush tomorrow. He opposes private investment accounts funded with Social Security payroll taxes and thinks Mr. Bush is losing that argument. But he says the president is making an increasingly effective case for change and that Democrats better take notice.

REP. HAROLD FORD (D), TENNESSEE: The reality is we should address the problem, address this challenge, if we have the chance to now. And the only way you're going to do it is by both parties working together.

BUSH: I do want to thank Congressman Harold Ford for being here. I'm honored you're here, Congressman.

KING: Any good salesman knows an opening when he sees one. The White House not only gave Democrat Ford a front-row seat, but also tickets so he could invite supporters to the Republican president's event.

I wonder how much Ford has backed down on Social Security reform since then.