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August 07, 2006
Time Puff Piece on Harold Ford, Jr.
The Congressman who is running to replace retiring Bill Frist as Senator from Tennessee has voted to outlaw gay marriage and to repeal the estate tax, and wants to amend the Constitution to ban flag burning. He supports getting rid of the handgun ban in the nation's capital and says the Ten Commandments should be posted in courtrooms around his state. He favors school prayer, argues that more troops should have been sent to Iraq and wants to seal the border with Mexico. He likes to tell a story about the time he campaigned at a bar called the Little Rebel, which had a Confederate flag and a parking lot full of pickup trucks adorned with National Rifle Association bumper stickers.
I do like Harold Ford, Jr. But he too often goes to leftist Dem talking points when he is on TV.
An examination of his votes demonstrates he is a true moderate from the South. The only problem is that he is a Democrat.
Too many moderate Democrat and Republican politicians tend to move to the left when they enter the Senate. Ford will want committee seats and will understand that as a real moderate, he will always be second torch to Barack Osama, er, Alabama Obama, er, Osama bin Bama (as Ted Kennedy likes to address him).
Barack Obama is a liberal, slip and fall trial attorney from Chicago. He hasn't been in the Senate two years and everyone wants him on the ticket for President in 2008.
Ford is going to learn the hard way (if he wins, which I doubt) when there are too many black folks (read: two) in the uppercrust of the Democratic Party establishment.
I think if Ford's positions on all these issues are in such stark contrast with the Democratic Party's platforms, he should follow Ann Coulter's advice and simply switch parties.
[H]ost Larry Kudlow brought in Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tennessee) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) to discuss the chances the former will win his bid for the Senate. Coulter was ready for the test:
And it's especially bad for me because you know how I hate saying anything kind about a Democrat. Harold Ford is one of my favorite Democrats, but the problem is he belongs to the Democratic Party. And if he does not, as reasonable as he sounds today--and you do, Representative--if he does not toe the lunatic anti-war, high-tax line, he'll end up being primaried like Joe Lieberman.
Beinart parried:
No, but where Ann is wrong is the Democratic Party has actually showed enormous pragmatism in supporting candidates in red states, who were to the right of the national Democratic Party. Representative Ford is a classic example. The Democratic candidate in Montana, the Democratic candidate in Missouri--the Democratic Party has been in Pennsylvania, as you know. The Democrats are nominating an anti-abortion candidate to go up against Santorum. The Democratic Party--there is a kind of purism that plays out in blue states like Connecticut where people figure, `Well, it's a blue state so we can go as far as left as we want.' But in those red states, the party has nominated candidates who appeal to those states. And it's one of the reasons the Democrats have a really decent chance of winning the Senate.
Coulter saw here opportunity, and took full advantage of it:
But--by the way, you were talking in the earlier segment about whether the Democrats will raise taxes. It's a frivolous question. Of course, they will raise taxes. But now that Bush has taken out that veto pen, maybe he will get that vetoed. And, by the way, what Peter just said is that Democrats are, you know, openly trying to fake out the American people. They run people like Daschle and, you know, go back to the home states and pretend to be standing with Bush and supporting the war on terror and supporting conservative judges. And then soon as they get to Washington, they vote along with Nancy Pelosi and Teddy Kennedy. That's the problem with Harold Ford's party.
You have to admit; he's a handsome man!
Posted by Aaron at August 7, 2006 10:12 AM
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