Sunday, December 26, 2004
The Harold Ford, Jr. Watch Begins...
Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall has an interesting and vital theme running. It concerns those Democrats—perhaps short on spine, and long on personal ambition or self-defense—who seem poised to aid and abet George Bush in his demonic gutting of Social Security Insurance. Marshall calls it his "Fainthearted Faction." I call it the "Kill Granny" Team.0 comments
Among the U.S. House membership, Marshall points to two leaders of this "Faction" who are poised to push your Grandfather into the street:
Rep. Harold Ford (D-Memphis, TN)
Washington, DC office
325 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Ph: 202-225-3265
Fx: 202-225-5663
and
Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Tallahassee, FL)
Washington, DC office
1227 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Ph: 202-225-5235
Fx: 202-225-5615
Both first elected to Congress in 1996, these two Democratic Representatives are senior leaders of this Democratic privatization group—who will not stand up for SSI along with other Democrats, but who sit ready to do Bush's bidding.
They also are two members in good standing of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of Democrats in name who basically subscribe to an agenda that was considered to be the mainstream Republican position, back in the years when the GOP was still a viable political party. These are Democrats who have been given the rare privilege of holding their own prized Republican Rubber Stamp.
Why would these two support Bush attempts to deny basic food and shelter to people in their 70s and 80s?
With Boyd, it's pure political survival. He represents Panhandle Florida, which hasn't yet evolved much past the 13th or 14th Century.
On the other hand, Ford now exists as perhaps the single, most-threatened politician in America. This comes not from Republicans nor conservatives, either nationally or within the state of Tennessee, but stems from the meteoric ascendancy of incoming Sen. Barak Obama of Illinois. You can see Ford's transparent attempts to reposition himself in this new political landscape—in order to beat out Obama in Ford's perhaps obsessive race to be the First African-American President.
As a child of political privilege, Ford seems to have been shooting for the presidency almost since college at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked on his father's successful Congressional campaigns for that same Ninth District seat from 1974 to 1994, gaining valuable expertise and political savvy. Through his father, the Honorable Harold E. Ford, Sr., he was able to obtain party positions such as working on the Clinton campaign and transition teams, and later, latching onto Senate aide spots.
As soon as Ford, Jr. graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, Ford, Sr. retired, effectively turning over his seat to Junior. From there, Junior has repeatedly targeted open Tennessee Senate seats, from which to effectively wage his presidential run. Only the seniority system within the Tennessee state party has slowed Ford down to this point. But Ford has spent his time assuring one and all that this would be only a temporary setback.
Ford, the Democrat's Convention Keynote Speaker in Los Angeles in 2000, has carefully positioned himself as the "attractive, well-crafted, well-connected Rising Star in the Party who could bring along the black vote and still make white hearts flutter." He would be Politics' answer to Derek Jeter or Tiger Woods: someone who's almost omni-racial. He has worked to insinuate himself clearly within the center-right of Bill Clinton's New Democrat machinery.
Then, when the world changed and Bush took power, we watched Ford segue smoothly into the Zell Miller wing of the Democratic/Republican Party, albeit with a polished mein, impeccable tailoring, sad green eyes and sexy, shy smile.
Simply because this is where the power went. And with that, the money. So, there goes Ford.
He has marketed himself on a non-stop basis to every media outlet that would have him, in order to maintain a profile alien to that of your typical Congressman from the Ninth District of Tennessee. He seems to have been on the air more than Don Imus or Tim Russert over the last eight years. And has become one of the Republican pudit-ocracy's and the Republican media's favorite Democrats.
Bam!
Then this Obama clown shows up with that Billion-Megawatt smile, dopey African name, a People Magazine-perfect biography and an electric 2004 Democratic Convention Keynote Speech of his own in Boston, that simply turned on a nation, and turned the political landscape upside-down. You can almost smell the gears grinding inside our young Mr. Ford.
Now, there is a real threat to "the plan." This Obama fellow simply won't do.
It's obvious Ford feels the Bushies are going to control things for quite some time, so if he is going to have access to the power he craves, he'll have to create a Bush-friendly position so that he can be "the successful Democrat" in this new environment. And if Bush REALLY wants SSI on a platter so badly, then, fine, let him have it. But gain some concessions that make it look like you were the sole barrier against total defeat at the hands of the administration. Then, grab the first TN Senate seat that opens and fight Obama on equal footing.
So, from now on, Harold Ford, Jr. stands not only as "the Dean" of the "Fainthearted Faction" on Social Security Insurance as Josh Marshall claims, but as the new, unofficial Chair of the "Stop Obama At Any Cost!" team.
Ambitious men are always to be watched closely, since their actions emerge from their deepest lust for power, rather than from serving the Commonweal. So, watch every move Ford makes from here on in this light:
"Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look."
—William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
And trust him not at all.
Here's Marshall's take on the Social Security Insurance floppers on the Senate side.
posted by Gotham 2:13 PM
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