Oh, there's a bit more to it than just that....
Posted on 05/30/2005 7:22:07 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A two-year FBI sting operation nicknamed the "Tennessee Waltz" has led to the arrest of several lawmakers. But the probe isn't the state's first dance with scandal. Government corruption cases dot the past three decades of Tennessee history. In the 1970s, the "TennPar" investigation found that associates of then-Gov. Ray Blanton were selling pardons, while another corruption probe in the late '80s and early '90s broke up illegal gambling rings run by bingo operators.
Bruce Oppenheimer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, noted that government scandals run in cycles but "you don't want this to be normal procedure."
"These things happen all over the place, and the frequency depends on the political culture," Oppenheimer said. "My sense is that when you have a cleanup like this, in following elections you have more focus on candidates' character."
The current federal investigation, nicknamed the "Tennessee Waltz," examined how state contracts were awarded during former state Gov. Don Sundquist's administration.
The fallout has led to multiple arrests, and state Sen. John Ford has resigned from office after more than 30 years in the Senate. Besides Ford, Sens. Kathryn Bowers and Ward Crutchfield; Rep. Chris Newton; and former state Sen. Roscoe Dixon were charged with taking bribes from a phony company created by the FBI.
Ford also was charged with threatening to kill a witness.
Gov. Phil Bredesen said he realized the "public's confidence in state government has been shaken," and was prepared to call a special session this summer to consider tougher ethics laws.
Tennessee has some of the weakest ethics laws in the nation. Lawmakers are not required to disclose sources of income, and lobbyists do not have to report how much they spend wining and dining legislators. A new law makes it a crime for Tennessee lawmakers to receive consulting fees.
Before his arrest Thursday, Ford had attracted state and federal investigations into his business dealings, work on behalf of state contractors and campaign spending. His troubles were credited as the impetus behind a tough ethics bill passed by the Legislature this session.
Bredesen cautioned that the recent arrests suggest further reform may be needed.
"If so we are committed to constructing and passing such legislation," Bredesen said last week
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050530/NEWS0201/505300382
On March 16, Sen. John Ford told the Senate Ethics Committee that he was flabbergasted by its accusation.
"For me to sit here and be accused of violating an ethics rule is beyond me," Ford said.
The next day, according to a federal indictment, Ford accepted a $5,000 cash bribe for agreeing to influence legislation proposed by a fake company created by the FBI.
Big deal. We have all kinds of ethics laws in NYS. They break'em anyway. This is what happens when voters elect crooks to public office. Character counts.
The "everybody does it" defense. Yuch. P-tooie.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050529/NEWS0201/505290413/1010/NEWS02
Chirlane Murray, 27, a barber at the shop, was more forgiving."Everybody does it. They just got caught," Murray said. "He got charged because he's black."
Ford and Bowers, both Democrats and blacks, were indicted last week on charges of extortion, bribery and conspiracy in the Operation Tennessee Waltz sting. Ford, who resigned yesterday from the Senate seat he had held for 31 years, has also been charged additionally with threatening and intimidating undercover agents and informants.
Murray, like other Memphians interviewed by The Tennessean, said she believes racial politics had a hand in the arrests.
"White folks do it all the time," Murray said. "They're just trying to get him out as a politician — make his name so bad that nobody would vote for him."
Fellow barber Henry Wilburn, 28, interrupted, saying, "I would still vote for him."
The east Memphis man, who used to live in Ford's district, said, "I think they were out to get him … They haven't proved anything. He's done a good job" as a senator.
Wow.
Just wondering why we aren't hearing anything about this from the national TV talking heads...could it have something to do with Mr. Goodie 2-shoes Harold Ford trying to take the Frist seat...isn't there something like the apple falling close to the tree thing they are always using on R's...just curious???
From the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
'Tricky' timing?
A May 27 letter to the editor was headlined "Junior a victim of bad timing." I suggest it is far more likely that he is the victim of perfect timing by the Bush administration's successors to "Tricky Dick" Nixon's "dirty tricks" operation.
William Singleton
Memphis
Ford is the most arrogant POS to ever darken the doors of the capitol building.
Tennessee: Home of Buford Pusser and his crusade against grassroots corruption.
Of course they'd vote for him again. It doesn't matter if he fathered 100 (more) children out of wedlock, raped his sister, robbed a bank, or whatever. His constituents vote for him primarily because he's black, and no conviction will alter that fact. They also keep voting him in because they think it makes Whitey mad (and it does).
I was living in east Memphis when Harold Ford Sr. (John's brother) said he would go around taking the addresses of the "east Memphis white devils" who voted for his Republican opponent (who also happened to be black).
I went out and got one of his opponent's campaign signs out of a neighbor's trash can and put it up in my yard, and left it there for three months. So did some of my neighbors.
Oh, there's a bit more to it than just that....
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