Free Republic

According to MSNBC's Chris Matthews, if Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford loses Tuesday, you can blame it on white conservatives. On Sunday morning, as he appeared in a segment hosted by Alex Witt, Matthews chided whites for an unwillingness to vote for black politicians, contending that "blacks vote for whites," but "whites don't vote for blacks." Matthews added that in states with large black populations, fear leads whites to become conservative Republicans. Matthews: "The larger the black population, where the whites are afraid historically, and in Deep South states, they tend to become very conservative Republican out of fear, whatever,...

On Tuesday night former Representative Harold Ford, now chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, said that Democrats would win in 2008 “because the country needs a change”. That got me wondering just what changes the Democrats would have in mind for us if they won. Since the Bush policies led us out of the Clinton recession of 2000 and also the post 9/11 crash, and resulted in seven years of growth, prosperity and record-breaking, continuous low unemployment, would the Democrat changes reverse this record? Or how about the trillion dollar tax increase that the Chairman of the Democrat-controlled Ways and...

We ended the last century with America's economic might at its zenith, with Americans at their most optimistic, and with nearly all who endeavored to make the most of their opportunities and talents getting ahead in life. John F. Kennedy's declaration that a rising tide will lift all boats was alive and well. Middle-class Americans generate little or no national savings. We've had four straight years of rising productivity and falling incomes. Many Americans are earning less, while the costs of a middle-class life have soared: In the last five years, college costs are up 50 percent, health care up...

"They'll find their way back to the middle. And if they don't, they won't win." So says a blunt Harold Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, of his party's current crop of presidential candidates. The question is just how many would-be Democratic presidents recognize the wisdom of his words. Mr. Ford is in a feisty mood throughout our chat, as well he might be given the shelling his group has recently endured at the keyboards of the far left. Skip back 15 years, and the DLC stood as the proud architect of Bill Clinton's "New Democrat" campaign victory....

The much ballyhooed debate on "Meet the Press" between former Congressman Harold Ford Jr. and Markos Moulitsas, publisher of the liberal Daily Kos website, was instructive for what it revealed about both the divisions in the Democratic Party and the underlying disingenuousness of both factions. Ford was defending the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), an organization that holds itself out as centrist, urges the Democratic Party to move in that direction, and proudly claims former President Bill Clinton as its most honored member. Moulitsas was there to represent the more leftist wing of the party, which has used his website to...

ONE woman's not enough for 37-year-old bachelor Harold Ford Jr.. The former Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Tennessee was holed up at Blue Ribbon Sushi on Sullivan Street with three blondes on Wednesday night. "They all stayed until 2 a.m. singing and dancing, and he was pretty tipsy," one onlooker snickered.

Congressman Harold Ford rips free republic on Sean Hannity show. Congressman says "FR posts nasty things about blacks, hispanics, and women"

Markos Moulitsas to Debate Harold Ford Jr. on ‘Meet the Press’ By Noel Sheppard | August 11, 2007 - 19:33 ET After the press spent last weekend gushing over liberal bloggers with nothing but glowing coverage of the YearlyKos convention in Chicago, the media's fascination with the Netroots continued with reckless abandon this weekend. On Saturday, the Washington Post published an op-ed by Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, to be followed by a debate on Sunday's "Meet the Press" between the head Kossack and the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, Harold Ford, Jr. Are media recognizing the power of...

The Honorable Harold Ford, Jr. Chairman Democratic Leadership Council 600 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 400 Washington, D.C. 20003 Dear Rep. Ford, I appeared with you on the O’Reilly Factor on July 31, 2007, in my capacity as spokesman for FreeRepublic.com to discuss politics on the Internet. The host, Bill O’Reilly, falsely accused FreeRepublic.com of having the following comments on its site: "Homosexuals are dogs," "I hate blacks," "Hillary Clinton should be assassinated," and "A stray bullet should kill her." To be blunt, those comments were made up by the O’Reilly Factor. The O’Reilly Factor was not able to provide documentation...

<p>I taped a segment on the O'Reilly Factor for airing tonight to defend Free Republic against charges that it is a hate site. The segment will air in the 'D block' around 8:35 p.m. EDT and rerun at 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. EDT.</p>

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe’s communications director said Monday he is temporarily leaving the governor’s office to work on New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Zac Wright — who was communications director for former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., and is a former press secretary for the Tennessee Democratic Party — said he is taking a leave of absence beginning June 20 to work as communications director for Clinton’s South Carolina primary campaign. Wright has served as Beebe’s communications director since the inauguration in January. He said he accepted the job with Clinton and told Beebe about...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. has joined FOX News to provide political commentary and analysis on international events and the 2008 election, the cable network announced Wednesday. Ford, a Democrat, served in the U.S. House representing Memphis for 10 years. He lost a close U.S. Senate race to Republican Bob Corker in November. Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of FOX News, said Ford’s “wealth of experience and insight will be key to FOX as we endeavor to stay on top of fast-moving events around the world and here in our own country. “The upcoming presidential...

The Rockefellers and Iran: Jay Rockefeller’s Reversal and the Iranian-American LobbyBy Fedora In 1979, Rockefeller representatives launched an unsuccessful operation to lobby the Carter administration in support of the Shah of Iran, who was seeking safe haven in the wake of a coup by Islamic revolutionaries. Codenamed Project Alpha, the operation was spearheaded by Chase Manhattan Bank Chairman David Rockefeller and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, with support from oil lobby lawyer John McCloy. Although Project Alpha won the support of National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, it met opposition from Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and failed to win...

Prosecutors eye Rolex to show a pattern of payoffs. Just when it seemed John Ford's legal troubles couldn't get worse, enter a $40,000 wristwatch of questionable origin. Federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday that Ford received the watch -- a diamond-studded Rolex Masterpiece -- in 2004 from prominent Memphis developer Rusty Hyneman. Ford once asserted he got the watch free of charge after using his influence to try to reduce state pollution fines levied against Hyneman, prosecutors said. Neither Hyneman nor Ford has been charged in connection with the watch transaction, yet prosecutors plan to use it as evidence that Ford, who...

Interviewing Rick Davis, chairman of John McCain's presidential exploratory committee, on MSNBC at about 11:45 AM today, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell [NB file photo] demanded to know why McCain had hired Terry Nelson as his campaign manager. She described Nelson as "the man who was behind that dreadful commercial against Harold Ford. This is John McCain, the victim of these kinds of attacks in the South Carolina primary and other primaries back in 2000." "Dreadful"? How about "funny and on the mark"? Who declared the ad "dreadful" other than the DNC and the MSM? Could Andrea be taking her...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Former state Sen. John Ford, already awaiting trial in a public corruption case, has been indicted on new charges over consulting deals he had with state contractors while serving in the Legislature, federal prosecutors announced Monday. Ford, a Memphis Democrat, resigned from the Legislature after he was indicted on charges of taking bribes in 2004's Tennessee Waltz undercover corruption investigation. He has pleaded not guilty in that case, and no trial date has been set. The latest charges claim that Ford was serving as a consultant to two contractors with TennCare, the state's expanded Medicaid program,...

Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean, arguing that his stubborn commitment to the 50-state strategy and his stinginess with funds for House races cost the Democrats several pickup opportunities. The candidate being floated to replace Dean? Harold Ford. Says James Carville, one of the anti-Deaniacs, "Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in Tennessee. I just appointed myself his campaign manager."

NASHVILLE -- In his race for U.S. Senate, Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. (D) has been outspent by millions, and his image has been battered by a barrage of negative ads, including the now-infamous spot with a blonde floozy that has been pulled off the air. Several polls show him trailing...But being an underdog has its own righteous appeal, and the campaign used that status yesterday not only to rally voters but as evidence that God had looked with favor upon the Democratic campaign. The fact that they are still in the race despite the odds, Ford told an African...

John Kerry hasn't tucked tail and run this fast since his third Purple Heart in Vietnam. Then he wanted to get out of the free fire of the Viet Cong; now he wants out of the free fire of truth and analysis. Nonetheless, the world should take note of John Kerry, because this week he has given us all an indisputable truth. Liberals must lie, deceive, distort and – for lack of better terms – shuck and jive when it comes to their actual beliefs. They must do so constantly to attempt to trick mainstream Americans as to what they...

In the hotly contested contest for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker has jumped into a double-digit lead over Rep. Harold Ford Jr., according to a Zogby poll. The race had been a statistical tie in a number of recent polls, but Corker’s 10-point lead in the new Zogby survey follows several gaffes by Ford, including an attempt to confront Corker at a press conference and an attack on the religious values of Republicans. As Of Monday, Corker led by 53 percent to Ford's 43 percent in the...

Is this for real? I just heard on the news that Clinton was in Tennessee today campaigning for Harold Ford. Please tell me TN. hasn't gone over to the dark side and gives this slime a high enough approval rating that Ford felt safe bringing him in to campaign for him? That's the only reason Ford would have brought him in if Ford's polls showed enough Tennesseans like Clinton that the risk to bring him in to campaign was minimal. I really can't believe the people of TN. would fall for this corrupt and amoral trash Bill Clinton while Bush...

At the recent annual meeting of News Corporation, parent of Fox News, I informed chairman Rupert Murdoch that Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that he made a financial contribution to Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford.

Dems love God more than Republicans, says candidate Harold Ford Jr. says there are differences 'when it comes to our faith' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: October 30, 2006 5:00 p.m. Eastern Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn. (CNN.com) In a key race that could determine control of the Senate, Democrat Harold Ford Jr. appealed to Tennessee's traditional-values voters in a campaign speech, declaring his party has the upper hand when it comes to faith in God. "Republicans fear the Lord, Democrats fear and love the Lord," the congressman told an audience in Paris, Tenn., Saturday. The video can be seen here at HotAir.com...

HAROLD FORD, JR.: My friend Lincoln Davis who chairs our campaign says there are, there’s one big difference between us and misfortunate Republicans when it comes to our faith: he said that Republicans fear the Lord; he said Democrats fear AND love the Lord Wow! What a statement! I don't doubt that many Democrats fear And love the lord, but what would make this man come to the conclusion that Republicans only fear the lord? That is what he said. He noted there was a difference between Republican and Democrat faith in God and that the difference was the lack...

HAROLD Ford, a handsome 36-year-old from Tennessee, has become one of the sensations of the mid-term elections in the US and a reason why Democrats are a good chance of winning back control of the US Congress for the first time in 12 years. But if Mr Ford, already a US congressman, wins his bid to become a more powerful senator, Australia had better watch out. Because according to Mr Ford, Australia has an interest in nuclear weapons and is part of the broader nuclear threat to the US.

HAROLD Ford, a handsome 36-year-old from Tennessee, has become one of the sensations of the mid-term elections in the US and a reason why Democrats are a good chance of winning back control of the US Congress for the first time in 12 years. But if Mr Ford, already a US congressman, wins his bid to become a more powerful senator, Australia had better watch out. Because according to Mr Ford, Australia has an interest in nuclear weapons and is part of the broader nuclear threat to the US. In a speech to county government officials yesterday in Knoxville, Mr...

I was watching with great humor last night as Prissy Mathews was going on and on about the racist RNC as about Harold Ford and the Superbowl Party. Now he and his guests said it was pandering to the racists in Tenn to show a white woman and imply that whites see this kind of raltionship as a taboo, especially in the south. Well, I decided to do a little checking and thanks to the wonder of the internet, found that Harold Jr. actually has dated white women, and here is her website..... http://www.juliaallison.com/ Now I know the freepers have...

Harold Ford Jr video, my transcript below.I am on dialup and got the parts I found humorous - he was very PIOUSLY outraged :)

VIDEO!!!!! Harold Ford Sr., the father of Tennessee Democrat Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. (D), called pro-life activists who were outside of his son’s campaign headquarters “crackers”. Ford Sr. was on a cell phone telling the recipient “we have a cracker here with the Corker people.” says cracker TWICEthis has to get out the libs won't let it if we don't put their feet to the fire

MIDI - IF THEY COULD SEE ME NOW I'm Harold Ford...sometimes I'm bored So first I go to church and there I praise the Lord But then I know where I must go It's the place where luscious babes are letting most of their skin show If they could see me now, what would the voters say With Playboy bunnies I just love to come and play I like the way that they are shaking their tush I will enjoy myself while slamming George Bush If they could see me now, I wonder what they'd think I love those...

On last night's Hardball, Chris Matthews hinted at what he had in mind regarding the ad the RNC has been running in Tennessee about Dem senatorial candidate Harold Ford, Jr. Claimed Chris: "It has ethnic overtones, sexual overtones."Tonight, Matthews took an ugly, explicit leap down into the atavistic mud. Interviewing Sen. Dick Durbin [D-IL] - who was relatively reserved in his comments - Matthews began by asserting that the RNC's goal in running the ad was to "get their point across to perhaps angry white voters, or people who had a problem with a black senator already."Later, Matthews embraced the...

In the increasingly close Senate race to fill the seat being vacated by current Majority Leader Bill Frist, Republicans are increasingly homing in on one soft spot for current Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr.: his long political pedigree. Although former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker pledged initially to leave Ford's family members out of the race, he attacked them bluntly in a recent debate and a TV ad launched last week. Ford's father, Harold Ford Sr., served as a congressman in the district currently represented by Ford for 22 years; seven other Fords have held political office, including positions in the...

The Republican National Committee has pulled from the airways a controversial ad demeaning Senate Democratic nominee Harold Ford Jr. The RNC apparently intends to replace the ad. The Senate Republican nominee Bob Corker had asked that the ad be taken down, calling it "tacky." "We felt like it was tasteless and didn't reflect the kind of campaign we were running," said Corker spokesman Todd Womack. The ad, called "Who hasn't," began running Friday. In the ad, a man in sunglasses says of Ford, "So he took money from porn movie producers. Who hasn't?" The ad continues with a bare-shouldered blond...

Referring to an RNC ad as the "Mehlman cesspool," Chris Matthews was being non-partisan. Really - he told us so! On this afternoon's Hardball, Matthews interviewed Rep. Harold Ford, Jr., Dem candidate for senator from Tennessee. The first topic up was an ad the RNC is currently running using actors to tweak Ford on his positions on a variety of issues, from taxes to gun control to North Korea. The ad also alludes to the fact that Ford attended a Playboy party at the Super Bowl in Jacksonville in 2005.At the ad's end, an alluring woman saying she met Harold...

Help needed with YouTube link

The mudslide in the Smoky Mountains continued all weekend in the Tennessee Senate race, to the point where Representative Harold Ford Jr., the Democrat, bus-stormed a news conference by his Republican opponent, Bob Corker, to complain about advertisements aimed at his family’s political troubles and now at himself. Last Friday the Corker campaign tried to distance itself from a Republican National Committee commercial that juxtaposes women and men talking about Mr. Ford’s good looks with suggestions that he took money from pornographers, was seen at a Playboy function and at the end, has a white blonde asking him to call...

Democratic congressional candidate Steve Cohen said Friday that Harold Ford Sr.'s work for his son Jake's campaign against Cohen is hurting Harold Ford Jr.'s bid for the U.S. Senate. Cohen said Jake Ford's independent candidacy for the 9th Congressional District seat is "overreaching." He said he suspects that Ford Sr.'s heavy involvement in Jake's campaign, Ford Jr.'s failure to endorse Cohen as the Democratic nominee, and remarks Ford Sr. has made about Cohen will cost Junior votes in his Senate race. The comments prompted a strong written statement from Ford Jr.'s campaign. It read, in part: "Now, it appears that...

Video: Harold Ford, Unhinged What a moron. What is going on down there in Tennessee that this guy even registers over 30%? Immature liberal whacko.

The Bob Corker for U.S. Senate campaign today denounced a new Republican National Committee ad that began airing today which, the campaign says, is “over the top, tacky and is not reflective of the kind of campaign we are running.” “The new RNC ad we have just seen on our local broadcast outlets is tacky, over the top and is not reflective of the kind of campaign we are running,” said Tom Ingram, campaign chairman for the Corker campaign. “While we cannot legally communicate directly with the RNC regarding ads of this nature, we can certainly do so through the...

In an unscripted, unscheduled moment in an intense campaign for the U.S. Senate Friday, Democrat Harold Ford Jr. confronted Republican Bob Corker on a Memphis parking lot outside where Corker had scheduled a press conference on lobbying reform and ethics. "It's good to see you," Ford shouted as Corker approached him outside the Wilson Air offices, a tape of the encounter provided by WREG-TV shows. "I'd love to debate you on this Iraq thing." Ford, continuing to walk toward Corker with camera crews in tow, then tells Corker that, although Corker dismissed plans to partition Iraq into three semi-autonomous enclaves...

Faced with a noon deadline, former state senator John Ford kept himself out of jail by making a court-ordered child-support payment of $4,597 at 11:13 this morning at Juvenile Court. Ford, 64, got his monthly payments reduced this week by 40 percent, but Referee Harold Horne also ordered him to make a purge payment or be held in contempt for falling behind in his child support obligations. By Thursday Ford had paid $8,500, but Horne said he would be jailed by noon today if Ford did not make another payment of $4,597. Juvenile Court Clerk Steve Stamson said Ford paid...

I want to record this for histroy. Let us hope he does not win.

Democrat's spending, tax policy criticized; campaign decries 'slander' -- NASHVILLE - A group funded by a Texan who was also the leading financer of "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" has become the first independent political organization to enter the TV advertising war in Tennessee's U.S. Senate campaign. The Free Enterprise Fund, a "527" political organization based in Washington, D.C., began airing ads in Middle and West Tennessee on Tuesday that attack Democrat Harold Ford Jr. for "living it up on campaign cash but pushing higher taxes for Tennessee families." The Ford campaign promptly denounced the ad and the organization. A...

WASHINGTON--The National Republican Senatorial Committee released the following radio advertisement today in Tennessee: Title: "Left Lane"- Radio Script: MAN 1: "Pretty sweet, huh." MAN 2: "Never seen anything quite like it..." MAN 1: "Oh, it's smooth alright." MAN 2: "Listen to that baby go..." MAN 1: "Fast. Slick. Flashy. All the bells and whistles. It's the fanciest Ford on the lot. One problem." MAN 2: "What?" MAN 1: "It's a Harold Ford Jr. Looks good. Sounds good. But it only runs in the left lane." ANNOUNCER: "Harold Ford Jr. He's slick. He's smooth. But he's still the most liberal Congressman...

One minor argument in the Tennessee Senate race is over Rep. Harold Ford's reported attendance at a Super Bowl party thrown by Playboy magazine in Jacksonville in 2005. Republicans, who note that Ford has taped a campaign ad inside a church, accuse him of hypocrisy — of partying with Playmates and then promoting himself as a man of faith. Today, Ford was asked about it on ABC's "This Week": STEPHANOPOULOS: Republicans put up an ad calling you a hypocrite. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANNOUNCER: Harold Ford says... FORD: I won't let them make me someone I'm not. ANNOUNCER: Fair enough. So...

One of this fall’s biggest controversies over mixing politics and religion came courtesy of Tennessee Democratic Rep. Harold Ford. No, he wasn’t the one yelling about the inappropriate expropriation of faith for political ends, as you would expect of most Democrats. He’s the alleged offender. This fact alone goes a long way toward explaining why Ford could win a race for a Republican-held Senate seat in Tennessee and help tip control of the body to the Democrats. Ford’s ad had him walking between pews in Mount Moriah East Baptist Church, where he was baptized as a child. It prompted howls...

In the early 1990s, during and after the time his congressman father fought bank fraud charges, Newton "Jake" Ford was arrested for assaulting his father and a former girlfriend, marijuana possession and driving while intoxicated. He said Thursday morning that his actions were a reaction to the stress the family was experiencing. Later in the interview, he said the marijuana and DWI arrests were unwarranted. Fifteen years after the charges leading to Jake Ford’s arrests were dropped, details of his past have surfaced as he campaigns for the Ninth District seat once held by his father, Harold Ford Sr., and...

SurveyUSA has two new polls out tonight one in the House and one in the Senate that show Republicans Bob Corker in Tennessee and Rep. Geoff Davis in KY-4 actually picking up support since their previous polls in September. In Tennessee in polling taken all post-Foley (Oct 7-9) Bob Corker is now ahead of Rep. Harold Ford (Corker 48% - Ford 46%) in the battle for the seat held by retiring Majority Leader Bill Frist. That is a 5-point turnaround for Corker since SurveyUSA's last poll. In Kentucky's 4th congressional district Rep. Geoff Davis has seen a seven-point swing since...

Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Harold Ford Jr. referred to himself as a lawyer earlier this week, but the congressman has not passed the bar exam. Michael Powell, senior adviser to the Ford campaign, said U.S. Rep. Ford took the Tennessee bar exam in February 1997 and failed. He said that was the only time Rep. Ford has taken the test. Rep. Ford, of Memphis, got his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996, according to his congressional Web site.

Remember all the talk from the Democrats about not mixing religion and politics? Well, it is just talk. When it comes to blatantly mixing religion and politics for advancing themselves in campaigns, the Democrats are not at all shy about wearing religion on their sleeves. But will the media notice? A case in point is Harold Ford, Jr. who recently filmed a  campaign commercial for the U.S. Senate from Tennessee attacking his opponent, Bob Corker, from the interior of a church. As you can see in this video, Ford is not the least bit shy about using a church as...