Looking for liberal we'll like voting for (Wendi Thomas)

The Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 9/28/06 | Webdi Thomas

[Sybeck1]

There are more than five weeks to go before the midterm elections, and I'm already sick of the ubiquitous Senate campaign ads on TV -- especially those from the Johnny one-note former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker.

I know, I know, he's just doing the Republicans' well-practiced three-step shuffle -- repeating buzz words, labeling Democrats as evil people and ignoring the massive failures of the last six years. The spots that feature Corker's overbearing mother are quickly becoming as annoying as the "Head-On! Apply directly to the forehead!" ads.

For this voter, who isn't exactly a fan of the Democratic candidate, either, this name-calling blather is not scaring me off the fence -- especially not the ads that accuse Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of being a liberal.

Really? That's wonderful, if unsubstantiated, news.

I, like my colleague columnist David Waters, find liberal to be a quite delightful term.

Liberal, as in generous, not stingy. Open-minded and willing to listen, if not agree, with a range of viewpoints, not given to sticking fingers deep into ears at the first sound of an opposing opinion.

Full of true compassion for life, not pseudo-compassion for the unborn. You know, the kind that opposes anything but abstinence-only sex education, rails against a woman's right to choose, then derides women who have more children than they can support.

So every time a Corker campaign ad brands Ford as Tennessee's "most liberal" congressman, I get giddy at the possibilities.

The conservative, Republican-dominated Congress hasn't done much I'm proud of since President Bush took office.

Come Nov. 7, there's a chance that the Democrats could gain enough seats to right this listing ship.

For those of us who think a course correction is in order -- a recent poll shows 69 percent of Americans say the nation is off-track -- a vote for Ford would appear to be the wise choice.

Except that Ford is fighting mightily to cast himself as virtually identical to Corker.

Ford, like Corker, is against gay marriage. Ford, like Corker, is against a woman's right to choose.

Corker says he's tough on crime. Me too, Ford says. Corker says he supports the military's efforts in Iraq. Same here, Ford says.

The most significant difference between the two that I can see is on another hot-button issue: immigration reform, where Ford has demonstrated far more common sense than Corker.

The Chattanooga mayor calls simply for a stronger border and immediate deportation of undocumented workers.

How naive, not to mention devastating to California farmers, who this season watched tons of fruit rot on the trees and on the ground, because migrant workers couldn't get into the state for harvest time.

If -- and this is a big if -- we are really so outraged at the strain some claim that taxpaying, hardworking, opportunity-seeking undocumented immigrants put on our schools and our healthcare system, then there's a fairly simple fix: Round up all the employers who hire illegal immigrants and put them in jail.

In 1999, during the Clinton administration, the government levied fines against 417 companies that hired illegal workers. Guess how many companies the Bush administration levied fines against in 2004? Three.

The Republican jaw-flapping on immigration reform is just that -- a tired, meaningless song xenophobes love to hear and Corker loves to sing.

The most honest message in the litter of Corker's ads is this: The Republicans are getting scared. This is a race they could lose; the latest Rasmussen poll shows Ford just 6 percentage points behind the Corkster.

For Ford, the liberal except when he isn't, and for progressives who wear the L-word proudly, that's a campaign tune we could listen to all night.

Contact Wendi C. Thomas by e-mail, or call (901) 529-5896.

[Sybeck1]

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/nov/11/black-peoples-reality-02/

I just saw this. This sounds like it could all be made up to me.