Free Republic

SCOTT BROWN’S victory last week in the Massachusetts Senate race, following the Republican gubernatorial triumphs in New Jersey and Virginia, marked the third time in three months that the Democratic Party has lost the support and trust of independent voters. The message these voters sent was clear. With one out of five Americans unemployed or underemployed, President Obama and the Democratic Party need to shift attention away from health care and toward a bold effort to create jobs, improve the economy and rein in the size of government. Here are four simple steps we must take immediately to put us,...

Despite talk about a possible run for the U.S. Senate seat in New York, former Memphis Congressman Harold E. Ford Jr. still lists a condo on South Front Street as his home. He shows the Downtown address as his primary residency on records with the Shelby County Election Commission. And he last cast a ballot in Shelby County during the November 2008 presidential election. "He voted at an early-voting site for the November 2008 general election," Shelby County Election Administrator Richard Holden confirmed Tuesday. Holden said election records indicate that Ford has listed 415 S. Front, Unit 12, as his...

If it was up to Harold Ford Jr. NY State would be changing its name from the Empire State to the carpet-bagger State. The former Tennessee Congressman is threatening to mount a primary challenge against NY Senator Kristen Kirsten Gillibrand who was named to fill the seat of another carpet-bagger, Hillary Clinton. Ford, who lost his bid to be Senator from Tennessee in 2006 claims he has been a resident of New York State for the past three years is still registered to vote in Tennessee and voted in Memphis in the 2008 Election when he was supposedly a NY...

In the days since floating a possible run for Kirsten Gillibrand’s senate seat, Harold Ford Jr. — former Democratic congressman from Tennessee, current vice chairman at Merrill Lynch, dashing MSNBC talking head and the party’s next great black hope — has already upended New York politics. This week, Mayor Bloomberg, along with high-powered members of the Democratic Party’s machine, telegraphed their support for a Ford candidacy; one day later, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Gillibrand supporter, told Ford to back off. By late Thursday, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid had asked Bloomberg to stay out of it, and by Friday afternoon, Ford...

Could Ford be a fan? On Morning Joe today, Harold Ford, Jr., the former-congressman-turned-professor, commenting on the Cambridge brouhaha, said: “I think, look, the guy [Officer Crowley] did the right thing. My only question is once you determine there was no break-in, guy may be yakking off, I don’t care if he’s black or white, his name is Gates or Johnson . . . or Finkelstein. You don’t arrest a guy in his home.” View video here.

Harold Ford, Jr. is the epitome of the equivocating politician who tries to play things both ways. But that strategy came a cropper for the MSNBC contributor on Morning Joe today. Ford claimed that though Letterman was wrong to make sexual jokes about Sarah Palin's teenage daughter, somehow the Palins are "unique," and thus presumably an understandable target. Mika Brzezinski came down on him. A clearly uncomfortable Ford was soon seeking cover. View video here.

WASHINGTON — Former Memphis Congressman Harold Ford Jr. is taking exception to MSNBC host Chris Matthews’ suggestion that Ford’s views on torture after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were “veering into Cheney territory.” Ford sent an e-mail message to the Washington bureau of The Commercial Appeal today to clarify that he is “adamantly opposed to torture,” but that, “given the environment that our intelligence officials were operating in after 9/11, it is not surprising that ‘enhanced methods’ were executed in an effort to gain valuable and, in some cases, actionable, intelligence…” Any effort to link me to former Vice President...

And, of course, Chris Matthews goes apoplectic, while Chris Cillizza wisely stays on the sidelines — and, one presumes, jots down notes quickly for a Fix update. Matthews starts spluttering about “Cheney talk” and completely misses Ford’s point, which should shock no one (via Instapundit):

GUEST COLUMN: In addition to universal health care, our next president should create an American Center for Cures -- a cabinet-level authority charged with fighting life-threatening disease. By the time our next president takes the office, 50 million Americans will be living and working without health insurance. By the time he or she seeks re-election, health care costs in the United States will reach $3 trillion -- with medical costs rising twice as fast as workers' wages. For those reasons, health care is at the center of the presidential debate this year. We believe America needs a universal health care...

After last week's developments on the campaign trail, it seems highly unlikely that Barack Obama would agree to be Hillary Clinton's vice presidential running mate. But would Harold Ford Jr.? Several days ago, Clinton's campaign floated the idea of selecting Obama as her running mate as a way of keeping Democrats unified in the November election. Obama shot that idea down the day before his win last week in the Mississippi primary. So if Clinton were to win the nomination, where else might she turn to find a running mate who could appeal to Obama's supporters, who include large numbers...

State doesn't penalize lobbyists who skip ethics training

NASHVILLE — While some national Democratic figures are getting rid of contributions collected from Norman Hsu, the Tennessee Democratic party and Harold Ford Jr. have no such plans. Hsu, who a major donor and fundraiser Democratic causes, was jailed last week in California on fraud charges dating back almost 15 years. The Tennessee Democratic party received $58,000 from Hsu last year — $38,000 to the party’s fund for state campaigns and $20,000 to the party’s fund for federal campaigns. Ford received $14,700 in three contributions during 2005 and 2006. Other Democrats, including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have...

Nearly nine out of 10 journalists who made political donations gave to Democrats or left-wing groups, according to a bombshell new investigation into media bias - and perhaps the most shocking name on the list was the writer of "The Ethicist" column for The New York Times. The probe by MSNBC investigative reporter Bill Dedman revealed the names of 144 employees - reporters, editors, producers - from media organizations nationwide who have lined the candidates' pockets since '04. Underscoring the leftward tilt of the press, 125 of the workers, or 87 percent, ponied up only to Democrats and liberal causes,...

Defeat’s been kind to Harold Ford Jr.

Today I'd like to award my first "On the Pipe" awards to Memphis City Councilmen Rickey Peete and Edmund Ford, both arrested Thursday on public corruption charges. No insult to addicts intended, this award goes to anyone whose behavior is so bizarre, so devoid of any common sense, so head-scratchingly stupid that the only explanation is a serious addiction to the crack pipe. What makes Ford's and Peete's stupidity so memorable, so worthy of the "On the Pipe" award is the timing. In August and October, federal prosecutors say Ford took a total of $6,900 in bribes to get the...

With a hidden video camera rolling, Memphis City Councilman Edmund Ford allegedly pocketed a $1,900 payoff from a government informant in October, then promised results. "I'll drum up seven (votes) or make somebody walk out." That was among allegations levied Thursday against council members Ford and Rickey Peete, who were arrested by FBI agents on federal bribery charges accusing them of accepting thousands of dollars from an informant in exchange for their votes. In the second major local public corruption investigation in two years, authorities say secret audio and video recordings show the pair received cash payments -- $12,000 for...

Congratulations to The Weak-ly Standard. The "conservative" magazine did a wonderful job promoting Democrat senatorial candidates Jim Webb, Harold Ford Jr., and Jon Tester in it's last two issues immediately preceding Tuesday's election. The Standard wrote a long tribute to Webb, calling him a "blood and soil conservative". Despite Harold Ford Jr.'s very low ACU lifetime congressional voting record of 19, the Standard tried to portray him as being similar to his conservative opponent Bob Corker on the issues. Apparently, the magazine was enamored of the notion of having little Harold in the U.S. Senate. But, most outrageously, the last...

Is Rep. Harold Ford, the Democratic nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee, pro-life? Certainly, over the past month he has repeatedly claimed the pro-life label. For example, on Tucker Carlson's program on MSNBC on October 30, Ford said, "I'm pro-life, I'm pro-life, Tucker, so I mean, I don't run from that ..." Although Carlson expressed some skepticism about the claim, it has been accepted at face value and repeated as fact by many other journalists, and even by some conservative commentators. Journalists do their readers and viewers a disservice when they accept and repeat such claims without...

It's not just Chris Matthews who sees racial bogeymen behind the RNC's now-famous ad [view here] with a Playboy bunny inviting Harold Ford, Jr. to "call me."On last evening's "Beltway Boys," good old moderate Mort Kondracke claimed the Republicans designed the ad to "stir up rednecks."Mort's fellow "Boy," Fred Barnes, was having none of it:"You have to be living in the 50's or 60's to think it is racist. . . There is absolutely nothing wrong. It amounts to the way Democrats play the race card and you fall for it."I'd say "bada-bing," but wouldn't want to be accused of...

Election officials say Tennessee’s tight U.S. Senate race and proposed constitutional amendments for elderly tax relief and banning samesex marriage have drawn voters to the polls in relatively high volume during the first few days of early voting. Through Saturday, more than 159,000 people had cast early and absentee votes statewide, according to the Tennessee Division of Elections. State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson said Tuesday that early voting turnout is at a higher pace than 2002, the last comparable statewide election. However, it is hard to determine if there will be a greater total turnout for the Nov. 7 election...