Free Republic

NASHVILLE -- Democratic senatorial candidate Harold Ford Jr. charged Friday that opponent Bob Corker's new statewide TV ad saying that Ford voted against reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act is a "lie." The Memphis congressman's remarks followed a news conference at the Tennessee Vietnam Veterans Memorial here where he and about two dozen military veterans announced formation of a Veterans for Ford group. Ford rejected claims by Republican Corker that he has a "weak record in protecting America," including the charge in a new Corker TV ad that Ford voted against renewing the Patriot Act. The anti-terrorism law originally passed following...

John Ford says he's financially strapped, but the indicted former state senator is still living the high life, a lawyer argued Thursday. Ford applied for tags for a new, $80,000 Mercedes on the very day he filed court papers seeking a reduction in his court-ordered child support. Then, about four weeks ago, Ford bought a $40,000 BMW, said government child support attorney Joe Little. All the while, Little told a Juvenile Court judge, Ford has missed child support payments month after month and hidden bank and tax documents that detail his true income. "He has thumbed his nose at your...

Bill Clinton will help stoke Senate kickoff after primary NASHVILLE -- Harold Ford Jr. is planning a big general election U.S. Senate campaign rally here the day after the Aug. 3 primary -- with help from a high-powered guest. Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to spend Aug. 4 in Tennessee with Ford, helping to raise campaign money for him and the Democratic Party and -- tentatively -- ending with a rally at LP Field, the recently renamed home of the Tennessee Titans. Ford's campaign said Thursday it has no announcement on the event yet and state Democratic Party spokesman...

Was the matriarch of a Memphis political dynasty a white woman who married into a black family? Or was she a black woman with a white forefather buried in her lineage, a past shared with millions of black people?And why does it matter?Vera D. Ford The race of Vera Ford, the paternal grandmother of U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., came up when Harold Jr. declared she was white while campaigning for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee. His statement, first reported in December in a USA Today profile of the congressman, surprised many longtime Memphians who knew the Ford family and...