From The New York Times:
Under assault from allies of Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, former Congressman Harold E. Ford Jr. fired back on Friday afternoon, saying he would be not be “bullied or intimidated” by “party bosses” as he considers challenging her in this fall’s Democratic primary.
Mr. Ford’s interest in the race is triggering a growing sense of alarm within the Gillibrand camp, which has quickly sought to portray him as out of step with New York Democratic voters and, through supporters like Senator Charles E. Schumer, tried to dissuade him from entering the race.
In a swipe at those who have asked Mr. Ford to stay out of the primary contest, [Ford spokesman Davidson] Goldin said that New York needed a senator with the “independence to stand up and do what is right for our state, regardless of what the party bosses in Albany and Washington want.”
Yeah, ’cause it should be all about Harold Ford and what Harold Ford wants!
The vivid language and assertiveness in the statement suggest that, unlike other Democrats who considered challenging Ms. Gillibrand, Mr. Ford will not retreat because of pressure from party leaders or the White House. In fact, he seemed to openly question their intrusion into a potential primary fight. The possibility of a Ford candidacy has won backing from about a dozen influential Democratic donors in the state who regard Ms. Gillibrand as lackluster and untested and believe she has aligned herself too closely with Mr. Schumer. They include the financier Steven Rattner and his wife, Maureen, and the co-president of HBO, Richard Plepler. Mr. Ford, a five-term Tennessee congressman, moved to New York three years ago for a job in the banking industry.
Also of concern for Ms. Gillibrand are signs that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a billionaire with close ties to Wall Street, may favor Mr. Ford. On Thursday, two of the mayor’s top campaign strategists had lunch with Mr. Ford to help him map out a campaign strategy.
Mr. Bloomberg has clashed with Ms. Gillibrand over legislation, and has done little to hide his dissatisfaction with her.
Anxiety about a Bloomberg-Ford alliance prompted Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, to call the mayor on Thursday to discourage him from aiding Mr. Ford if he chooses to run, according to a senior Democratic official and an aide to Mr. Bloomberg.
…snip…
At the urging of Ms. Gillibrand’s aides, a number of traditional Democratic constituencies — abortion rights advocates, gay rights groups and labor unions — have described Mr. Ford as too conservative for the state. They point to his support for restrictions on abortion and opposition to same-sex marriage.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, who has endorsed Ms. Gillibrand, called Mr. Ford’s record “a disaster.”
From Megan Carpentier at Air America:
Four years ago, popular centrist Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford took at shot at becoming the first black Senator from the South since Reconstruction, a mere year after he finally got old enough to run and four years after he attempted to take on Nancy Pelosi for the coveted spot of Democratic Minority Leader. He failed, and more or less faded away from the political scene. Apparently, with time has not come wisdom.
Ford’s record as a Congressman is hardly the stuff liberals’ dreams are made of: he voted for constitutional amendments banning flag burning and allowing prayer in schools; calls himself pro-life and advocates for a federal ban on all abortions; voted for legislation limiting gun manufacturers’ liability in the courts; voted for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage; and criticized the Obama Administration on pursuing health care reform during a recession like a good little Republican. Today, he refused to say whether he would have even voted for health care, though he’s apparently flip-flopped on a federal ban on abortions now that he’s running in New York. And that’s to say nothing of his many other conservative votes on everything from the PATRIOT Act to REAL ID to the Partial Birth Abortion Ban to the Iraq War and, of all horrible things, to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo. His record reads like a conservative even as he swears he’s a Democrat.
Apparently, Ford didn’t get the memo that New Yorkers aren’t looking for someone more conservative than Gillibrand, the upstate New Yorker whose appointment to the seat by the even-more-unpopular governor, David Paterson, upset the New York electoral applecart. [...] Apparently, he’s heard of Hillary Clinton and Robert F. Kennedy–not that he agrees with them on policy issues–and decided New York was a great place to re-launch the political career he short-circuited by running for Senate a little, shall we say, prematurely.
…snip…
[It's] perhaps unsurprising that Ford thinks Gillibrand is ripe for a primary challenge–everyone does–or that, with Obama and Schumer chasing any actual liberal challengers out of the race, he could do it with a minimum of mess. The difficulty is that Gillibrand’s likely challengers may well be someone with a worse electoral history than Ford: Rick Lazio, who jumped in the race when Rudy Giuliani (cancerous prostate and mistress in tow) jumped out and couldn’t make the carpetbagger charges stick against Hillary. Lazio looks like a lamb led to slaughter against Gillibrand, and he’s one of few Republicans in the state who make her look like a shoo-in for reelection. But with a second so-called carpetbagger to spar with, Lazio should be able to have a grand old time–especially when progressives and liberals stay home for a race that resembles a Republican primary more than a general election.There’s a small number of Democrats who could make Gillibrand look liberal, competent and experienced. Harold Ford is one of them.
I could really learn to hate politics as opposed to the whole love/hate thing.
Grrr.
harold ford, jr. is a self-centered prick just like john edwards. does he honestly think going to new yawk to work in the banking industry is going to endear him to new yawkers? he wants a job where he can do as little as possible but get all the glorification he covets. tennessee can have him!
I think he may be worse than Edwards.
i dunno. there’s a pretty scathing article about edwards that i read yesterday. judge for yourself. elizabeth doesn’t fare too well either.
Geez, and people called Hillary a carpetbagger.
Maybe Ford thinks people will confuse him with Derek Jeter.
Glad you liked that joke. As for who would be dying to vote for a banker–I think they’re mostly voting Republican.
Oh, and I love the Dino button!
he’s working as v.p. at merrill lynch and snuggling up to the wall street crowd. let’s see how that flies.
Well, it’s not flying at Firedoglake.
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2010/01/09/harold-ford-is-a-renegade-mavericky-rogue-who-goes-his-own-way-just-kidding-hes-an-opportunistic-asshole/
it’s not flying in most places. except maybe wall street and the new york city’s mayor’s office.
Send him to Texas. Yellow is the color of our state dog. Maybe the Hand Of God will guide him here.
the big guy’s hands are busy keeping michael steele employed at the rnc (not to mention whatever tasks brit hume has him doing).
Harold, Harold, Harold. What do you think you are, a super secret agent for the reps? Even they don’t want you…
There is a man who leads a life as a DINO
to every camera he meets he learns to lie more
Every time he runs the more Rep he becomes
Odds are he won’t live to see November
Really pathetic man, really pathetic man
Your political days are numbered and no one knows your name.
With most abject apologies to Johnny Rivers…
sing it!!
seriously, who the hell does he think he is? nobody even seems to have known that he was living in new york, and now he thinks he’s got some kind of entitlement, just because he wants to be a senator. he’s an asswipe.
“At the urging of Ms. Gillibrand’s aides, a number of traditional Democratic constituencies — abortion rights advocates, gay rights groups and labor unions — have described Mr. Ford as too conservative for the state.”
This is the biggest understatement I’ve read recently. He’s more like a moderate rethug than a blue dog.
If not for his family, little Harold would not have gotten as far as he has. Although his family is nuts.
Of the Ford relatives, the ones who worked in TN State politics, one went to prison and the other went nuts. (literally).
i won’t judge him on his family, just on his own actions, words, and votes. he’s not what new york needs. he’s a conservative, and the state does not need to be moved to the right.