Your picture of the snail is very appropriate. There is no other way to describe anyone in the political dynasty that is the Ford family of Memphis. If you ask me he is just another wormy little shit.

If he’s a lone wolf, Sarah Palin might shoot him from her helicopter.

If he is so ‘independent’ then I recommend he run as an Independent and see how far that gets him. Better yet, create a Commonsense Conservative Party. That would be awesome.

Hard to believe that New Yorkers won’t see through his schtick.

An Obama wannabe, without the brains.

They elected Rudy and Bloomberg.

They will. Besides being an asshole, Ford suffers from the delusion that he’s always the smartest (And the most charismatic) person in the room. He has the donors and he has wonderful him – what could go wrong?

Leaving a trail of slime wherever he goes. Yep, pretty well sums up Harold Ford.

Fortunately, his campaign in New York will be DOA.

And who is with our friend Harold?

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

Ahhh. Good Ol’ Steven!

Named a lead adviser to the Treasury Department on the auto industry bailout in February 2009, Mr. Rattner is leaving the post at a time when an investigation into his former Wall Street firm’s role in a scandal involving public pension funds has intensified.

Should have known the big hunk of cheese that is a New York senate seat would attract more than one rat(tner).

Snail slime evidently works great for polishing turds….here’s Ann Coulter:

COULTER “Allen I think is ahead and Ford I think is also an interesting case in Tennessee because I hate to say this but Ford is my favorite Democrat and I wish he were running in Rhode Island against Chafee and I would support him. If he were running in Connecticut I would support him.

GIBSON: But these Senate races…

COULTER: But he is a Democrat. I just want to get that in. I do not support the Democrat in Tennessee. You must always vote for the Republican, because as good as Harold Ford is, he still belongs to a rotten party. He ought to become a Republican.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,225598,00.html

Regarding Ford, someone needs to Pinto a tail on this Donkey. In what Galaxie does this clown live in if he thinks he’s gonna win? Ford and the entire DLC need to go the way of the Edsel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel

Regarding “opportunistic asshole”…I guess you misspelled “Lieberman”.

Actually, I respect Lieberman more than I do Harold Ford. At this point, Lieberman doesn’t make any pretenses about being a corporate whore, and frankly, he doesn’t owe a damn thing to the Democratic Party at this point, no matter how much Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and the rest kiss his ass.

Since getting his ass kicked in his last run for office, Harold Ford has basically spent about every other day on Fox News, acting as a Democratic Party concern troll for hire.

Lieberman doesn’t begin to be as odious as Harold Ford is.

and frankly, he doesn’t owe a damn thing to the Democratic Party at this point

He owes his committee chairmanship to the Democratic Party…even if he doesn’t do anything with it, and even if that chairmanship is part of the ass kissing. And it appears to me that both have this in common: neither represent (represented, in the case of Ford) their constituents.

Mr. 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.”

[...]

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.

Man, that’s the kind of deep analysis I depend on the NYTimes for!

I repeat…

If Ford wants to run, fine. All Sen. Gillibrand will have to do is run ads, and remind the state SCLM, that he is backed by Wall Street interests. She could play the underdog, and would mop up the floor with him in any primary.

Self-centered political fuck-faced fuckers who come to MY fucking state, think they’re gonna tell us who WE’RE supposed to vote for, thinking they know more that WE do, should go fuck themselves with a broken bottle up the ass sideways.

Buncha fuckin’ fuck-faced fuckers. Fuck ‘em. Also.

You should stop holding back. :)

Hey, I didn’t shout WOLVERINES! That would have been fuckin’ gauche.

Needs more adjectives.
I favor things like ‘goddamned motherfucking cocksuckers’ – that’s what I think of Congress in general.

A spokesman for Mr. Ford issued a pungent statement . . .

Uh, Harold, when the local paper calls your press statement “pungent,” and when the local paper is the NY Times . . . it’s time to either get a new spokesman or get out of the race.

Or, of course, both.

Harold, I have seen Bobby Kennedy. I have seen Hillary Clinton.

And Harold… you’re no Bobby nor Hillary.

Isn’t it rather ironic that CarpetBagging of late has taken a decidedly northerly polar shift…? ;-)

Dude, no! Baggery of all types is the rage! Where ya been?

Is there a single member of this family that should not be under a life sentence. Their pretenses to preference are based on the previous crook in the family. They and their family should intermarry with the Bush family so like the Mafia, capice?

And that, ladies and gentlemen, should be the kiss of death right there.

They tried it with NY-23. Didn’t get them very far, did it?

Some folks need multiple kisses of death so they don’t keep coming back in sequels.

Put a mirror in front of him and he’ll asphyxiate trying to French-kiss himself.

well written as always bogg thanks for the straight poop

OK, as long as I don’t have to watch.

Harold Ford is very important!!!!

I was at Netroots 2008 in Austin when he arrived in his black, tinted window SUV for the convention.

He likes the life, and will do anything for more of it.

ewwww

Harold Ford: Rahm’s latest DLC whore

Prediction: He won’t wait to get elected before changing to the republican party. Ford’s a quintessential dick-ahead of his time.

Oh, you know how they are.

‘snail slime’

Coultergeist is a whale turd sitting at the bottom of the Marianas Trench…! ;-)

Dood, Aloha…! ;-)

I wrote a new diary…! *g*

I voted for him but he was barely more tolerable than Corker. I’ve felt bad about it, every since. Although, the GOP campaign was awfully stupid and they pandered to racists.

He’s literally so spineless, he can be to the left of Joe Scarborough.

Lieberman doesn’t begin to be as odious as Harold Ford is.

I beg to differ. Ford, bad as he may be, is not at present screwing up any even vaguely serious Democratic project. Right now he has no power to do any real damage and is at best a mere Lieberman-in-waiting. He’s still posing as a serious, responsible politician and claiming he has his potential constituents’ interests at heart. Lieberman, on the other hand, has given up all pretense to responsibility for those who elected him and is GLEEFULLY fucking the Democratic party on the Capitol steps, just because he can.

There’s a major difference in sheer, squealing viciousness between the two men’s attitudes, not to mention the actual harm they can do, and Joe the Jerk walks away with the prize on both counts.

It’s more of a tribute to my late, lamented friend Old Will, who once told me, “There’s two kinds of fuckers in this world – there’s fuckin’ fuck faces, and fuck-faced fuckers.”

Now THAT was a philosopher!

Correct. Ford is an asshole. And a DLCer. So he’s qualified to run on either party’s ticket.

As a NYCer, this is really an insult that Ford thinks people in this city and state will actually go for him. This really makes no sense, other than will make people be more inclined to vote for Gillibrand.

I wonder if Harold Ford has got the insider connections at AIPAC to get his candidacy legitimized.

That’s the biggeest joke of all, Tom. You think Harry Reid will strip him of his chairmanship? Get real.

I think the only thing that would lose Lieberman his committee chairmanship before the 2010 midterms would be if he were to call a live press conference, and then devoured a baby while the video cameras rolled.

What else can he do? He endorsed a political opponent for President in 2008. He’s openly bashed Democrats in the media on several occasions. He criticizes Democratic policy whenever somebody sticks a microphone in front of him. If he doesn’t retire in 2012, he’ll likely run as a Republican.

I’m telling you, the Democratic Party has no hold on him whatsoever. And if you think he thinks he owes them anything at this point, think again.

I’ll stand by my statement based on a technicality.

Lieberman is not a Democrat. He is a feckless, piece of garbage, who isn’t even liked in his home state at this point, but he can do no more damage to the Democratic party than the Democratic party lets him. The Democratic leadership enables his behavior. I blame Reid and Obama for Lieberman’s antics as much as Lieberman. Remember, there was a very good chance he would have been kicked to the curb if not for Obama’s intervention.

Ford is still nominally a Democrat. When he goes onto Fox News, he can be correctly labeled as a “Democrat”. He then goes on, pulling his usual Democrats on Fox News Act criticizing Progressive priorities, Democratic politicians, the President, etc.

No, he doesn’t have the power of Lieberman, but I wasn’t speaking of power. I was speaking of his willingness to kick his own party to the curb, while still ostensibly a member of that party. Since Lieberman doesn’t do that (he’s not a Democrat), I’ll stand by my statement. Harold Ford is more odious than Lieberman.

As long as the baby was kosher Reid would let Lieberman off with a mild rebuke because the Republicans threatened to filibuster a motion to censure.

Because of his constant appearance on “Morning Joe” — Harold thinks he is ready to run. Morning Joe is about as Democratic as Harold, try as they might to appear as centrist. “You know” they say, “We criticize both sides.” To this, I give a hearty laugh. I live in California and thank goodness most Californians don’t see this tripe. What a waste of time.

I’m not sure about all of this, the tone of the article and the responses.

Regardless of how I feel about Harold Ford, there’s way too little happening in the way of primary challenges generally. It’s not good for our system to have so little of that.

FDL is big on supporting primary challengers to DINO’s. Seems a little precious to be so upset about a primary challenge *by* a DINO.

If the system is going to get fixed it still has to be allowed to work both ways.

Harold is not getting the cash and attention he wants as news pundit a failed run for senate might get him off the air! I welcome him trying…and flaming out. Still Harold running stinks of Rahm!

We are not upset about a primary challenge TBogg thinks this is an attempt to make Harold some money to go away. If anything just who is more to the right in this race we don’t really have a fire in the iron on this one.

You wonder whether the attractive females of NYC are not a draw, too, for his spare time.

The best concern troll post I’ve ever seen is nearby here. That’s showing ‘em how it’s done!

In fact there is a further left challenger for this seat named Jonathon Tasini who has visited FDL a couple of times.

All in way of saying that it doesn’t mean we can’t mock the imminently mockable Harold Ford for being the idjit that he is.

“TBogg thinks this is an attempt to make Harold some money to go away.”

OK. But TBogg doesn’t present any evidence for reaching this conclusion. What reason do we have to doubt that Ford really wants to be a Senator, and thinks he can achieve that goal using this tack? No reasoning is contained in the original article, just dislike for Ford himself.

Saying that someone is just using a primary challenge for selfish purposes, without offering real evidence of that, opens progressive primary challengers to the same sort of smear.

Fox News isn’t Fox News because of whom they support. It’s because of how they go about it. How is TBogg’s original post any better?

I’ll bet he and rahm are friends.

Remember Gilli was picked in place of Caroline Kennedy.

Seems more like DINO vs. DINO to me. Kinda’ orchestrated to keep a DINO in office.

AHHH the wonderful workings of rahm..our own democratic planner and game changer. He also thought Dean’s 50 state strategy was unworkable. More like unworkable to the Third Way compliments of the clintons.

they probably hate each other. people with egos like rahm and harold wouldnt make the best of pals.

Nice concern troll, Steve.

I actually have no problems with Ford running. He doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance of winning anyway. He’s a carpetbagger. All Kirsten Gillibrand has to do in the primaries is roll the tape of Harold Ford criticizing various Democrats and Democratic legislative priorities, and he’s toast.

I’d actually like to see a primary challenge from somebody who isn’t a corporate whore, Democratic apologist, and further to the right than Gillibrand. I don’t know that much of Jonathan Tasini and I don’t read FDL since its founder decided to sleep with the enemy over health care, but he sounds like the sort of primary challenger I would get behind, were I in New York.

Do you have a substantive response, Desert? (See my questions at 53)

Must we settle for pejorative labels for points of view that aren’t in keeping with the general tone of mutual admiration society?

If so, how are we any different from the Tea Baggers?

Harold Ford is too unctuous even for the golddiggers of NYC. The guy’s a pundit on FoxNews fer chrissake!

Maybe his strategy is that if he runs for Senate, he won’t have to pay to get laid in NYC?

I think TBogg may be on to something, actually.

First, your questions are hardly substantive. They’re more or less rhetorical.

Here’s the two I found, for better or worse.

Q: What reason do we have to doubt that Ford really wants to be a Senator, and thinks he can achieve that goal using this tack?

My A: His actions since his laughable run for Senate in Tennessee in 2006. Generally speaking, if somebody seriously wants to be a Democratic nominee for US Senate in a state as solidly Democratic as New York, one doesn’t spend the last 3-1/2 years on Morning Dead Intern, and the media arm of the GOP bashing the Democratic Party.

At least not unless said person is not all that bright or has a huge capacity for self-delusion (Ford qualifies in the latter category, and maybe, or maybe not, the former).

Q: How is TBogg’s original post any better?

A: Look, if you’re wanting substantive policy or candidate discussion, this isn’t the blog for you. If you think it is, you also have a huge capacity for self-delusion.

TBogg is a place for looking at the follies of some Democrats, particularly corporate whores like Harold Ford. It’s a place for looking at the infinite stupid that is people like the Doughy Pantload, Ann “Drunk by 10 AM” Althouse, Glenn “Instawanker” Reynolds, and their fellow morons on the right, and pointing and laughing.

If there were other questions in there, let me know. But that was all I found.

Reformatted for your protection. Gad, I hate the Edit function:

I think TBogg may be on to something, actually.

First, your questions are hardly substantive. They’re more or less rhetorical.

Here’s the two I found, for better or worse.

Q: What reason do we have to doubt that Ford really wants to be a Senator, and thinks he can achieve that goal using this tack?

My A: His actions since his laughable run for Senate in Tennessee in 2006. Generally speaking, if somebody seriously wants to be a Democratic nominee for US Senate in a state as solidly Democratic as New York, one doesn’t spend the last 3-1/2 years on Morning Dead Intern, and the media arm of the GOP bashing the Democratic Party.

At least not unless said person is not all that bright or has a huge capacity for self-delusion (Ford qualifies in the latter category, and maybe, or maybe not, the former).

Q: How is TBogg’s original post any better?

A: Look, if you’re wanting substantive policy or candidate discussion, this isn’t the blog for you. If you think it is, you also have a huge capacity for self-delusion.

TBogg is a place for looking at the follies of some Democrats, particularly corporate whores like Harold Ford. It’s a place for looking at the infinite stupid that is people like the Doughy Pantload, Ann “Drunk by 10 AM” Althouse, Glenn “Instawanker” Reynolds, and their fellow morons on the right, and pointing and laughing.

If there were other questions in there, let me know. But that was all I found.

Must we settle for pejorative labels for points of view that aren’t in keeping with the general tone of mutual admiration society?

Only if they’re bullshit concern trolling. If you’re unable to discern why we’re any different from the Teabaggers then you’re either feigning ignorance or you are, in fact, dumber than a bag of hammers. Your brand of even-handedness is nothing more, or less, than an imprecation to clap our flippers with glee at anything done by the Democratic party. I can’t accept that: being fucked by the Democrats is no more pleasant than being fucked by the Republicans.

And Peter King!!

I don’t know whether Harold Ford is hinting at this run for office as a ploy for big bucks, or because he really wants the job – I cannot read minds or hearts. AFAICT, the latest trend among both washed-up politicians and some cable media “news” personalities (e.g., Tweety, the late Lori Klausutis’ former boss), is apparently to use the threat to run for office to enhance their profile/negotiating postion/salary/etc. For all his character flaws, I have to believe that Ford knows how to read political polls, so if I had to bet, it would be on the ploy for big money. He certainly seems to be attracted to the big money crowd in the same way a moth is attracted to a lamp at night!

On the general issue of Harold Ford’s character, the FDL community has a long history of looking at Harold Ford, both here at the FDL site itself, and some sites allied with it. Those of us* who were immersed in this stuff for (IIRC) the 2006 election cycle – but also in times before and after that – can (I think) be cut some slack for not relating well to someone new to our animosity toward Mr. Ford, perhaps because someone new here does not know the relevant history.
*NOTE: I do not count myself as the most “immersed”, not by a long shot, but I most certainly remember that Mr. Ford was topic #1 in many posts here. He is in my personal Hall of Shame for opposing my current Congressional rep during the last election (Donna Edwards), by supporting the corrupt corporate whore who formerly “represented” me (that’s Al Wynn, whose body finally caught up with his corrupt spirit in occupation of some lobbyist’s comfy DC digs).

A few links follow, which are hopefully somewhat representative; I’ll click-check on them after posting, and any necessary corrections will be made in a follow-up comment. I don’t have much time for fighting the Black Knight on this topic, so to speak (warning – much hilarious gore in that video!), but will try to do follow-up if and when appropriate.

Google Search results on “Harold Ford” restricted to site:firedoglake.com: 621 hits
Including terms “DLC” AND “Democratic Leadership” in the same search: 62 hits

I’m sure that second search can be narrowed down even more with more skillful searching. Since HF earned his bad reputation in progressive/leftie circles largely during his tenure at head of the DLC, I figured that DLC addition to the search argument would serve as a good filter for this discussion.

Some of the results of reading through the top links in the results:

Tom Schaller at Salon (found via FDL), 19Jan2007: Is Harold Ford built for the road ahead?

Elizabeth Benjamin, NY Daily News, 08Jan2010: NARAL uses Ford’s words against him; Benjamin’s article found via this FDL post. Regarding his pro-life stance, Harold Ford is heard in the video to say “We’re gonna teach people the difference between right and wrong”. Hear that, girls?!? Straighten up or else! [And guys, uh, heh-heh, just be careful, OK?]

——————————

Going through the same exercise with Howie Klein’s Down With Tyranny site – 198 hits using “Harold Ford” alone, and 47 hits with inclusion of the (DLC AND “Democratic Leadership”) terms in the search. A sampling:

If you lived in Tennessee, would you vote for Harold Ford? Thank God I don’t have to make THAT decision! [26Oct2006]

Two choices for the Democratic Party: Howard Dean goes with the future; Harold Ford, the past. [11Jan2007]

This one is as much about our corrupt national “news” media as it is about Mr. Ford:
How to recognize a puff piece — Chris Cillizza on Harold Ford, Jr. [29Jan2007]

——————————

Doing the same search on Black Agenda Report for “Harold Ford” with a site:blackagendareport.com restriction via Google came up with only 18 hits**, and a lot of those go nowhere (link rot). It seemed better to use the search box at the upper right corner of the BAR site, by entering {without the angle brackets). Seemed to come up with more fruitful results, although my endeavors were not exhaustive enough to fully verify that.
(**Glen Ford, Bruce Dixon, Margaret Kimberly, and their BAR colleagues are good, old school journalists in the Af-Am community, but they’re running on a shoestring budget, and I don’t think they have the combination of time and strong IT skills themselves to optimize their Website).

Although fewer hits came from the BAR search, what doozies they are!:

Margaret Kimberly: Freedom Rider: Harold Ford, Enemy of Black America [10Apr2007]

Glen Ford: Harold Ford: ‘Right’ Where He Belongs [23Jan2007]

CBC Watch: Autumn 2006 CBC Report Card*** – Check out Harold Ford mentions in this Report Card put out by the old CBC Watch crew (***CBC = Congressional Black Caucus; CBC Watch hosted over at BAR)
============================
Well now I’m plumb wore out. Anyone scratching their heads in confusion over the antipathy of the real leftie community toward Mr. Ford should be able to understand the hostility after scanning a few of these links (and there’s a lot more out there!), whether or not you agree with the reasons for the hostility.

I don’t watch TV and haven’t been following Ford’s doings. I knew that the progressive blogosphere shed few tears when he lost in Tennessee. But I didn’t know that he is regarded as so far beyond the pale that any political action of his should be regarded as worthy of ridicule without further elaboration.

I’m also new to TBogg. No delusion, just inexperience. I didn’t know FDL had substance-free blogs. Now I do.

Thanks.

Links all seem to work. A sentence in the final section (BAR) should read as follows:

It seemed better to use the search box at the upper right corner of the BAR site, by entering ["Harold Ford"] {without the square brackets)

See my response to DesertRat at 65.

>Those of us* who were immersed in this stuff for (IIRC) the 2006 election >cycle – but also in times before and after that – can (I think) be cut some >slack for not relating well to someone new to our animosity toward Mr. >Ford, perhaps because someone new here does not know the relevant history.

I appreciate your post.

This blog’s mindset that someone making the comment I originally made (47) should be ridiculed (whatever the term “concern troll” could possibly mean on a blog that DesertRat informs me makes no pretense of substantive discussion) isn’t my cup of tea and I’ll know to avoid it in the future.

Thanks.

No problem. As a longtime fan of TBogg – back before he was enticed to FDL from his old Blogspot site – I would agree with you that this isn’t the best site for the kind of exchange you were seeking. It’s sort of a break room in the back, so to speak, where folks kick back and talk trash. In fact, I’m breaking my own rule for TBogg comments – be funny or be gone! – by posting what I did above (not the first time I’ve done that either, alas!).

The main FDL site, or a relevant diary over at the Seminal sub-site, would better suit the kind of exchange you seek, although I cannot guarantee you won’t get some of the same response from a few of the regulars at those sites.

I don’t know if it will help, but when I started following political (mostly leftie) blogs in late 2003, sincere efforts to engage with “conservatives” – and I don’t know if you self-describe as such – either earned one an instant banning on rightie blogs, or got one called traitor, Saddam-lover… you name it. After awhile, sincere leftie commenters and bloggers basically said ‘screw it’ and moved on, for the most part. Even those few sites that tried to establish a forum in the middle of the proverbial battle field – Obsidian Wings comes to mind – have had a real challenge doing so (last I checked, the righties had mostly fled, leaving one reasonable “moderate”. Eh, so it goes in blog-world.)

I hope Jane is right, regarding the existence of common ground between us lefties and those involved in the “Tea Parties” and such. Myself, I dunno. I did read one interesting account this morning on another blog, from a commenter who was listening to C-SPAN’s call-in show. I forget the specifics, but apparently callers on all three lines – Republican, Democratic, and Independent – were in rare unison in vehement opposition to the concept of Corporate Personhood. So maybe there’s some hope there.

Ah, I’m rambling now, and don’t even know if this discourse is relevant to your stance; apologies for bending your ear, if it wasn’t. In any event, keep on trying!

Oh, that stung. You’re absolutely correct. We should be debating the terms YOU perceive as substantiative on a site that features bassets and major league snark.

What’s the matter? Did you come here because icanhazcheeseburger.com didn’t put up a new LOL cat today?

You wanna be a concern troll here? Take it like an anonymous poster. Or go to GOS and state your concerns.

Thanks. I appreciate your efforts, and thanks for that.

Bye now.

Thanks.