Rep. Harold Ford Joins Efforts To Destroy Social Security

[norml]

I apologize for an earlier thread recommending Rep. Harold Ford, as someone to be on the 08 Presidential ticket. http://www.blackcommentator.com/120/120_cover_harold_ford.html



You have to understand people like George Bush. He's a nice guy. We need to learn from him. Remember what Bill Clinton did: He figured out what Republicans were doing well, and instead of complaining about it, he figured out a way to do it better." – Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN)

The Black body politic has been invaded by corporate money, which seeks through its media arms to select a “new” Black leadership from among a small group of compliant and corrupt Democrats. Memphis Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. is a principal vector of the disease, an eager acolyte of the corporate-funded Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), and now the point man among Black Democrats in the Republican mission to destroy Social Security.

Ford should also be known as the “Black Man Who Dances With Blue Dogs” – one of only two Black congressional members of the Blue Dog Democratic Coalition (the other Black and Blue Dog is Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop). C-span congressional scholar Ilona Nickles aptly describes the Blue Dogs as “closer in purpose to a former coalition of southern Members of the House known as the ‘Boll Weevils,’ whose heyday was in the early 1980's. These Members defected as a group from the Democratic party to vote with Congressional Republicans on budgetary and tax bills.”

Harold Ford is preparing to defect from the Democratic and Congressional Black caucuses in service to George Bush’s Social Security privatization scheme, which he has embraced in principle. Blue Dog and DLC congresspersons form the core of the Democrats that Ford hopes will join Republicans, like South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham, “to create an ownership society in a variety of creative ways, and move away from ‘if you’re for privatization, you’re with the Republicans’ and ‘if you’re against it, you’re with the Democrats,’” in Ford’s words.

snip

[CatholicEdHead]

1. Intresting

"You have to understand people like George Bush. He's a nice guy. We need to learn from him. Remember what Bill Clinton did: He figured out what Republicans were doing well, and instead of complaining about it, he figured out a way to do it better." – Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN)


You mean out-neocon the neocons? Getting our message out more maybe, not not the GOP-lite way.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. I think the info may be old...didn't see a date on that article

but I recall reading this week that Ford backed off supporting Bush's plan to ravage social security.

Ford would be a VERY bad choice for party leadership....president or otherwise....

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Cover story of Jan 6 2005 issue, pretty current I'd say

[tx_dem41]

6. Magazines put those things to bed waaay early...

For example, the Nation (that venerable liberal magazine) is currently posting articles from their January 24, 2005 publication.

http://thenation.com/

The statement I linked to (in post #4) is for real.

[Hephaistos]

7. Link to Ford's statement: He WILL NOT support Bush's plan

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_12_26.php#004310

A new statement out from Rep. Harold Ford: "I do not support changing the Social Security system as has been proposed by President Bush, nor do I support Social Security proposals advanced by the CATO Institute. In fact, both of these proposals have the potential to harm current beneficiaries by paying for the transition costs by issuing debt. Piling on more red ink to the existing federal budget deficit and the national debt will do both long and short term harm to our economy. I do believe that the system needs to be reformed but I do not support changing the Social Security system as President Bush has proposed."

[Lenape85]

3. The fine people of Memphis do not deserve him...

He has come out against a true Democratic tradition, and for that, he should be primaried out come '06 if he isn't running for Senate.

I'm sure the Memphis region could elect a more progressive person.

[Clark2008]

18. He's running for Senate

And he won't be primaried out.

This is Tennessee. There aren't enough Dems to shake a stick at with any statewide name recognition. He'll win the nomination for Senate from the Dem party, I assure you.

[tx_dem41]

4. In fairness to Ford, he can't be the point man for the Right...

if he made the following statement....

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_12_26.php#004310

Now, that doesn't make him a staunch defender of the present system either.

This statement obviously came out after publication (or deadline) of the article you linked to.

[Hephaistos]

8. Sorry

for the dupe in post 7 above. I should have read all the way down first.

[tx_dem41]

9. Don't worry about it..as someone wise once said...

.."great minds think alike" (and obviously are fans of the same websites!). :-)

[norml]

10. I may have over reacted to the article I found, and posted

without knowing about these other statements. We'll have to see what he actually does.

[tx_dem41]

11. We definitely need to keep an eye on him. n/t

[KittyWampus]

12. The Black Commentator Is Garbage Parading As Insight. It Is Vile Crap

which I would be too embarrased to even post here myself.

Frankly, I believe the BC is some GOP mole outfit whose sole intent is to agitate and divide the Left.

[Tinoire]

13. By doing something as vile as giving Black people a voice?

You might want to do a little research into who they are, who writes for them, who supports them before posting your little "conspiracy theory".

[KittyWampus]

15. Give 'Black' People A Voice? LOL! BC Called Carol Mosley Braun

a trojan horse whose purpose was to keep Sharpton from getting the nomination.

[norml]

14. I did find it while trolling FWeeperville.

And I was unfamiliar with the publication. I'm sorry if I was bamboozled.

[Clark2008]

16. That might not be a bad thing, then

In order for a young, black man to win a statewide race in Tennessee, he might have to be perceived, at least, in part, as a little conservative. There are scores of right-leaning moderates who are fed up with the religious right kind of choices the state GOP is throwing at them and may feel this is a chance to vote for a moderate. It might be good that Freeper sites are touting him as a bit conservative, when, you can see by the statement above, he's not pandering to Shrub.

That said, he really did make the statement attributed to him above. I wrote him and got the statement in my e-mail box. :)

[Tinoire]

19. BC is perfectly fine, progressive. Centrists don't like it because

BC is perfectly fine, progressive & firmly Democratic. Centrists don't like it because it denounces the DLC and tells it like it is.

Black people not taking pro-corporate crap & speaking out in other words.

The Black Commentator's core audience is African Americans and their allies in the struggle for social and economic justice. It is also important to share Black American perspectives with the rest of the world, a mission uniquely suited to the Internet.

Our focus is commentary, analysis and investigation, elements of political dialogue that are absolutely essential to the creation of movements for social change. Without regular forums for advocacy and debate, a people are at the mercy of their adversaries.

As we face the dangers and promise of the new century, debate among Black Americans and people of good will becomes ever more crucial. The Black Commentator is designed to nurture such a dialogue, which means exposing charlatans as well as identifying allies. We invite your participation.

The co-publishers of The Black Commentator are Glen Ford and Peter Gamble. They have been friends and collaborators on various media projects for nearly 30 years since working together as network broadcast journalists in Washington, D.C.

In 1977 Glen and Peter created America's Black Forum, the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television. Under their guidance, ABF was quoted weekly by national and international news organizations. A feat no other Black news entity has accomplished, before or since.

Glen Ford served as Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent, and Washington Bureau Chief for the Mutual Black Network, where he also delivered daily radio commentaries. He also created the national radio syndication Black Agenda Reports, featuring five daily programs on Black History, Women, Business, Sports and Entertainment, produced the national radio series Black History Through Music, and founded Rap It Up, the first national Hip Hop radio show. He has been a newsperson at many local radio stations.

In print, Ford was political columnist for Encore, the Black news magazine, served as editor and reporter for a number of newspapers, and published Africana Policies and, with Peter Gamble and Susan Gamble, The Black Commentator magazine.

He is author of The Big Lie: Analysis of U.S. Press Coverage of the Grenada Invasion. (International Organization of Journalists, 1985)

Peter Gamble is the recipient of a national Sigma Delta Chi award for public service in journalism and numerous other honors for excellence in reporting and investigative reporting. The "beats" he covered as a broadcast journalist ranged from activism in the streets to the State Department and White House. The lure of a personal computer on his desk inspired a career change in 1985 and an immersion into what he saw as the future of communications. The acquisition of computer programming skills made it possible for Peter to achieve an important level of self-reliance in the technology of the 21st century.


http://www.blackcommentator.com/about_us.html

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

17. Am I the only one who still likes Harold Ford?

Am I the only one who thinks he kind of has a point?

Yes, of course I am. Carry on.

[Clark2008]

20. I like Harold Ford and will be volunteering

for his campaign.

I realize there are many here who don't like him, but they don't live in Tennessee and they haven't been subjected to 12 torturous years of Bill :scared: Frist and six bland years of LaMar "I Used UT as a Stepping Stone" Alexander.

If the Dems hope to have some wins in this state in 2006, they'll have to nominate a moderate. It's a simple as that. It may not be all everyone here wants, but we have to move in baby steps. Get Ford in and THEN pressure him to become more and more progressive, framing arguments so that people of this state can see how the liberal agenda WILL benefit them. The media here mostly sucks - and there's no chance Air America will be challenging the rightwing pukes of Rush, Hannity, Savage and those hellfire and brimstone preachers that currently make up our radio talk show line ups; therefore, you have to work with what you're given and make the best out of it. Ford is very well liked by the media here.

[norml]

21. Actually, I'm back to supporting Harold Ford.

I can see where I could've been wrong in the premise of this thread.