I recently read a post over at the FREEDONIAN about Congressman Ford's "endorsement" of his brother Jake Ford including the use of Congressman Ford's campaign volunteers and headquarters.
Here are the relevant portions of this interesting post:
The College Democrats met with Harold Ford Jr. at his HQ today. After he spoke to them, he let his a**head little brother speak to the volunteers that showed up.
A**head is apparently running his campaign out of Harold's HQ (Something to ponder before sending Harold a check) and using his volunteer base as well.
The College Democrats did the right thing (Although perhaps not my favorite thing, which would have consisted of kicking both brothers in the nuts and dumping garbage cans on them as they lay on the ground) and made it clear that they are there to work for Jr. and ONLY Jr.
Here are the relevant portions of this interesting post:
The College Democrats met with Harold Ford Jr. at his HQ today. After he spoke to them, he let his a**head little brother speak to the volunteers that showed up.
A**head is apparently running his campaign out of Harold's HQ (Something to ponder before sending Harold a check) and using his volunteer base as well.
The College Democrats did the right thing (Although perhaps not my favorite thing, which would have consisted of kicking both brothers in the nuts and dumping garbage cans on them as they lay on the ground) and made it clear that they are there to work for Jr. and ONLY Jr.
If this is indeed true, then Congressman Ford needs to get off of the fence. Congressman Ford should openly and publicly endorse Newton Jake for the Congress seat instead of Steve Cohen. While I believe that 99% of the people in this world are more qualified for Congress than Shakey Jake, Congressman Ford is in a difficult position no matter what. But is it reasonable to expect a man (Congressman Ford) to support a former opponent candidate over his brother?
Based on his actions, it appears to me that Congressman Ford is supporting his brother's campaign which is understandable. However, Congressman Ford needs to communicate this endorsement to the public, so people will not think he is walking down the middle. That way people will know whether Congressman Ford is more concerned about making the Democratic Party stronger or making his immediate branch of the Ford family stronger.
As Mr. Miyagi once told me when I was a teenager living in Reseda, California during my first foray into the martial arts,
"Man walk on road. Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk down middle, sooner or later, get squished just like grape."
Same here. Either HFJ supports Jake, or HFJ supports Cohen. If HFJ plays it safe and publicly endorses no one, HFJ will get squished just like grape. Understand?
R.I.P. - Mr. Miyagi!
13 comments:
Ah, I see that you, too, are a student of Mr. Miyagi.
*bows to the Space Ninja*
I had not read your original post until you replied with that link. It seems that great minds think alike!
Space Ninja has learned well from the master!
I am honor-bound to append this comment, made in response to someone's query about the Friday-morning rally and the reports that came of it:
Well, frankly, ___, I'm skeptical -- not that ALL the Fords aren't busting for Jake. The evidence is certainly that they are. But I was at that little (actually, big) rally Friday morning> I was there before Jr. got there and left after he left. As for the rally: (a) it did not seem to be a College Democrats function; in fact, David Cocke served as mc; (b) Jr. addressed the crowd, which may certainly have included several College Democrats; it also included several senior citizens, business types, midtown Dems, suburban Democrats, etc., etc.; it was a general Democratic crowd, very mixed. (c) After Jr. (who had arrived on his campaign bus) finished speaking, he decamped -- to go, as he indicated, to join Ben Hooks for the dedication of the Hooks Job Center in Whitehaven. He scooted; the crowd was milling about; I stayed a few minutes and left.
I did see Jake there, very briefly. If he talked to the crowd, or worked the crowd, or whatever, it was well after Jr. left, and without any public say-so from Jr. Whatever he did, and with and to whom, he also did after I left. So I couldn't say. But it appears that the accounts that have been posted and that we've read may be exaggerated.
Note, ___, that all these reports were of Friday morning's meeting. I'd be as outraged as anybody else if what they described had happened at that meeting. I'll just let my above description stand. Maybe there was another meeting, another day, in which some Jr.-to-Jake handoff occurred, but I doubt it. Sorry.
Kibitzer,
Appreciate the fact that you have been fair and measured in your remarks. Very decent of you to express your reasoned opinion; how you read the situation sounds perfectly feasible, to me. On this occasion, your ability to even entertain a positive truth/reality - even though it involved someone you dislike - distinguishes you from other TN (so-called) progressive bloggers.
Opportunists will always want to jump on the bandwagon. Spreading rumour and running with it like wildfire, is an indication of immaturity or possibly, worst still, malicious intent towards Congressman Ford.
Also, the lack of inquisition/querying of veracity of said allegation, is startling. Considering how pious most of y'all sound regarding the purity of Democratic ideology, it really makes me question the credibility/motives of those concerned.
Very, very interesting remarks and reaction indeed --- what, based purely on a SINGLE, uncorroborated (supposedly) ANNONYMOUS quote from a seemingly disgruntled student. Nice one! What a low threshold. I may as well stick to the tried and tested MSM - with all its obvious shortcomings.
Is it any wonder that you guys are - for the most part - talking amongst yourselves!
Btw, on the subject of rumours... Is this fact/fiction/spaced out???
"If you can't beat 'em, blog 'em... Former Ninth Congressional District candidate Joe Ford Jr. grew tired of constantly responding to "flames," those personal, derogatory attacks on the Internet.
So he decided to fight cyber with cyber and wade into the flotsam that is local blogosphere punditry through his own site: remixxworld.blogspot.com.
On the site he is known as "Space Ninja." His posting location is "the galaxy." And he opines on a wide range of local, national and international politics."
-- Halimah Abdullah, Commercial Appeal
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/politics/article/0,1426,MCA_1496_4983263,00.html
"Opportunists will always want to jump on the bandwagon. Spreading rumour and running with it like wildfire, is an indication of immaturity or possibly, worst still, malicious intent towards Congressman Ford." ---> The dwarft calling the midget short...
" what, based purely on a SINGLE, uncorroborated (supposedly) ANNONYMOUS quote from a seemingly disgruntled student" ---> are you a
100% sure about that?
I can't help to point out the fallacy of these claims when is obvious that Ford' defense is being safeguarded by loyal campaign groupies --primarily recognizable for being unable to discern fact from fiction, thruth from BS, and right from wrong. You know, denial...
I suggest to English Rose to follow her own advice and check the veracity and accuracy of her own accusations and facts before pointing any fingers, as they are painfully and obviously misconstrued.
Honestly, whoever quotes Adbullah The Butcher as an example of journalistic integrity and source of information leaves much to be desired in terms of maturity, motive and grasp of reality.
Pam,
You seem to be firing on both cylinders... Have you actually read/understood what Kibitzer has posted?
As far as the bigger picture is concerned: I think it would be more profitable if you were to consider and carefully weigh-up what Kibitzer has shared. Rather than...
" what, based purely on a SINGLE, uncorroborated (supposedly) ANNONYMOUS quote from a seemingly disgruntled student" --->
are you a 100% sure about that?
Yep, I was quoting directly from the horse's mouth - according to Freedonian:
"Anonymous, pissed off source" dropped me a letter in the Freedonian Mailbag today.
NB. ANONYMOUS, SOURCE (is singular, not plural).
"I suggest to English Rose to follow her own advice and check the veracity and accuracy of her own accusations and facts before pointing any fingers, as they are painfully and obviously misconstrued."
I have done. If you so choose to refer to my (re)stating so-called 'facts' as accusations, that's your problem.
Why are you attacking me and being churlish, for expressing an opinion?
What Kibitzer stated merely served to reinforce my view that it was perhaps premature and irresponsible - for Freedonian and Space Ninja - if nothing else - to publish [unsubstantiated] rumour.
"Honestly, whoever quotes Adbullah The Butcher as an example of journalistic integrity and source of information leaves much to be desired in terms of maturity, motive and grasp of reality."
Btw, on the subject of rumours... Is this fact/fiction/spaced out???
You seem more interested in 'putting me in my place' and pontificating than being able to recognise facetiousness. Oh well.
For y'all's entertainment. This is part of my love letter sent to Freedonian:
"This kind of reminds me of MyDD slagging off Obama a couple of months' ago, based on an erroneous article - not actually something the Senator said himself or an action which could have been attributed to him; I'm not sure if MyDD read too much into the article/got his wires crossed. Tellingly, when it was brought to MyDD's attention that he'd got it wrong, he didn't have the decency to apologise - saving face was more important. The jist of his response was to justify his bias against Obama - which continues to this day... Sadly, his apparent zeal/quest to rub off some of Obama's lustre, got in the way - of the truth of the matter."
And, here's his reply.
"Rosie, your slobbering over Harold has been duly noted. Your defenses of him are reminiscent of his pals over at Fox News, only (presumably) without the bad hairpieces.
As I told Kibitzer in an email today, Kibitzer is well known enough that no one is violating campaign ethics in his presence. The fact that he didn't personally see it is irrelevant.
Very, very interesting remarks and reaction indeed --- what, based purely on a SINGLE, uncorroborated (supposedly) ANNONYMOUS quote from a seemingly disgruntled student.
Funny, considering that not only am I TRIPLE sourced by now (Double at the time I wrote the above comment), but you want me to change course based on a SINGLE source--- You, have been shown to be a drooling, fawning apologist for Harold Ford every time you've shown up on a blog.
Is it any wonder that you guys are - for the most part - talking amongst yourselves!
Yet you manage to make yourself available for comment every time someone doesn't like Harold."
You people are reeeeeal funny. Progressives huh?
I told you that people are always confusing us :)
You know what? English Rose, sounds like you are the widow Mrs. Rose of the Rose Foundation in Memphis who is always hanging out at the Congressman's house, partying, drinking, and RAPPING to eight ball and MJG. You know the lady who's got hundreds of millions, so space ninja watch out she has hired the folks to background check ya. You are so entrenched and dazed by YOUR relationship with HFJ that all of your musings about who the hell space ninja is...it's just funny. Now guess who i am, cuz I just put you on blast! POW!!!
The Final Word on the Campaign Rally
Memphis Flyer reporter Jackson Baker took the loose threads in our story about Jake Ford’s possible collusion with his brother, untied the knots, and found the single straight line:
Subsequent to the event, the impression got out in some quarters that it had been an affair for College Democrats (it wasn’t - though they, like other Democrats, had been invited and responded) in which, according to a widely circulated email from a University of Memphis student:
“Apparently, after Junior was done speaking, his fucktard brother got a chance to speak to the volunteer base that we acquired for Junior.”
Hearsay of this sort begat further hearsay, and soon an honest blogger or two had picked up on a gathering outrage among supporters of 9th District Democratic nominee Steve Cohen that the “fucktard brother” (i.e., independent congressional candidate Jake Ford) had benefited from what had now, in some tellings, become a “handoff” at the rally from Rep. Ford.
Actually, nothing of the sort occurred.
Jake Ford had been no more than one member of the large and milling crowd.
He had no role in the proceedings, which ended after his congressman brother left to go join the Rev. Ben Hooks for the dedication of a Whitehaven Job Corps center in Hooks’ honor.
If Jake Ford “worked the crowd” afterward (as a revised version of the ever-shifting story had it), then so did anybody else who had been in the throng.
It was just a case of a large gathering breaking off into isolated conversational clumps as people made their way out the door.
[Jackson Baker]
This conflicts with our previous reporting, and we owe our readers an explanation.
Our sources, who were eyewitnesses to the event, maintain that Jake Ford “worked the crowd” and furthermore, “held court.” However much we stand by our sources, we are also aware that multiple eyewitnesses to the same event will percieve it differently according to their own biases.
We defer to Jackson Baker’s account of the campaign rally, and we are grateful to him for his correction.
The purpose of this website is to provide voters with the information they need to make good choices at the ballot box.
We contend that the corporate news outlets do not take their role in politics as seriously as they should in order to preserve a healthy democracy.
We hope to attain to the high standards of journalism set by Jackson Baker at the Memphis Flyer, Marc Perrusquia at the Commercial Appeal, and a precious few others in the Memphis media.
But we have much work to do before we get there, and we will undoubtedly make mistakes along the way.
We ask that you, our dear readers, bear with us as we find our footing, and please keep in mind that this website has not even been officially launched yet.
Once we broke our first story, the site took on a life of its own, and we were caught unprepared for what came next.
Original reporting is only one part of our manifold mission, and we have much more in store for you as time passes.
We hope that you will check back with us after our official launch, at which time we will have all of our regular features in place.
Jake Ford was indeed present at the rally, he was indeed speaking to those present, but we have no concrete evidence to support the claim that he was “working the crowd.”
We do not know exactly what Jake Ford was doing there, but before we say anything for sure in the future, we are going to base our reporting on more solid data that can withstand greater scrutiny.
We apologize to our readers, and to Jake and Harold Ford Jr., for presenting unconfirmed conjecture as verified fact. We will not make that same mistake again.
Derek Haire
Editor and Administrator
River City Mud Bugle
http://www.rivercitymud.com/2006/09/20/the-final-word-on-the-campaign-rally/
http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/Content?oid=19736
Anonymous 7:33--
If what you say is true, then it is quite funny. I actually met a Ms. Rose a few years back, and wasn't impressed with what I saw. I'm not sure if it's the same person, but I'm not worried whatsoever.
And why would someone want to spend their money doing a background check on me? If they want to know something about me, all they have to do is ask. I'm not hard to find!
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