Thursday, July 15, 2010
Ford Sr. Support of Cohen is One More Problem for Herenton
Posted by Jackson Baker on Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 12:23 AM
- 1991: Herenton and Ford Sr. in happier times
By its nature, the Obama announcement has drawn more attention to itself than other endorsements garnered by the incumbent congressman, fore and aft. But that of Harold Ford Sr., subject of a news release by Cohen on Wednesday, a day after the Obama bombshell, is worthy of some special attention.
In a sense, the Ford announcement was a restatement of what pol-watchers had already known. After all, Ford Sr., a former 9th District congressman himself and a high-stakes lobbyist on Capitol Hill these days, has been a tacit supporter of Cohen for well over a year and assisted in his Washington fundraising.
The two have a professional relationship, and that’s part of it. But there’s more — and it bodes ill for Herenton, whose call for “Just One’ African American — himself — to serve in Congress from Tennessee surely depends on being the kind of consensus black candidate that Herenton was in 1991 when he first ran for mayor.
As it happens, that 1991 election season was the one and only time Herenton and Ford had functioned as political cohorts, and their alliance, an ad hoc affair motivated by constituent pressure and by a joint service to history, was a tenuous and short-lived affair.
They were always rivals for power in the inner city — and in the city at large, for that matter —and the two had a public falling-out in 1994 after an angry disagreement over the telephone over how best to administer a summer jobs program. “If he’d said those things to my face, I’d have whipped his butt,” Herenton later commented to the Flyer.
The issue itself had been a pretext. The real problem was that, in the Western movie that was Memphis in the ‘90s, the town wasn’t big enough for two such noted gunslingers. The feud would continue through the accession to the congressional seat of Harold ford Jr. in 1996, and at times it set Herenton off against the entire Ford political clan.
Herenton won a major battle over the Fords in 1999 when he dispatched mayoral challenger Joe Ford, Harold Sr.’s brother and the current interim county mayor. He won another when — ironically enough from the current vantage point — he publicly endorsed Cohen’s first congressional bid over independent challenger Jake Ford, Harold Sr.’s son and Harold Jr.’s brother.
Herenton’s sense of having obtained mastery over the extended Ford family led him to boast in the current campaign that he had “dismantled the Ford machine.” That he had done no such thing is evident from the fact that members of the Ford family still hold elected positions in the legislature and in city and county government.
Harold Ford Sr. was the closest thing to a godfather figure that Memphis' African-American community has seen, and he was the nearest thing to a political boss in these parts since Boss Ed Crump.
Though he is no longer an active day-to-day force in Memphis, Ford Sr. keeps his hand in, and for Herenton to think that he can achieve anything like domination of the African-American electorate in the face of the Obama and Ford endorsements of Cohen — not to mention the several black city and county personages who have thrown in with the congressman — is arguably delusional.
Herenton is now at a pass where he is desperately short of avowed allies, and the five-times unbeaten mayoral candidate of yore is now potentially up against every adversary, of whatever kind, he has ever had.
It is not an enviable predicament, with early voting about to be under way and with less than a month before election day.
For the record, here is the text of the radio commercial Harold Ford Sr. has recorded for the Cohen campaign:
I’m Harold Ford Sr. and on August 5th I am supporting Congressman Steve Cohen for re-election to the United States Congress to represent the 9th Congressional District.
Steve Cohen brings 31 years of experience working in local and State politics where he casted the deciding vote for The MED. And fought to establish the TN Education lottery.
Steve Cohen has worked hard for you and me.
And I’m asking the voters of the 9th district to send Steve Cohen back to the Congress of the Unites States.
He’s a very close strong ally of President Barack Obama and he’s already been selected as a subcommittee chairman by the Democratic leadership and made a regional whip as well in the Democratic Caucus.I’m asking the voters to go and send Steve Cohen back for another term.
Comments (18)
Showing 1-18 of 18
Strictly speaking, Cohen hasn't "worked hard" for Ford Sr at all, as he was quite comforably ensconsed on the highly private Fisher Island near Miami long before Cohen was first elected. And Ford Jr took up in Manhattan just as Cohen took office. So he hasn't been around either. Just sayin'!
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JB: isn't this a classic case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" (a/k/a politics make strange bedfellows)?
Isn't this the same man who, among other points of attack, made a less-than-veiled (and highly criticized) reference to Cohen's religion back when Cohen was opposing one of his relatives (I can't remember now which one) for elective office, suggesting he wasn't "one of us" (or words to that effect)? Now there's something Sr. shares with Herenton.
The funny thing is, Cohen is actually much more like Ford, Sr., philosophically, than like his considerably more "centrist" son, Harold, Jr., so maybe these aren't such strange bedfellows. I doubt Cohen would have voted for the Iraq war (like Jr. did) had he been in that position, and I'm quite sure he never would have voted for the disastrous bankruptcy "reform" act (like Jr. did).
Do you know: Is Ford, Sr. lobbying for FedEx's latest union-avoidance tactic (i.e., remaining under the Railway Labor Act rather than the National Labor Relations Act), since Cohen's also doing his best to do FedEx's bidding on that? It wouldn't surprise me if they were working together on that, Democrat and supposedly pro-union though they both are.
So, I guess now that a menace to Ford's fiefdom presents itself (better to have Herenton in Memphis, where his harm to Ford's interests is minimal, than in D.C. where it might not be), he and Cohen can kiss and make up, eh? Or has Ford, Sr. had an epiphany about Judaism (or at least politicians who practice it)?
P.S. I'm proud of you for not straddling the line on this piece (you know, trying not to step too hard on any toes), as is occasionally your wont in trying to be fair. You even went so far as to use the word "delusional." I consider that a breakthrough for you. Sadly, though, you can definitely kiss goodbye any chance (already slim and none) you had to participate in a Cohen/Herenton debate (the chances of which happening are also slim and none).
P.P.S. Assuming the text of Sr's radio ad in your piece is accurate, you might want to tell his people that the past tense of "cast" (as in, a vote) is also "cast." The dictionary doesn't recognize the word "casted."
I'm bursting with pride at receiving this praise from you, Marty, but surely I'm undeserving of it. For have I not conditioned the stark word "delusional" with the mollycoddling modifier "arguably?"
Still, uner your tutelage I may achieve yet more "breakthroughs," although, realistically, not nearly enough to suit you. You've isolated the problem: It's this darn requirement that a journalist attempt to be fair and objective in relation to his sources and subject matter.
Seriously, I'm happy you're happy. Together we'll get the hang of this medium.
M_Awesomeberg: Sr. isn't lobbying for FedEx, but they have worked together on some stuff for the Med. Sr. mostly works on issues related to the House Committee on Financial Services, on which Jr. sat. The campaign you were referring to was when Jake Ford ran against SC as an independent in 2006.
It's been a slow build to this current state in their relationship, stemming back to SC's run against Jr. in 1994, but I think once they were forced to sit down in a room together and treat each other like adults, they (like you posited) found they had more in common than they thought. Regardless, this is much bigger than the Obama endorsement, IMHO.
JB: yeah, I noticed the "arguably." I figured you couldn't help yourself. Why did I know you'd focus on that very small part of my comment? Don't you hate being predictable?
It is possible, you know, to have an opinion but still be fair. Look at me. :) But seriously, some of the best political commentators there are manage to express their opinions, without hedging, and without messing where they eat.
I don't know if you have any heroes in this business, but mine (past or present) have been Thomas Oliphant, Daniel Schorr, Molly Ivins, E.J. Dionne and Hendrik Hertzberg. None of them, it seems to me, has ever pulled a punch for fear of being considered unfair.
"Fair and objective" may not be all it's cracked up to be. Remember who else uses that motto.
The "he's not one of us" ad was cut on behalf of Nikki Tinker, and it was Walter Bailey who appeared in it. It was definitely not Jake Ford, because he never raised enough money to run any ads. Also, it was 2008, not 2006. Because of the ad, Nikki Tinker was Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World." To the best of my knowledge, no one named Ford had anything whatsoever to do with it.
It's "Fair and Balanced" that those folks use, Marty, and would that it were so! Look, I don't have time to explain things to you, other than to cite the standard analogy of opinions and assholes and to thank you for your interest.
auto, there antisemitic overtones during the jake ford campaign as well, but i think you're right that awesomeberg was referring to that tinker ad (although walter bailey appeared in the klan ad, i think, and the one that got the publicity was the "he comes into our churces clappin' his hands and tappin' his feet" ad).
No, I'm not confusing Cohen's '06 run against Jake Ford with his '08 run against Tinker.
When Cohen ran against Jake Ford, Harold, Sr. made remarks about Cohen's being a Jew, and that, as such, he wasn't "one of us" (which may not be an exact quote). This was part and parcel of the attacks on Cohen for being Jewish that were mounted by a coalition of black preachers who supported Jake Ford. They attacked Cohen for opposing prayers "in Jesus' name" in the TN legislative chamber.
Anyway, that's the hatchet I meant was apparently being buried by this endorsement.
Let me fully explain something here, about the difference between the two Harold Fords and Willie Herenton. When Herenton wins over Steve Cohen, he will be the one and only REAL, TRUE, PURE BLACK person ever elected to serve in the United States Congress from the state of Tennessee. For the father and son Harold Ford team were the first and second Mulattoes from this state to be elected to Congress. And, hopefully, someone will pass this info on to a couple of other Mulattoes in Memphis, as well, Wendi Thomas and Maxine Smith, who are also of that confused mixed race group of so-called Negroes that really fall in the Mulatto category. And are therefore, understandably mentally confused. So hopefully we blacks of Tennessee will see the first REAL black elected to Congress in the person of Willie Herenton, by defeating this anti-Jesus Jew, Steve Cohen, in August. --- Rev. George Brooks of Murfreesboro, TN.
Jesus couldn't have said it better Rev. You almost made me type in tongues.
Now will you please go back inside the Harry Potter book you escaped from?
Just wait until Fox News discovers the good Reverend. They've been searching for him for months now.
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