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Glenn Greenwald: Harold Ford, Jr.: smirking sociopath
http://www.salon.com/2012/07/09/harold_ford_jr_smirking_sociopath/Monday, Jul 9, 2012 12:39 PM EDT
Harold Ford, Jr.: smirking sociopath
Harold Ford Jr., sleazy corporatist nepotist, offers up a particularly grotesque defense of U.S. aggression
By Glenn Greenwald
Harold Ford, Jr. is the walking, breathing embodiment of virtually everything rotted and corrupt about the American political class. He entered Congress at the age of 26 only by virtue of nepotistic benefits: while in law school, he ran for the seat long held by his father of the same name (he then promptly failed the test for admission to the Tennessee bar). In Congress, he voted for de-regulation of Wall Street (which helped precipitate the 2008 financial crisis); to authorize the Iraq War (and then harshly criticized Democrats who opposed it and refused to admit its error even as late as 2007); in favor of a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages (The Advocate branded him “anti-gay”); and was one of the few Democrats to support the credit-card-industry-demanded bankruptcy “reform” bill that made it harder for impoverished consumers to discharge consumer debt.
After Tennessee voters drove him from Congress by rejecting his 2006 Senate bid, Ford immediately cashed in on his servitude to Wall Street and peddled his D.C. influence by becoming Vice Chairman and Senior Policy Adviser of Merrill Lynch. During Ford’s tenure, “Merrill Lynch nearly collapsed, was bailed out by US taxpayers, and went through a troubled merger with Bank of America,” yet he nonetheless received $2 million a year in guaranteed salary plus what was almost certainly substantial annual bonsues. He left what had become Bank of America Merrill to become a Senior Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, at which time he bought a $3 million co-op in Manhattan. Upon leaving Congress, Ford also cashed in by becoming the last Chairman of the corporatist Democratic Leadership Council (“last” because, typifying his career, the DLC ceased to exist under his leadership). He cashed in further by becoming a Fox News contributor, until he left for MSNBC.
Reflecting the interests he typically serves so eagerly, Ford recently attacked Democratic criticisms of Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital on the ground that “private equity is a good thing in many, many instances.” So that’s Harold Ford, Jr.: opportunistic, craven, sleazy nepotistic corporatist who has made a career out of converting his unearned political influence and loyalty to the banking industry into large wads of cash.
This morning, Ford, as he often is, was on Morning Joe (independently significant is that fact that one of the most prolific NBC/MSNBC political commentators — a Democrat — is also a senior Wall Street executive). The show devoted a six-minute segment to Esquire‘s Tom Junod, who — as I noted earlier today — has just published a worthwhile and heartfelt article entitled “The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama,” which examines in depth the multiple ways the President has seized the power to kill; in one section, Junod reports on the U.S. killing of 16-year-old Abdulrahman Awlaki in Yemen, and Esquire has published that section separately under this headline: “Obama’s Administration Killed a 16-Year-Old American and Didn’t Say Anything About It. This Is Justice?” In the Morning Joe segment, Junod repeatedly documented the numerous innocent Muslims — including children — that are continuously killed by Obama’s attacks, such as the 16-year-old Denver-born son of the Islamic preacher, a mere two weeks after his father was killed
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42 replies
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how often I agree with him.
Harold Ford is what the Democratic party is evolving toward in the hothouse atmosphere of the corporate dominance of politics.
To be succinct, Harold knows how to get things done and where the bodies are buried.
If you want to see the future envision Harold Ford stamping his Gucci loafers on a human face forever.
It's time for the Party to "liberate" itself from the likes of Ford.
I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. 
Good on Glenn for taking that asshat on.
spectrum, and he wants Democrats to lose 2012 as badly as we lost 2010
It's informative what Greenwald notices and does not notice
Harold Ford is not one of my personal heroes: he's too corporate for my tastes, though one hardly expects a Libertarian like Greenwald to object to THAT, especially after complaining that the DLC ceased to exist after Ford's tenure there! But the reason Greenwald harps on it is simple: Greenwald's attack on Ford aims to disillusion Democrats and to drive wedges in the Democratic camp
In 2006, the light-skinned Ford lost in Tennessee following especially ugly GOP dog-whistles to anti-miscegenation prejudices, that most of us had (mistakenly) thought long gone. It is an instructive chapter in GOP tactics, but Greenwald NEVER notices that. Why not? His idol Paul, of course, has some racist tendencies, as exemplified by his stance against statutory protections of civil rights; so perhaps we should suspect Greenwald of similar tendencies, given some of the loaded memes (such as "Obama raping a nun"
that Greenwald has helped promote
I don't know why anyone considers Greenwald a progressive: he's a Libertarian ideologue, whose only interest is trying to make Democrats look bad
At a talk given the day after the 2010 election — one that was a disaster for Democrats — “progressive” writer and civil liberties lawyer Glenn Greenwald gave a talk at the University of Wisconsin, and expressed the hope that Democrats might suffer the same fate in 2012. Greenwald’s speech mainly focused on civil liberties and terrorism policy “in the age of Obama.” But it was his approach to politics that got members of the Young Americans for Liberty — a Paulite Libertarian group that co-sponsored the event — excited ...
Re-rise of the Naderites: Glenn Greenwald’s third party dreamin’
http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/04/re-rise-of-the-naderites-glenn-greenwalds-third-party-dreamin/
... In a particularly heated exchange on Twitter Saturday night, a blogger named “DrDawg” tweeted about Gandy: “Obama could rape a nun live on NBC and you’d say we weren’t seeing what we were seeing.” In response, Greenwald chimed in, “No – she’d say it was justified <and> noble – that he only did it to teach us about the evils of rape.”
Glenn Greenwald defends 'Obama could rape a nun' attack on supporters
by Zerlina Maxwell | January 2, 2012 at 8:00 AM
http://thegrio.com/2012/01/02/glenn-greenwald-defends-obama-could-rape-a-nun-attack/
... I've been stewing over Harold Ford. I wasn't particularly rooting for him, given that I agree with only about 30% of anything I've ever heard him say ... So I was apathetic about a Ford victory. But it's hard to take him losing like this. I'm skeptical of anyone who pins their misfortune exclusively on the color of their skin. But in Harold Ford's case, the awful truth is simple: if he were white, he would have won. When I first saw the infamous "Harold, call me" ad, I perhaps gave too much credit to the electorate ... The ad's obvious appeal to racist stereotypes won't make a dent, I thought. Ford's loss doesn't mean that we're back in 1956. But to lose over the ancient fear of miscegenation is ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as the G.O.P.'s attempts to woo blacks across the country ...
Racism and Harold Ford
By Ta-Nehisi Coates Wednesday, Nov. 08, 2006
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1557013,00.html
... I never voted for George W. Bush—or for any of his political opponents. I believed that voting was not particularly important. Our country, it seemed to me, was essentially on the right track. Whether Democrats or Republicans held the White House or the majorities in Congress made only the most marginal difference .... My primary political belief was that both parties were plagued by extremists who were equally dangerous and destructive, but that as long as neither extreme acquired real political power, our system would function smoothly and more or less tolerably. For that reason, although I always paid attention to political debates, I was never sufficiently moved to become engaged in the electoral process ...
How Would A Patriot Act?
That's right! He reached his late thirties before it even occurred to him that voting might matter
And at that point he became an enthusiast for third parties
Keep, uh...keep plucking that chicken!
PB
Congressman to be remembered as a statesman rather than as a "dime-a-dozen" politician. Glenn obviously must feel Harold, Jr. didn't heed my plea. What a fool I was to think a person might rather be remembered as a statesman than to be another well-monied influence peddler. 
