Let me say up front that I don't really care if Harold Ford runs for the Senate in New York. I don't
Harold Ford, Tennessee Democrat
think there's anything wrong with primarying incumbents. I do find it funny that a man who had great help moving Rosalind Kurita out of his way is now outraged to discover that people (some of the same people) are trying to move him out of someone else's way. Quel surprise! And there's gambling at Rick's. And Luke is Vader's son. And water is wet. And broken hearts suck. Etc., etc., etc. No, the reason I think progressive bloggers (myself included) are kind of dumbfounded and outraged by the Ford campaign is that he has become a regular Democrat seemingly overnight. Positions he used to hold, he now doesn't. Things he used to be for (like guns), he's now against. It's as if he's a whole new person. As Sean Braisted puts it, "I guess from now on, if and when I write about Harold Ford Jr., I'll have to use a code to differentiate between the Harold Ford Jr. we had as a candidate in Tennessee (HFJ06), and the Harold Ford Jr. who is mulling a run for Senate in New York (HFJ10)." Even this would be more funny than troubling, if not for the implications his conversion has for the way Democrats view the Tennessee political landscape.
