| This diary is inspired by Ford's recent attacks on Gillibrand, that baselessly imply that she did not "file and pay her taxes while making big bucks as the cigarette industry's lawyer" more than a decade ago.
Ford has his own tax problems, especially whether he sheltered his substantial Merrill Lynch income in Tennessee, which does not have an income tax.
So his response is to call Gillibrand a tax cheat, with no evidence at all, and to lie that Gillibrand, then a worker-bee associate at a Manhattan law firm representing one tobacco company, was "the cigarette industry's lawyer."
For the Ford boosters at the Murdoch-money-pit New York Post, Ford's baseless BS has created "his first solid news cycle victories."
For me, his nasty, fact-free attacks recall a recent column by Wendi C. Thomas in his hometown newspaper, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, about the real Harold Ford behind the Southern gentleman mask.
Thomas, a young African-American metro columnist, wrote an open letter to New Yorkers about her interactions with Junior during his 2006 Senate campaign.
The headline is "Cussin' calls say Junior's no gent."
Thomas had shared with her readers her low opinion of Ford as "a flip-flopping opportunist who pimps God for his purposes and didn't always vote in his constituents' best interest (his vote for the bankruptcy bill would be one stunning failure) and whose integrity could be measured in milligrams, not pounds."
And Ford took exception, in expletive-laden personal phone calls to Thomas at home.
In our late Sunday afternoon phone calls, Junior would start out pleasant and turn nasty quick -- something I'm sure many of his former aides could relate to.
Junior had the courtesy to introduce himself on the phone, and then the profanity would fly. A brief cussing out wouldn't warrant much mention, but Junior either had a lot to say or liked to hear himself talk -- maybe a little of both.
After a few of these calls, I realized that my presence really wasn't necessary. I could set the phone down, fry an egg, eat it, come back and Junior would still be on a tear.
So Ford would routinely curse at and demean a columnist who disagreed with him. Thomas writes that his bullying shows what kind of person Junior is.
While I was listening to Junior, a quote I'd heard about character came to mind.
It's attributed to advice columnist Abigail Van Buren and it goes like this: The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back.
I could not do Junior any good, unless ceasing to write about him would be good for him. And in those conversations, I could have hung up, but honestly, I wanted to see just how far he'd go, just how crude he'd get, how hot his temper was, what kind of man he was when no one was watching.
And it wasn't pretty, as I'm sure many politicians' behavior isn't pretty when they think or hope no one is watching.
While Junior has moved on from Tennessee and into another Senate race, Thomas tartly quotes Emerson to close the column: "No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character."
As a professional politician, Ford is expert at hiding his true defective character behind a mask of deferential good manners.
Those in his hometown who know Junior better know that there's a nasty foul-mouthed bully behind the mask. |
