"Iraq is now indisputably ours. We are obliged to do it right."

What in the world does this mean. Ford has tried to play it both ways his entire career. Doesn't he at least owe Amanda an explanation of how he intends to "do it right". When we progressives were begging the Democrats and the Democratic leadership to raise the questions, Ford and the other Dems were wrapping themselves in the flag; it is a little late for platitudes now. Either tell us what you are going to do or hopefully the electorate will recognize that you are part of the problem.

Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.

Please don't do any TV shows. You are too nice to them and they cut you to pieces. I think if you express the opinion that you will break it off in their ass when the GOP lies then I think you can be standup Man and not jsut a nice guy.

Demand the Truth for America

I hope Amanda doesn't lose her dad because Dems like Ford don't have the sense and/or courage to demand immediate redeployment of our troops. Bush spins his crap and Ford buys it. What a disappointment most of these Democrats are.

Tom

J. McCutchen "JmacSF"

San Francisco. CA

Congressman, it is time for you to take responsibility for your actions. Don't blame Rumsfeld for your derelictions. Time for you to resign.

I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction.

I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda.

I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001.

I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

George Galloway

 

Voters for Peace

 Congressman Ford,

I can only assume that you believe you can win the Senate seat only if you adopt the position that all that is wrong in Iraq is how we are going about winning the war there.  Well, if you are the Democratic candidate after the primary, then I wish you good luck in winning that seat.  I sincerely mean that.

But, sooner or later, you will have to accept the fact that you made a serious mistake in giving Bush whatever he wanted in order to attack Iraq.  And, you compound that mistake by refusing to acknowledge it, and by promoting the idea that if only we had a better plan we could "win".  It simply isn't a winnable military action.  No amount of sugar coating, or troop increases, or bigger appropriations, or PR games is going to make that fact change.

Wars are won only when you are fighting an enemy country, and can defeat that country's government and military.  Usually the people in the defeated country will understand that their government was their real enemy, and they will accept the opportunity to build a better government.  But, in Iraq we claim to be liberating the people, while actually killing them, maiming them, imprisoning them, torturing them, and destroying their homes, cities and utilities.  Any thinking person has to see that there is no future in that that involves a victory for us.

It's time for us to leave Iraq. 

Hoppy in Sacramento

... and "win in Iraq" means what?

Tom

A change begins with Democratic candidates capable of winning in every state. A change begins with a Democratic majority in the Senate. A change begins with recognizing--and embracing--that you win races one at a time with candidates capable of winning those races.

Instead of attacking Democrats who win in red districts and states, we ought be embracing them, because without them, Pat Leahy will never chair the judiciary committee and Nancy Pelosi will never be speaker. And, in case anyone's missed it, Tennessee is a pretty red state.

Even with that, the Ford campaign has outraised every other in the race (last quarter, the campaign outraised all three Republican challengers, all of whom previously have run statewide races--combined).

Everywhere Rep. Ford goes, he talks about change. But the change people in Tennessee want is not one ideology for another. They want results. They want affordable health care, and they don't care whether a Republican or a Democrat figures it out. They don't want $3 gas, and they are agnostic about who delivers it. They support the military--and the stated goals of the Iraqi war--but they want a plan to win, and they are recognizing we don't have one.

With George Bush in office for nearly three more years, the only way to deliver those results is to change the Senate. We need 6 seats to get to 51. There are 6 states where we have a great shot to do it. And Tennessee is one of the 6. With the sole exception of John Edwards in 1998, when was the last time anybody could say that about any Senate candidate in any Southern state?

Mark Warner and Max Cleland, two guys with a pretty good understanding of what it takes to win in the South, enthusiastically campaigned in Tennessee with Ford last week. They did so because they know Ford can win. And it's in the party's interest--and the nation's--for him to win.

Rumors? The bases have been built

George Packer visited a different base, one of four. The president said that future presidents will decide the troop commitment in Iraq.

The current plans, clearly, are for a permanent force level of 30-40 thousand troops. They're not building those bases for Iraq. For one, thing Iraq has no airforce. For another, they're not going to be permitted to have armor. The materiel they're being allowed to have is only useful for internal security. The US will be providing external security for the indefinite future--just like Japan, South Korea, and Germany.

The only open question is how they are going to insure that the Iraqi government will cede its sovereignity in this regard.

Yeah. The talk above about oil being the reason for the war is simplistic.

IMO the reasons varied by department

DoD wanted secure bases in the region, and does not consider the Saudis secure

The neocons wanted to protect Israel, and to display American military might.

Rove wanted a war president

State wanted a reliable counterbalance to Iran.

Oil is involved in the question of basing in the region, but not that much. Oil is fungible, so there's no real question of controlling its supply. All you can do with it is sell it into world markets. It doesn't really matter who owns it.

"Iraq is now indisputably ours. We are obliged to do it right." How can you argue with a man that is "hopeful for a country" that is obviously struggling. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link, and in a world that signs and ratifies treaties to protect and promote peace in our world, why would we not be obliged to help a country that has been unable to help itself?

My parents always taught me to clean up the messes that I made, and apparently the Congressman was raised the same way. I've also learned a thing or two about Monday Morning Quarterbacking, especially since my blood runs orange. It's always easy to look back at previous plays and say "I would have done this differently." Congressman Ford is quick to note that maybe he, like many Americans, felt like the use of force in Iraq was the right thing, but has ultimately resulted in a fumble.

Congressman Ford wants to help clean up the mess and ultimately protect future generations from having to do what our generation now is doing. If we help Iraq now, we won't have to fight Iraq later.

I'm glad that Tennessee has this kind of option for the open Senate seat. It's promising to see that someone has a rationale approach to our country's biggest problems.

I don't care if he's a republican or democrat. I care that he has a positive outlook with real solutions to the real problems we face. I trust him with my future.

Harold Ford Jr. is just what Tennessee needs. He is the type candidate who can appeal to all Tennesseans.

This is what they keep telling us, but they're wrong. Harold doesn't appeal to all Tennesseans. Right or wrong, Harold Ford Jr. comes into the race with a ton of baggage that will ultimately prevent his election, barring a miracle, and that is his family name.

In Memphis and the surrounding area alone, there is a significant percentage of white, moderate, centrist Republican/Democrat/Independents who will never in a million years, not even to save the lives of their children, vote for a Ford. There's just too much family history.

Sure, an equally large percentage of people in Memphis will vote for a Ford no matter what. But the ideal candidate would appeal to both groups.

Harold had a Democratic competitor up until a few weeks ago who might have been able to compete for those votes, but she, Rosalind Kurita, got the rug jerked out from under her by the DSCC, who seem to think a primary battle is a bad thing. Personally, I don't think it's a bad thing to have a competition to see who can be the better Democrat, but that's a battle Harold is doomed to lose.

The Republican candidates - Corker, Bryant, and Hilleary - are going to duke it out in the primaries. Whoever emerges will be all the stronger, with his image and his message tempered and tested, while Harold spends the summer windsurfing with John Kerry.

Somebody said Tennessee is a red state. It is, in that it voted for Bush and has two Republican Senators. But overall, the state is deeply purple. We have a Democratic governor and 7-seat Democratic control of the state house. The Republicans have a three-seat lead in the state senate. There are 5 Democratic Representatives in Congress and 4 Republican Representatives. So, on average, you could say that Tennessee is more blue than red. If the DSCC had even tried in 2002, they could have beaten Lamar! in the Senate race, but they chose to "reward" milquetoast Bob Clement by putting his name on the ballot. And without even trying, he made a very respectable showing against Lamar! at the height of Bush's popularity.

So to say that Tennessee is a red state is misleading. It's only red because the national Democratic party prefers to write us off as a suburb of Mississippi and Alabama. A strong Democratic candidate unafraid to be a Democrat in Tennessee, willing to speak truth to power rather than suck up to it, without the baggage of the Ford name, could win in Tennessee.

I just wish we had a Democratic candidate like that.

I agree with all except for your last statement. Oil is the root of all the evil in that part of the world. It gives outside powers reason to interfere, the interference creates enemies, and the profits from oil give the oil rich countries the means to fight back. If they didn’t have oil to buy arms with, or to blackmail us with the prospect of economic hardship, all they could do is throw sand in our face, and they couldn’t even do that because we wouldn’t be there.

I lived and worked in the Blountville area and I know how red that area is. I know how much emphasis they place on loyalty to the area and their preference for favorite sons. Harold, from west Tennesse, and black, isn't likely to poll well there no matter what he says.

But he could be saying things that will at least get their attention. Instead of blaming Rumsfeld, which is the safe, poll-tested thing to do today, he could be laying the blame for the Iraq fiasco at the feet of the men most responsible for it - Bush and Cheney. He could get ahead of the polls on this one and trailblaze like old Daniel Boone right through the heart and soul of East Tennessee. He's not going to get any votes there riding his unicycle and juggling rhetoric, because the people of East Tennessee respect people who believe in something, even if they don't agree with it.

So if he's not going to get any votes, why not at least make some noise? Force Corker and Bryant to answer some heavily-loaded questions like - as a Republican, do you support the president's bungling of the Iraq war?

And he could follow it up by saying, I supported it until it became apparent that the man is incomptent.

I'm 100% in agreement. Let's get Democratic majorities in Washington, and then we can fight amongst ourselves as to what our real priorities should be and how we go about making positive change on behalf of the American people.

Also, he voted for the bankruptcy bill that will have horrific effects on HIS OWN CONSTITUENCY. As Pesky, Jeff, and the blog Polar Donkey has noted, Memphis is the bankruptcy capital of the US, and Ford has thrown his own people under the bus to further his candidacy.

Folks, if Connecticut doesn't have to put up with Joe Lieberman, Tennessee shouldn't have to put up with Harold Ford; it's not THAT red outside of Williamson County.

This is somewhat nauseating - both the racoon eating and the Bush loving parts.

Tom

I'm posting this for my fellow Flypaper Theorist Kibitzer, who was having trouble logging on to TPM tonight. After the colon, it's all Kibitzer: The remarkable thing you see from the postings left by my fly homies at The Flypaper Theory (thepeskyfly.blogspot.com) is the level of distrust for Rep. Ford. These are not knee-jerk reactions, nor are they intolerant utterances. Ford is not suspected of being a mealy-mouthed Democrat. He is suspected of not being a Democrat at all. The sense my colleagues and I have is not of someone dissembling from the left, it is of someone dissembling from the right, or from no place of conviction at all. Hence the passion and venom of so many posts at TFT, which is really pretty peerless in Ford's bailiwick for the depth of knowledge, degree of energy, diligence, originality, and general accuracy evinced by this all-star gang of posters. The fact is, in the last year or two, the congressman has not been the source of a single vote nor a significant statement -- nay, not one -- that shows commitment to Democratic (or democratic) goals or to the Democratic Party, nor anything that indicates he would even be loyal to the party at reorganization time! (That's when it's time to say "Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat," which, of course, he has just told us he has no intention, if elected to the Senate, of doing.) Fire Rumsfeld, my ass! That's just scapegoating, akin to Ford's Bush-lite cries of two years ago to fire George Tenet, the CIA head whom the president tried to blame for the Iraq fiasco. Would Chris D. and the other defenders please cite one action, one vote, one consistent line of approach by Congressman Ford that offers any reassurance as to his political identity or tangible proof as to his political intentions. Hell, he even chided Bush after the State-of-the-Union for not having done anything to advance private Social Security accounts! His defenders are being pretty faith-based, if you ask me! Kibitzer

I'd like to hear you clearly explain any one of these alleged solutions.