June 9, 2005

55 Ford

Blake Wylie has been digging in to the checkered past of former state Sen. John Ford, who is currently facing federal felony corruption charges for allegedly accepting $55,000 in bribes. Of course, despite the video and audio tapes of Ford accepting wads of cash and promising he was the legislator "who makes the deals," Ford is proclaiming his innocence on the twisted logic that it's not bribe if its given to you by a dishonest man.

Wylie also examines the implication of "55 Ford's" past and present legal and ethical troubles for U.S. Rep. Harold Ford's Senate campaign.

All one has to do is do a little digging to show that there's a lot of "coincidences" in John and Harold Sr.'s past that tie them together in several alledged "schemes."

Many people say that Harold Ford, Jr. is the cleanest politician in his family (if there is such a thing as a "clean" politician), but with the history of not only his uncle but also his father, he may have to fight a lot harder to prove otherwise. It's also hard to distance one's self from his father if his father's lobbying firm is paying for ethically questionable trips....(or if you've forgotten to remove a couple of indicted "Tennessee Waltzers" from an invitation to a Chattanooga fundraiser listing them as being on the honorary host committee).

While he listed the trips on his financial-disclosure forms at the end of each year, Mr. Ford did not make public the purpose or value of the trips paid for by companies and outside groups, since the financial-disclosure form - unlike the travel form - does not require such information.

Looks like John Ford's legal and ethical woes aren't the only problems Ford Jr.'s '06 U.S. Senate campaign will face. Ford Jr.'s travel was likely to be an issue in the Democratic primary, but now that it's been revealed he violated ethics rules for failing to disclose who paid for his trips and how much they cost it's going to be much tougher for him to avoid comparisons to his uncle.

B4B also did a little digging and found:

The registered lobbyist for Pegasus Airwave, Inc., the company that paid for Harold Ford Jr.'s travel to Miami, is the Harold Ford Group - his father's lobbying firm.

What could possibly be the reason for that?