Harold Ford's Quest

By Roy Exum (Archive) · Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Harold Ford, Jr., who nearly beat Chattanooga's Bob Corker in the 2006 race for Senate in Tennessee, is admittedly a real sharp guy. He went to the University of Pennsylvania in the Ivy League for college and then to the prestigious University of Michigan law school en route to becoming one who I consider to be a serious "up-and-comer" in American politics.

My goodness, he spent 10 years in Congress, winning handily in three elections by as much as 80 percent in his West Tennessee district. He was described by then-President Bill Clinton as "the walking, living embodiment of where America ought to go in the 21st century," and when a Republican ad horribly back-fired with a comely blonde urging him to come "to the Playboy Club," he nearly overcame a huge Corker lead, losing by less than three percentage points on election day.

But he raised a considerable number of eyebrows over the weekend when a column written by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times came out on Saturday. In it, the Memphis native intimated Tennessee was "too racial," that after the 2008 presidential race he and his then-27-year-old wife decided to move away rather than live in the Volunteer State.

Funny, I never knew Harold was married. His good looks and charm in the Senate race, together with his amazing recollection of remembering names and gregarious nature, caused some admirers to wonder "why not" but the better fact is that it wasn't until some time after the run against Corker that he announced his carefully-guarded relationship and its resulting engagement.

The reason for that was because Harold, who is black, soon married a pretty girl named Emily Threlkeld, who is white. In political circles interracial marriage is a bit touchy and now, as the 39-year-old Ford is trying to decide whether or not to challenge New York Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand -- another blonde -- for her seat this August, that tasty tidbit has been ... er, exposed.

He told the Times' Dowd, “My wife and I decided after the ’08 election there was so much bad racial stuff out of Tennessee on Obama. I’m in an interracial marriage. I don’t want to subject my wife to this, and I want to start a family," he said.

"I think my marriage is more accepted (in New York) than it would be in Tennessee. I started paying closer attention to New York politics, and I was pleasantly -- not pleasantly -- but I was surprised by how serious the New York political class were in their opposition to Senator Gillibrand.”

Apparently what he politely calls the “Manhattan social philanthropic crowd" has thusly been swooned by the former Tennessee Congressman and his close ties to the now-frazzled Wall Street elite have also encouraged him to take on Gillibrand, who is being painted by some as a poor performer in the Senate with low ratings. Others still aren't sure, saying Ford is so slick “He could sell a snowball in a blizzard.”

“Senator (Charles) Schumer and Senator Gillibrand and some others want to create this notion that I moved to New York with the intention of running for office and I live this unbelievably luxurious life,” he told the writer at another point, obviously already running for the Democratic nomination quite hard.

Keep reading. “I’m blessed, and I work extremely hard, and I’m able to pay my bills. I love New York. I love the smell of the city. I love the subways. As I learn more and more, I love every part of the state. It’s so unfair how it’s been characterized. I eat at places like the Coffee Shop more than I eat uptown,” he added, trying to shake the image of being from the Deep South.

True, he hasn't formally announced he plans to run but why then, would he boldly just change his stance on gay marriages from where he stood in the Tennessee race? He explained it away in Dowd's column by saying those in politics "should not have 'static positions' but should 'allow new information and cultural norms to affect them.' They should not, he said, be punished for 'thoughtfulness.'"

Pressed about gay marriage, he said, “There were pastors in my Tennessee district who said you can minister to someone and change their sexual orientation. I just never accepted that. I’m a heterosexual. I don’t know what anyone can say to me to make me sexually be with a man.”

Well, I don't know who in Tennessee voted for Ford against Corker, or vice versa, but, my goodness, what a difference four years can make. Corker has been remarkable as a Senator, his financial understanding universally acknowledged as a Godsend in the recession but, just as most observers sensed, we haven't heard the last from Harold Ford, Jr.

It's just that New York does seem, indeed, like it's a pretty long way from Tennessee.