Hey folks, sad to say the GOP has gotten its way and Harold Ford Jr.'s uncle's trial will now be held in October, 2006.
I had been saying in a half-joking cynical manner that this would happen, and today it did. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Breen, a George Bush appointee confirmed in 2003, set the date, only a couple weeks before this year's November Senate election.
For those of you not following the story, John Ford, Harold Ford Jr.'s uncle and a longtime member of the Tennessee state Senate, was arrested late last year and charged in a "Tennessee Waltz" FBI sting. Attached are various counts of bribery, corruption and extortion, including threatening an FBI agent with a gun (the actual threat has been aired on television repeatedly in TN). Ford is the putative Democratic nominee for Bill Frist's Senate seat in 2006.
We can expect this to turn into a full-fledged media circus. Some Democrats have smelt a rat all along, since the Waltz investigation was announced quite literally the day after Ford, Jr. announced his bid for the Senate seat.
As though that weren't enough, Ford's aunt Ophelia won a September special election for John Ford's Senate seat and won by 13 votes. Accusations of malfeasance are flying with Republicans set to overturn the election.
Today a Federal judge cleared the way, with Democrats possibly using the decision as a springboard to demand paper ballots or other accountability going forward.
Here's text from the Memphis Commercial Appeal link...
John Ford's trial set for Oct. 2
By Chris Conley
February 1, 2006
A federal judge set an Oct. 2 trial date for former state Sen. John Ford, who was scheduled to go to trial Monday. Ford is charged with accepting $55,000 in bribes from FBI agents posing as crooked businessmen who wanted his help in passing legislation to benefit their company, E-Cycle Management.
Ford is also accused of threatening potential witnesses against him.
Defense attorney Michael Scholl initially sought to delay the trial until next year, citing the massive volume of video and audio evidence, but U.S. Dist. Judge J. Daniel Breen rejected the idea.