I read Dowd's column today, something I usually specifically and habitually avoid. But whenever "Helicopter Harold" Ford speaks to the media(his base), I look to learn:
"I’m not comparing myself to Bobby Kennedy by any stretch, but he was opposed by the liberal establishment, too," Ford said. "Eleanor Roosevelt was the biggest opponent to him running."
We can put aside the rather obvious verbal shell game of comparing yourself to Bobby Kennedy by saying you're not comparing yourself to Bobby Kennedy. We're all used to this sort of thing and we cant expect the establishment media to point this out.
You can even put aside the fact that, as Abby Livingston points out, it simply couldn't be true because Eleanor Roosevelt died in 1962 and had been in declining health for the previous two years:
In this a.m.'s New York Times' Dowd column, ex-Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) said, "I'm not comparing myself to Bobby Kennedy by any stretch, but he was opposed by the liberal establishment, too, Eleanor Roosevelt was the biggest opponent to him running."
It seems on odd statement, seeing as Eleanor Roosevelt died in '62, two years before Kennedy's '64 SEN election. In the year of her death, Kennedy was JFK's AG and was pre-occupied with the Cuban Missile Crisis and Civil Rights, and per most biographies, a Senate seat was hardly on Kennedy's agenda.
In fact, in Evan Thomas' biography, "Robert F. Kennedy: His Life," spring '64 was the first mention of the NY Senate seat as a possibility, along with MA GOV. And even then, Kennedy only seriously began to consider a SEN run after failed efforts to position himself as LBJ's VP in the '64 race.
Kennedy had strong support from New York liberals and rank and file Democrats. At the state convention in 1964, he won the nomination 968 to 153. and the only token opposition he faced from the left was from Jewish groups who didn't like his anti-semitic father. One of those leaders, interestingly enough, was Ed Koch. His opponent in the race, was upstate Conservative Democratic Congressman Sam Stratton. I remember writing to Sam Stratton as a young man seeking recommendations to West Point. Good guy, but certainly no liberal. Anyway, we can set this aside as well. We know Ford tends to say anything to make himself look good with no regard for the facts.
What is interesting is that Ford understands that he is setting himself up in opposition to "liberals." So, to all you New York liberals, you know who you are, and you know who is against you. So, lets list the people Ford has made clear he is taking on so far:
- President Obama
- The Democratic Party Establishment
- New York Liberals
And who has he defended with vigor so far?
- Bankers
Sort of puts quotes like this into context doesn't it?
"We must remove the hood of political predictability that has stunted the growth of the black politic. We must venture into the Republican Party," he wrote in September 1991.