"Helicopter Harold Ford" illustrated AGAIN what little he knows about the place he'd like to represent. For a paid speaking gig in Maryville, Missouri (not sure how many New York voters are there), he was asked about the proposed terror trials in New York:
Mr. Ford, who said he lives about a block from the courthouse, said the trial should take place in a military tribunal, away from New York City.
Apparently Mr. Ford has no idea where the Federal Courthouse is New York City is.
Mr. Ford said in an interview with the New York Times:
He and his wife, Emily, a 29-year-old fashion executive, live a few blocks from the Lexington Avenue subway line in the Flatiron district.
He even reported how he moved around from this locale:
Q. What subways do you use in the city?
A. Near my house, I take the 6, if I am uptown — I come down — I take the 6, 5 or the 4.
Q. Do you commute by subway or car?
A. Normally I commute, it’s easier, in the morning, because I spend time at MSNBC, generally — I don’t really take the subway very often unless it’s wintertime and I can’t get a taxi on Fifth, because I stumble out. I normally take a take a taxi now on Fifth. My office is at 42nd and Fifth. I walk a lot. In the morning, I am going to the office, it takes me four or five minutes. I am on at 6 a.m. NBC will sometimes, if not all the time, send a car, and I shoot right up Sixth Avenue. The two corridors are easy to get back and forth to.
Stop.
Now any New Yorker knows that if Harold Ford lives in the Flatiron district and takes the 6, it is indeed quite a long walk to the six train considering the uptown N and R trains are obviously closer. Plus, taking the 6 is going to put him quite a distance from the MSNBC offices at Rockefeller Center or his office at 42nd & Fifth. (By the way, the new Bank of America building, where Ford is Vice Chairman, is at 42nd & Sixth, not Fifth. New Yorkers KNOW that the N or R train will put him a block away from B of A, while the 6 will require a very long walk from Grand Central. Also, getting a taxi on Fifth makes no sense because it is a one way street in the opposite direction. )
Let me illustrate this on a map:
Harold follows the path of the #6 Lexington Ave. train outlined in green, when he should be using the more direct #N or #R Broadway Local path outlined in blue. But thats here nor there. Since he doesn't use the subway, I shouldn't expect him to know these things.
But where is the Federal Courthouse?
As you can plainly see, the Federal Courthouse where the terror trial would take place is quite a bit more than a block from his home in the Flatiron district. Since he's not actually from here, I shouldn't expect him to know this either.
But why would he travel to conservative rural northwestern Missouri, where people definitely wouldn't know such things, and say that he LIVES A BLOCK FROM THE COURTHOUSE?
The answer, in my view, is simple: Harold Ford is a born liar. In a pathetic attempt to kiss up to the locals in Missouri about his anti-terror bonafides, he attempted to imply that he would be personally impacted by terror trials taking place in New York. He did that even though it is abundantly clear they would be nowhere near either his home or his office.
