JB
DLC chairmanFord (right)with RNC chairman Steele after the debate.
Former Memphis congressman Harold Ford Jr., now apparently an official New Yorker, came close to home Thursday night, appearing in a debate at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele. Ford was there in his capacity as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Conference. The two agreed that more dialogue should be occurring between the two major parties in Congress.
Among other things, Ford defended TARP, called for health care legislation that included both a public option and tort reform, and pronounced himself solidly pro-choice on abortion, although, in making an assertion on this point, Ford spliced it onto the same statement of religious background that he employed in 2006 when seeming to embrace the pro-life viewpoint. (See video.) The audience seemed divided fairly equally between Republicans and Democrats, but Ford appeared to get the lion’s share of the cheers. He got his biggest hand when he mentioned the fact that he was considering a run for the Senate in New York.
