The linked CA article quoted Cohen thusly:
Asked whether Ford Sr.'s involvement is producing a backlash against his son's candidacy for the Senate, Cohen said, "Unfortunately, I think that's true."
Cohen has endorsed Ford Jr. and said Friday he will vote for him and the Democratic ticket.
Cohen praised Ford Jr. as having "tremendous attributes. For him to come this far and to have the effort to overreach I guess, and to have his younger brother run in the 9th District, I think has hurt his campaign. I really think that if Harold Ford Jr. had run with me on a ticket, it would have been a 'dream team'...."
Cohen doesn't believe the "Ford machine" is as strong as it was. "The Ford machine used to have a lot of foot soldiers. I think a lot of the foot soldiers have not been kept part of the team. The top brass has moved away from the foot soldiers. It's hard to be in touch with your foot soldiers when you're on Fisher Island or the Hamptons." Fisher Island is an affluent enclave off of Miami Beach where Ford Sr. has a home.
Junior's campaign, rather than acknowledging the obvious, stunningly accused Cohen, WHO ASKS EVERYONE HE MEETS TO VOTE FOR JUNIOR AS WELL AS FOR HIMSELF, of singing from the same hymnbook as Bob Corker. WTF??Listen, I have had emails from MANY people today, all of whom are Democrats of longstanding, who have advised that after seeing the Jake Ford Ballot today, will NOT vote for Harold Ford Junior.
This is not the fault of Steve Cohen, this is the fault of Harold Ford Senior, and Junior, if he's too dumb to realize that he is hemorrhaging votes in his own backyard. WHY? Because his father is carrying on a campaign against the most well known progressive in Tennessee politics since the departure of Jim Sasser.
Steve Cohen is a beloved figure, and with Junior's votes for a horrible bankruptcy bill and to give the President the right to suspend habeas corpus and to TORTURE people, most progressives would rather have Steve Cohen in Congress than Harold Ford Jr. in the Senate.
This is a choice that no one wanted to have to make; Harold Ford Senior has made the choice that could well drive progressives from his son's campaign, and cost him the Senate seat that Democrats need so desperately.
Then, let's see how good his lobbying business will be if that happens.
2 comments:
Well, my husband and I (hard-core Democrats) were waiting on voting - holding off - since if we voted prior to today, we would not have cast a vote for Jr. due to his lack of support for the Democratic nominee (among other reasons). We reasoned that if he ultimately came out for Cohen prior to the actual Election Day, we would regret having not given him our vote - so we wanted to wait. Granted, there was very little chance of Junior changing his stance, but consider us optimists.
No longer any point in that. I would characterize the comments from his "campaign", cited in the CA this morning, as "attacks" on the Democratic nominee for Congress. Said comments mirrored Jake's constant non-sensical refrain and sounded like a Republican soundbite - lies and distortions. It is no longer a matter of a lack of endorsement. You got it right LWC - Junior forgot who he's running against.
Our votes will be cast - perhaps today - for Cohen but not for Junior. He won't get those votes back regardless of what he does between now and Election Day. I have spoken to many others who feel the same. Frankly, I hope Junior goes down in flames.
Folks, I gotta believe the tide has finally turned in this country and we are moving left again, toward reason and liberty and the foundations upon which this country was based. Looks like voters nationwide might actually have awakened after sleeping for the last decade (at least). So I also gotta believe that if Corker wins, we can take him out next time with a legitimate candidate who votes for something other than his own interest. If not, then I hope some other states elect some legit Demo senators, because Tennessee shouldn't elect this candidate.
LWC:
I understand from Thaddeus Matthews' blog that Junior crashed one of Bob Corker's press conferences. There's also a link at Matthews' place.
If so, didn't he just shoot his own campaign in the foot and pick the toes off one-by-one?
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