The Blonde Bimbo and the Evolution of Fordism

These past two weeks have been an implosion for the Jr campaign. Since his confrontation with Corker at the airport, momentum has swung. This incident confirmed to a lot of voters that Jr, no matter how much he says he’s not like the rest of his family, is a Ford. Next came the Newsweek cover. No one in Tennessee normally gives two shits about Newsweek or Imus or Hardball, but that cover story makes it seem like the media has already selected the Senator of Tennessee. Posing for that cover was just dumb. Following this was the bimbo ad that has been incredibly effective. Doubt me? If it wasn’t working the republicans would have pulled it. Jr’s response was somewhat rational but completely wrong.

At the time it seemed like having Hardball and Air America scream bloody murder about this ad being racist would generate a backlash. It didn’t turn out that way. What it did was get Jr off message for the past week and a half. It also made Jr appear weak and he became the talking point for liberals around the country. Jr has been trying to get as far away from liberals and progressives as possible for the past few years. All of that effort got blown up. Jr was suddenly on Dailykos as a victim. Real Time as a victim, Hardball as a victim. Olberman as a victim. Jr’s victimization by those damn dirty republicans became the celebrity cause of almost every left of center media outlet in the nation. I’m sure it seemed at the time that this backlash might be enough to push him over the top, but all it did was shatter the image he has been trying to present to voters since he decided to run for the Senate. He really is a Ford (the airport incident) and really is a liberal democrat because all those liberals are running to his defense.

Except for a short period right before Jr’s airport incident I did not think Jr could win, even with an almost perfect storm political environment for republicans. I’m not sure Tennessee would elect any black candidate aside from Colin Powell pre-2003 and certainly not a Ford. All of Jr’s pandering to conservative voters would be a wasted effort because the republicans would just call him a liberal anyway. I thought Jr should have turned the bimbo ad into a positive appeal to women voters. That way he moves on from the ad, showing how cartoonish it was, and stays on message. But he didn’t and allowed the political winds of the news cycle to blow him around. While the whole racist ad theme hurt Jr here in Tennessee, it did help the Democrats nationally. The racism in the Tennessee race and crazy attack on Michael J. Fox showed the true nature of republican party. (It would have all been perfect if John Kerry hadn’t have opened his big, fucking mouth yesterday. Dumbass.)

What the past two weeks have done is shown an evolution in Fordism. My friend Brad pointed this out yesterday. Traditionally and locally, Fordism has/is using race baiting and demonization to polarize the electorate. i.e. Harold Sr.’s famous “white devils” statement and Jake argument that the district being represented by only an African American christian. But Jr changed that. Rather saying all whites are “devils” and being combative, he turned to moderate and liberal whites around the country and said look at what those racist republicans are doing to me. Fordism-locally combative and state/nationally victimized. Victimization isn't going to work because Ford played the role of bully immediately before this ad was released.

Lords of War

Top three nations selling arms to developing countries.
Russia- $7 billion
France- $6.3 billion
US- $6.2 billion

Total 2004 arms sells to developing countries- $26.4 billion. 2005- $30.2 billion

Leading buyers.
India- $5.4 billion
Saudi Arabia- $3.4 billion
China- $2.8 billion

Jake Ford Is Comic Genius

After hearing about Jake Ford's antics at the last two debates, I have come to the conclusion that he is not really a congressional candidate but actually an avant-garde performance artist like Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen's new movie is Borat. To film this movie, he had to stay in character for weeks, literally becoming Borat. I believe Jake and Isaac are putting on the greatest comedic routine seen in this city since Andy Kaufman. This is the only perspective on the entire Jake candidacy that makes sense. I applaud Jake for the degree in which he has pursued his character's development. You too Isaac. The dedication to your art is admirable. Right now only a few people are getting it, but in a few years everyone recognize it for the genius it is. Bravo Jake and Isaac. As an homage to common genius that is Sacha Baron Cohen and Jake Ford, I offer this picture.

Carol Chumney Can Not Be Elected Mayor

Recently, a friend of mine made a point about the 9th congressional race and its implications on the mayor’s race next year. While the political environment of Memphis will allow Cohen to be elected to congress, it will not tolerate Carol Chumney or any other white candidate to be elected mayor as well. I completely agree with this. To have white politicians hold both the 9th congressional seat and the mayor would be unacceptable for the vast majority of African American voters. I actually hope no white candidates get in the mayor’s race, not Jack Sammons, John Vergos, some eye doctor, or Carol Chumney.

Unfortunately, Chumney has already entered the race and all I have to say about that is that she is fucking up the program. Herenton has to go. With Chumney in the race after a Cohen victory, it will polarize the electorate. In addition, a lot of people whose opinion I respect say Chumney is not a good administrator and would pick Herenton over her in a one-on-one race. I’m inclined to believe them after what Chumney said at that Living Wage rally several months back. I’m sorry Chumney but you aren’t going to be mayor. Whenever Herenton does leave office and for whatever reason, Deidre Malone is on deck. The magic 8-ball says Chumney does not have a chance against her.

I hope that there is a sit down at some point in the next few months and a qualified, African American candidate can be chosen. (That isn’t Ricky Peete.)

Blackburn, Is This Happening to You?

Today in the New York Times, there was an article about the fallout from Foleygate in a congressional race in Ohio. Here is the lead paragraph.
"COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 11 — Representative Deborah Pryce is a former municipal court judge, a Republican and a member of the House leadership who has represented her central Ohio district for 14 years. She is also friends with Mark Foley, the congressman who resigned in the page scandal, as she told Columbus Monthly for a feature it published just last month."

Now we are all aware that Marsha Blackburn is also the #4 republican in the House since she is assistant majority whip and is co-chair of NRCC with Tom Reynolds. Blackburn also worked with Foley on legislation, was in the same faction within the republican party, and went to the grammy's with him. Blackburn's connections are probably closure than Deborah Pryce's, so is Marsha getting the same treatment as the NYT describes here.
"In an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Kilroy questioned whether Ms. Pryce had had any warning about Mr. Foley’s conduct, and why Ms. Pryce, the No. 4 Republican in the House, had not called for the resignation of Representative J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois as speaker.

“When you have a member of Congress abusing his authority and his position with pages, and you have leaders of Congress looking the other way — protecting their majority instead of protecting the pages — people here saw that and said, that’s the final straw,” Ms. Kilroy said. “She’s in leadership. And I don’t understand why she is not calling on those leaders who didn’t act to step down.”

“What did she know?” Ms. Kilroy said, sitting in her campaign headquarters Wednesday during a break in preparation for a debate here Thursday night. “What did she do about it?”"

Ms. Kilroy, the Democratic candidate is even starting to run ads on conservative christain radio stations against Pryce. Here is some more in response to Republicans whining about the Democratic candidate being mean.
"Asked about Ms. Pryce’s claims, Ms. Kilroy said: “This is about a member of Congress abusing his position with pages, and it’s about how the Republican leadership engaged in a cover-up, and it’s about Deborah Pryce not speaking out against that. It’s not about anyone’s sexual orientation.”"

I hope the Morrison campaign and news media are making Blackburn answer these questions too.

Marsha Spoke

I hope this doesn't come back and bite you in the ass.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): "Anyone who knew about this situation and did not take appropriate action, whether it was a staff member, or a member, or an individual of the press, or somebody else's staff member, or some reporter or anyone who knew about this, they should resign their position. They should face the full legal process of whatever would be due for whatever they committed" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 10/3).

Republican Whistleblower

Read this story in The Hill newspaper. It was a former republican aide with an ethical compass that blew the lid off this story. It wasn't Democratic dirty tricks that did in the Republicans. It was their own cynicism, corruption, and hypocrisy.
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/100506/news2.html
Thursday is day 6 of the Marsha Blackburn watch. When are you going to tell us what and when you knew about Foley?

Blackburn: Suspension of Disbelief?

It is becoming harder and harder to believe that Marsha Blackburn didn’t know anything about Mark Foley’s proclivities. Now it is possible she didn’t know anything. These are the Congressmen who knew about Foley’s emailing underage pages; Denny Hastert, John Boehner, Rodney Alexander, John Shimkus, and Tom Reynolds. Let’s take a closer look at Shimkus/Blackburn link. Shimkus and Blackburn are on the Energy and Commerce Committee. In September 2005, Blackburn and Shimkus worked together on broadcast flag legislation. (http://p2pnet.net/story/6465 ). This was in September 2005. Shimkus definitely knew about Foley in Fall of 2005. Blackburn and Shimkus also worked together with Congressman Fred Upton to on the Video Game Decency Act (http://www.house.gov/upton/press/press-09-22-06.html ) in the summer of 2005. So these two Congressman and their staffs are fairly close.

Next on deck is Rodney Alexander. He is the Congressman who sponsored the page that received the Foley emails and IM’s. Alexander knew about the emails since September 2005. In January and early February 2006, Alexander was in the Roy Blunt camp for majority leader with Blackburn, along with Foley. So Alexander, Foley, and Blackburn were in the same faction within the Republican party.
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/01/day_two_blunt_a.html

On to Tom Reynolds. He and Blackburn are co-chairs of the National Republican Congressional Campaign. So they definitely work close together, real close. Guess who is Tom Foley’s chief of staff is? Kirk Fordham. Who is Kirk Fordham? Well, he was the chief of staff of Mark Foley and used to escort Foley around to keep him out trouble when Foley was near the congressional pages. Fordham also tried to cut a deal with Brian Ross to keep the Foley story under wraps. It’s a small, Republican, Capital Hill world after all. But wait, it gets better. This is from Josh Marshall’s TPM blog. “Finally, one detail here isn't getting enough attention. Rep. Alexander (R-LA), the first member of Congress to be alerted to the problem, says he contacted the NRCC. That's the House Republicans' election committee, a political organization entirely separate from the House bureaucracy and the Congress. (The head of the NRCC this cycle is Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY).) That is, to put it mildly, not in the disciplinary and administrative chain of command of the House of Representatives.” Oh snap! UPDATE-OH SNAP 2: From the NY Post "In another stunning development, Robert Novak today reveals in his column - published in PostOpinion on Page 31 - that even after House GOP leaders knew that Foley had written an inappropriate e-mail to a 16-year-old former male page, they were still urging him to seek re-election." UPDATE-OH SNAP 3:From the AP "A senior congressional aide said Wednesday that he alerted the House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office in 2004 about worrisome conduct by former Rep. Mark Foley with teenage pages -- the earliest known alert to the GOP leadership.
Kirk Fordham told The Associated Press that when he was told about Foley's inappropriate behavior toward pages, he had "more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene."
The conversations took place long before the e-mail scandal broke, Fordham said, and at least a year earlier than members of the House GOP leadership have acknowledged."


I’ll also mention again that Marsha Blackburn is the assistant majority whip. She’s #4 in the House leadership, so she has to coordinate and report to Denny Hastert and John Boehner, dare I say, everyday. What is the likelihood that with all these people Blackburn works with and knows would not mention to her that a congressman (from her own faction within the party) sent “overly friendly” emails to underage pages? Blackburn needs to have a press conference and clarify what and when she knew of Foley.

Marsha Blackburn and Mark Foley

This is a picture from the Grammy's a couple years ago, when Foley and Blackburn went together. (Foley is next to guy in the front row with the beard in the middle. Blackburn is too the right.) This picture is from Yahoo news.

Let’s see how close Marsha Blackburn and Mark Foley are.

In February 2006, when Roy Blount and John Boehner were battling to become majority leader, Marsha Blackburn sided with Roy Blount. That would seem natural since she wass and continues to be assistant majority whip. She would have had a big part in pulling republicans into the Blount camp. On February 2, 2006, Blount got 101 votes including Mark Foley’s. So both Blackburn and Foley were in the same faction in the Republican party. ( http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/011106/tally.html )

Now let’s move on to Blackburn’s own website. http://www.votemarsha.com/?sectionid=15&parentid=13§iontree=9,13,15&itemid=63
Here’s an article about Blackburn opposing the income tax. Take a look at one of the five congressmen she was working in a coalition with. So the Blackburn and Foley staffs were fairly close.

Efforts of tax warrior Marsha Blackburn just beginning to pay off
06/06/04
From: The Tennessean
By: Tim Chavez
Meet Tennessee's shadow governor.
As a state senator, Marsha Blackburn made it politically impossible to enact a state income tax by sounding the alarm at the state Capitol. Phil Bredesen then had to run against a state income tax for his first term just to get elected.
…….
In the House, Blackburn is working in a coalition of five representatives: herself, Mark Foley and Tom Feeney of Florida, Jennifer Dunn of Washington state and Brady of Texas.
Blackburn made the following statement about her efforts:
''We truly are a step closer to taking away an argument used by those who seek to impose an income tax and raise taxes. This is about letting states choose their tax structure, and it's about creating an environment where serious tax code reform can actually happen, not just at the state level but also at the federal level.


Another link between Blackburn possibly having knowledge of Foley’s indiscretions is that she is co-chair of the Republican National Congressional Committee with Tom Reynolds.

The question I keep asking myself this, Capital Hill is a small place. The republican congressional delegation is smaller, the republican faction that supported Blount even smaller. Blackburn and Foley were in a coalition against income tax and went to the Grammy’s together. So their staffs had to repeatedly work together. Marsha is the assistant majority whip, so she’s a member of the leadership. Hastert, Boehner, Blount, and Reynolds all knew of Foley’s sexual predatory nature months ago, but Blackburn is left out of the loop? Just too many people around her would have known or heard about Foley to not raise questions. To clear this up, Blackburn needs to have a press conference and publicly state she never knew about Foley’s antics. The voters of Blackburn’s district should know without a doubt she would have never let something like inappropriate contact between a 52 year old congressman and 16 year old congressional pages happen on her leadership watch.