Ghost of Harold Ford Jr. Haunts Tom Vilsack

Tom Vilsack has an Iowa aw-shucks kind of style that’s kind of endearing. He seems down to earth. Plainspoken. Nice. This style is one of Tom Vilsack’s greatest political attributes.

The thing that’s important to remember about politicians, however, is that style is often not indicative of reality. Consider that George W. Bush campaigned for President in 2000 with the style of a Republican maverick who would stand up to right wing activists. He put on the style of a compassionate conservative, a uniter, not a divider. We all know now that Bush’s campaign style was not an accurate depiction of Bush’s substance.

So, who is the real Tom Vilsack, behind the substance? The real Tom Vilsack is a powerful political dealmaker who has until this month been the leader of an organization that promotes nasty right wing politics within the Democratic Party. Tom Vilsack is the outgoing chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council.

If you want to know what kind of politics the Democratic Leadership Council, think of right wing independent Senator Joseph Lieberman, the guy who said that Americans only have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Lieberman became infamous for his loyalty to George W. Bush, supporting Bush’s crazy Iraq War policies through thick and thin. Most recently, Senator Lieberman has praised Bush’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq and put more American soldiers in harm’s way.

Another fine example of the right wing ideology promoted by the Democratic Leadership Council is Harold Ford Jr., the man who is replacing Tom Vilsack as chairman. Harold Ford Jr. recently failed to win a seat in the United States Senate in Tennessee after running a campaign designed to appeal to voters from the Religious Right. Harold Ford Jr. got a seat in the House of Representatives not by merit, but by inheriting it from his father. While in the House, Harold Ford Jr. voted along with Republican right wingers quite often. He voted in favor of starting the Iraq War. He voted for the infamous Military Commissions Act. He voted for a Republican amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America that would have taken away the right of the states to set their own marriage laws and banned same-sex marriage. During his campaign for Senate last year, Harold Ford Jr. smeared the wall separating church from state, campaigning from a church, promoting the Ten Commandments on campaign literature, and saying what a great thing it is when people are forced to go to church.

For the last few years, as chairman of the DLC, Tom Vilsack gladly took on the job of promoting politicians with the kind of extremist right wing values displayed by Joseph Lieberman and Harold Ford Jr. So, while Vilsack has cultivated an external image of moderation and niceness, that style doesn’t fit the substance. Tom Vilsack’s affiliation with the DLC taints him as one of those Democrats who happily cooperated while George W. Bush wrecked America.