Steve Cohen Cleans Up After Harold Ford Jr.

I lived in Memphis, Tennessee when Harold Ford Jr. was first elected to his position in the U.S. House of Representatives, largely through the power of his corrupt political family, inheriting the seat in Congress from his father as if it was his birthright. Harold Ford Jr. was always more accountable to his ambition than he was to the people, and so it was sadly unsurprising when he started his move into the right wing political territory of the Democratic Leadership Council. Harold Ford Jr. soon became the Joseph Lieberman of the House of Representatives.

In 2006, Harold Ford Jr. let his ambition get the better of him. He ran for United States Senate with a campaign that pandered outrageously to Tennessee’s religious right, with television advertisements filmed in churches, the Ten Commandments printed on his campaign cards, and talk about how great it is when people are forced to attend religious worship.

Ford capped off his campaign by voting with the Republicans in Congress in favor of the Military Commissions Act. Thanks to Harold Ford Jr., the Military Commissions Act was signed into law by George W. Bush. The new law does the following things:

Ends hundreds of years of habeas corpus protection

Prevents the Geneva Conventions from being enforced

Gives legal amnesty to George W. Bush and other top officials responsible for war crimes

Allows the President to declare anyone an enemy, and strip them of their legal rights

Ends the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair and speedy trial

Legalizes torture

Harold Ford Jr.’s campaign crashed and burned. Tennessee Democrats were not eager to vote for such a right wing ideologue, and Tennessee Republicans already had a right wing candidate of their own to vote for.

One positive side effect of the disaster is that Harold Ford Jr. was replaced in the House of Representatives. Democrat Steve Cohen ran to take Harold Ford Jr.’s seat in Congress. Thankfully, Congressman Cohen is working to clean up some of the mess that Harold Ford Jr. made.

Steve Cohen has co-sponsored H.R. 1415, the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007. This legislation would undo the mistake made by Harold Ford Jr. and a shamefully large number of other members of Congress. Although the law would not repeal the Military Commissions Act outright, it would undo most of its worst measures.

Thank you, Representative Cohen, for not repeating the mistakes of your predecesor.

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