Trouble on Ford Mountain

No, no one else got indicted…yet. It seems that someone didn’t get the new family hymnal and now there is some dissent in the Ford family. Let’s start from the beginning.

As reported in the Commercial Appeal on Friday, Jake Ford, independent candidate for TN-09, laid out some racially divisive words on the eve of the commemoration of MLK’s assassination. Here’s a sample:

We only have one district in the state of Tennessee where we can elect African-Americans. I would think for diversity purposes … we would at least want to have one black in Congress representing the state.”

Nice. Or how about this one:

“He’s just not for the money for blacks, he is for Jews, but not for blacks,”

Oooh, spicy! Team that up with brother Isaac’s little ditty:

“Jake Ford is a black candidate, it’s a black district and we need black representation — say that Isaac Ford said that,”

and you’ve got a nice recipe for some home-grown stupid.

It would seem that the more intelligent elements of the Ford family want to distance themselves from such talk.

On Saturday, Ford Sr. said that even if his sons’ statements were taken out of context, “that type of message going out is not good for the city or the Ninth District.”

“The article and editorial disturbed me. He certainly does not speak for me, and that’s not representative of this family,” Ford Sr. said.

Followed by Jr.’s

“It’s beyond concern. I want to make clear my brothers’ comments are not mine. I reject them. … I don’t believe any candidate’s fitness for office should be measured or determined by race or gender.”

Interesting…but nowhere near as interesting as the next few words…

Ford Jr. also said he had encouraged his brother not to run for the Ninth Congressional District seat. When asked why, he said, “A variety of reasons,” but declined to elaborate.

to which Jake replied

“That’s not true,” Jake Ford said later.

Well that sure looks like a storm now, doesn’t it.

The latter comments are from an article this morning in the Sunday Commercial Appeal.

All of these comments fly in the face of the words delivered yesterday by speakers at the Town Hall Meeting at Rhodes. While the quotes listed in the paper are mere stick sketches of the 2 hour event, I have the video, and the discussion goes far deeper.

Sorry for the bad audio. The event suffered from a bad PA.

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