Nancy Pelosi declared her race for House minority leader last week after the failure of Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., to successfully bring new blood into the beltway.
Harold Ford Jr., a Democrat from Memphis, is working for votes in his party as we speak. Ford believes that the Democrats keep putting out the same left-leaning face and therefore receive the same result.
Pelosi, a Democrat from San Francisco, represents an extreme left path for the party. In a story re-hashed on the Drudge Report Tuesday, from the Dec. 18th San Francisco Chronicle, evidence was reported of Pelosi’s support for Gary Condit’s re-election bid this past primary. In the article it states that Mrs. Pelosi distanced herself from the party’s leadership by stumping for Condit.
In the Washington Times, Tony Blankley, reported Wednesday that Pelosi opposes prayer in school, reducing the marriage penalty and repealing the death tax.
Harold Ford, Jr. is 32 and a member of the blue-dog coalition, which is a group of more moderate or conservative Democrats. Ford faces an uphill challenge by trying to convince his fellow colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to support him. It is estimated that more than half of them support Pelosi.
Ford has supported a ban on partial birth abortion and supports the war in Iraq. While Ford is clearly not a conservative, he has shown that he is willing to back the party when necessary.
The Democrat Party’s support for Pelosi over Ford signifies a trend that has been taking place within the left wing.
In this past midterm election the Democrats lost some very important races in the state that generally vote liberal. If you take a closer look they lost in the states with large metropolitan areas, Massachusetts and Maryland, for example.
This means that the minority vote either failed to vote Democrat, were not motivated to do so, or voted for a change from the usual. The Democrat Party is again failing to motivate and represent the minorities by not giving them the chance to lead.
Terry McCauliffe is the DNC chairman for now but he was up against Atlanta’s former Mayor who is African-American. The Democrats supported Mc-Cauliffe instead.
In the gubernatorial race in New York, the Democrats once again failed to support Carl McCall, an African-American candidate for governor. George Pataki, the governor of New York, has done a good job but the fact is that the Democrat Party touts its “multi-culturalism” and when a minority candidate steps forward they fail to represent them properly.
I have met Congressman Ford and he is a very well mannered, articulate person. He deserves a chance at the helm. He is willing to lead the party and would be a good model for the black community. If the Democratic Party does not support Ford then that right there should say volumes to the minority groups.
Sean Hannity of Fox News (Hannity and Colmes) speaks very highly of Ford as do most other conservatives. It has even been said that Sen. Bill Frist from Tennessee has tried to convince Ford to convert to the Republican Party.
Ford said, “Pelosi offered destructive opposition” to the majority party. This will most likely be true. If Pelosi is chosen for the job it could be great for the Republican Party because of certain vast ideological differences.
The secret ballot vote on the House Minority leadership position will take place today. Will the Democrats stick to their platform and allow Ford to lead them into 2004?

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