Harold Ford Jr. appears to say different things depending what state he’s running in.
When he was running for Senate in Tennessee, he claimed he was pro-life (And I quote: “I’m pro-life, I’m pro-life . . . I don’t run from that.”
It was false. And now he’s running from that untruth.
Pitching himself to New Yorkers — “gearing up,” he says, to run in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton’s old seat — the former congressman writes today:
I am pro-choice — have always been since I entered politics almost 15 years ago. My cumulative grade with NARAL during 10 years in Congress was right at 80 percent. Any assertions to the contrary are false.
He’s right. And now that he’s a New Yorker, he can embrace his record (which I went through here, back in 2006).
His past lies are a headache for him now — here NARAL in N.Y. gives him grief, for instance, for the aforementioned quote. But they should check with the National Right to Life Committee, which explained that Congressman’s Ford’s insistence that he is pro-life “is radically at odds with Ford’s 10-year voting record in the U.S. House. Overall, Ford has voted against the pro-life side 87 percent of the time.” They can believe what he says now, not what he said when he wanted a Senate seat in another state.
All of this should be a cautionary tale. On Election Day 2006, the Democrats for Life had a picture of Harold Ford Jr. on their homepage. I’m all for converts. Trust but verify, though. The verification in this case has been clear.