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and gave me and other Women for Ford the low-down on his "charging" at Republicans
"I merely got up and crossed the aisle," Ford told us with a wink. "I don't know what got the press all excited."
According to news reports, Ford got into a shouting match with Republicans Friday in the Congressional chamber after Jean Schmitt (R) of Ohio accused John Murtha of being a coward. Ford said that the floor errupted after her accusations and then Republicans started taunting the Democrats, alleging that ALL Democrats were cowards.
"I just got up, crossed the aisle and asked them to come say that to my face," he told the Women for Ford group in Knoxville Sunday. "I didn't really 'charge' over there, but it made me mad."
Ford came to speak to us and talked about a number of issues and goals for his Senate campaign, including - to borrow from Wes Clark's playbook - to call the rightwing talk shows and challenge them on their spew.
A woman who's nephew is in Iraq asked how, in the case of torture, do we expect to exempt the CIA from the Geneva Conventions and then expect other countries to apply those rules to our prisoners of war.
"That's how you frame it," Ford said. "You call these shows and make that point. You tell people that it's impossible to exempt the CIA from the Geneva Conventions and then expect the rest of the world to follow those rules. "
He also plans to assign each of his volunteers the names of 15 new voters - it will be our job to ensure that these people go out and vote.
He also talked extensively about the war in Iraq. He said he isn't sure whether he's for an immediate withdrawal, but he is positive that "staying the course" isn't working. He said he thinks a plan should be put in place to start removing our troops, but not that would risk the safety of either the soldiers or the Iraqi people.
He said he hopes the president will look at the polling numbers "and I know he doesn't like reading the newspaper," he quipped, and comes clean with the American public about our strategy there.
He said his polling in Tennessee for his Senate bid looks very good - in fact, for the first time in eight years, more Tennesseans polled say they would rather have a Democrat in the Senate than a Republican.
"People are getting nervous about the president and Speaker Frist," he said.
After speaking, Ford chatted with us a bit more and even came up and told me how much he thought about General Clark, whom he knew I worked for in 2003/2004.
"He's a great man. I'm proud to call him my friend," Ford said (and, yes, he was holding my hand when he said it - you know, after he'd hugged me several times. :)
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