Harold Ford Heckled Over Fox Comment At Netroots Nation

Former congressman Harold Ford was billed as a sheep amidst the wolves when he was booked for an appearance at the Netroots Nation conference here in Austin. And while for the most part the DLC head and self-described 'centrist' Democrat received a cordial welcome among the progressive audience, there were a scattering of hisses, boos, and the occasionally unruly heckle during his discussion of FISA, Obama and Democratic politics more broadly.

Appearing alongside DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas - in what has become a series of appearances for the two since they butted heads during a Meet the Press appearance last year - Ford pushed back against the notion that Obama had abandoned the netroots on the FISA fight.

"Many of the candidates that people in this room drew national attention to voted yes for FISA including Jim Webb and Claire McCaskill," he said, "as did 20 of the 30 red-to-blue candidates that were highlighted by the netroots."

For that argument, he was received with some sympathy. But the crowd wasn't too cordial later on when Ford discussed, among other things, his time as a pundit on Fox News.

"I used to work for Fox News. I no longer am there," he said after an audience member, during the Q&A session, accused him of smearing Democrats and echoing right-wing talking points. "I have great, great respect and admiration for my former colleagues there..."

Some in the crowd were incredulous, hissing Ford, asking (err... screaming) "why and who," and offering a scattering of boos.

Later Ford was quizzed on why he would support granting telecommunication companies immunity for their participation in the FISA program. His response - that it wasn't the companies who should be held to a fault but rather the public officials who ordered their participation - was challenged by several different questioners, who demanded "accountability" for privacy violations.

"I think that accountability was brought in 2006 when [the GOP] lost in the House and the Senate," Ford responded said. "And we have only eight more months of George W. Bush..."

"When is he going to prison!" screamed an audience member to a few claps.

Watch some (poor quality) video of the heckling:

Comments

[combatveteran]

With respect to the administration being held accountable, our leaders are too weak to hold him them accountable. Yes, the little men, the voters had the strength and integrity to hold them responsible. I guess thats my 93 year old mothers point that nothing changes unless it changes as a result of a grassroots effort. And that is our point Mr Ford, Barry is asking us to take back our government. How bit a little help from you guys?

[Bettysdad]

What was Ford doing there in the first place?

Was he invited? if so, why?

Or did he just crash the place?

[go4thegold]

The reason he's a former congressman is he proved he isn't even trustworthy among the thieves in Congress. He's worthless and should not be given the time of day, or a pulpit to spew his lies. D.

[lainey]

The reason he is not a congressman is because he left that seat to run for Senate. He lost that close election due to racist ads. And although everyone who follows politics consistently knows that, he has the grace to accept defeat, not blame anyone and move one with his life. It is a lesson from which everyone should learn.

[UnknownSoldier]

He didn't lose because of a racist ad. Harold Ford knows just like every other black person in America in order for us to have a fair shot we have to work twice as hard as our white counter parts, to get half as far. Is that fair, NO, but life isn't fair. He failed to convince the voters of Tennessee that he would represent them better, and now their state will suffer because of it.

Pain is the best teacher for the Stupid.

[StillIRise]

The reason he's a former congressman is that the racists in Tennesse chose to vote for the white man after Ford's GOP opponent created an ad that portrayed Ford as a threat to their white women and their way of life. Until then, he was actually winning.

Ford is an exceptional man whose knowledge on domestic and foreign affairs is respected throughout the political landscape. He is a loyal Democrat, but he's neither a liberal ideologue nor a puppet partisan. He's a realist, and Fox probably assumed that for the appearance of "fair and balanced," he would be less of a threat to their agenda than some other Democrats, particularly other African American Democrats, and they needed a black man to show their "inclusiveness." But even on Fox, Ford never betrayed the values of the Democratic Party.

[ErnestineBass]

BOLLOCKS!

Harold Ford, Jr. ran is Republican Lite. Simple as that.

[scrawf]

Thank you. Some of these posters need to read something other than Daily Kos and HuffPo once in awhile.

[MsLiz]

What a negative attitude.

[dukeitout]

The left and right wing extremists do not appreciate compromise and are basically uncomfortable with a democracy. It's usually their way or the highway. Both extremes have much in common.

[WoodyCPM]

Baloney. Pure baloney. Democracies, real democracies are defined by the intensity and commitment that the citizens bring to the debates. You listen to too much television "journalists" spout the right-wing "centrist" haigography, as if it were the 11th commandment. MOST Americans in fact agree with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, the part you mislabel as "extremist", on almost every issue. In poll after poll after poll, most Americans agree that we should get out of Iraq, that the oil companies should not be making the obscene profits they're making, that we need universal healthcare, that we need to move ahead on global warming, etc., etc., On nearly EVERY issuse, Americans are solidly LEFT of what the television and the political establishment media and politicians define as "center". Center by their standards is actually FAR RIGHT. The left BTW compromises all the time. That you don't like some of their tactics doesn't mean that their stand on the issues is wrong.

[Henk]

Well said. Its the "centrists" that are killing the Democratic party. One more thing we can blame on the Republicans. If they hadn't moved so far to the right, these dumbasses would BE Republicans. Instead the call themselves Democrats and try to move the party more to the right. Honestly, they are illinformed fools.

[Bettysdad]

Thank you for saving me some typing.

For almost 40 years polls show the public overwhelmingly supports so-called "liberal" policies and programs if they are not identified as such. As soon as they are identified as "liberal," they are rejected.

Shows you how successful good PR can be, and how malleable the public is.

To win, we must demonize Republicans, and make them back into the pariahs they were when I was a kid. We cannot rely on the strength of our ideas to win elections.

We have to publicly hate them as much as they hate us.

[Bombalot]

Shouldn't "Democracies" read democracies?

[mathme]

Exactly, it's not up to the electorate to be 'democratic' and hand over their beliefs. It's the purpose of a democratic government to negotiate their way through these individual rights, desires, and come up with a compromise. It's not my job, as a voter, to come up with some compromise between what I believe and what some rightwinger believes. That's up to the people who are elected.

[BushSunkOurShip]

That is the biggest bunch of crock I have heard in a while. Bush / Cheney and the republicans administration in the last 8 years shows you the difference between the true democrat and a criminal republican.

Bill Clinton took a failing economy from the Reagan then Bush Sr. administration and turn it into a historical properous economy in history. The republicans lead an assult on BIll Clinton for 8 years until the wire tapped his phones at the same time use Tripp to set Bill up on a sex problem.

If the same measure was used against the republicans there would be only a few left standing.

The repubilcans are the most deceitful , lying , corrupted hypocrites in our history.
They have been doing it so long , with out them telling a lies they would be speechless...

I would love to take 8 more plus years of Clinton's administration.

I believe it would take him longer to straighten out Bush Jr. then it did Reagan-Bush.Sr.

[awcbuddy8]

Whoa, I think you need to take a step back and realize how ridiculous you sound.

[MsLiz]

Bill Clinton was a centrist. After Gingrich's Contract on America, he didn't have much choice.

[Bombalot]

Spare me on the spin that Clinton was the one responsible for the economy of the Internet. Neither he, nor Gore, had a single thing to do with the Internet, regardless of how it is spun. Democrats need to decide if they want to continue covering Bush and other Republicans smegma. They are complicit.

[WoodyCPM]

You want to see real democracies in action, move to Europe or Australia or even Canada. We have a pretend democracy in the U.S.

[Angelus2007]

Yeah, like France where a women is denied citizenship because she is too muslim.

[Bettysdad]

Who are the left wing extremists?

The political spectrum is:

Communists on the left, liberals in the center, and Republicans on the right fringe.

[JDJase]

you wish?

[protagonia]

The center has been dragged off to the right.

[lainey]

HuffPost's Pick

They certainly do have much in common, only the majority of Americans have come to find it offensive. No one group holds the moral ground on every issue and can continue to continually disregard those with opposing views. This is the change of which Senator Obama speaks. He understands that we are not "left" or "right", but we are Americans. And as Americans, we must realize that good ideas can come from so many places--even those with opposing views.

[Plowboy]

Which is why the Two Party Swindle is such a disaster for us. We need to end it by establishing "Instant Run-off Voting" and allow other voices to express themsdelves meanigfully. It is all too easy for the powers that be to control two parties. But they can't control us if we don't keep allowing them to.
In the current system, nobody gets what he wants but the corporations and special interest lobbies.
And not many Americans have been happy with the results in a long time.

[StillIRise]

Thank you for this comment. We are not a "left" or "right" country. One of the reasons President Bush has failed so miserably as the leader of our country is that he has governed as a partisan ideologue of far right and neocon views. His unwillingness to be guided by or even listen to opposing views has resulted in disaster both at home and abroad, and it is the American people who must suffer the consequences. Senator Obama is not seeking to be the President of the "left" or "right," or even the president of the Democratic Party itself. He is seeking to be the President of America, of all Americans, even those we don't agree with.

[happyboy]

Former Congressman Harold Ford is part of a new wave of pragmatic Democrats who refuse to buckle down to the far left parts of the party. Most of the people of the US fall in a middle sixty per-cent of political thought. Republicans who adhere to far right talking points have led this nation to the disaster, both economic and foreign policy, that we currently face. Democrats cannont and should not follow the same tunnel-visioned ideals embraced by the Republican Party. Any real progress towards recovery of this economy and recovery of our moral compass overseas will, by necessity, be done through compromise. The far left and the far right, given their talking point mentality, will continue to cause nothing but stalemate in the governing of this country. The practice of bi-partisinship, seldom in practice anymore, needs to be rejuvinated, and soon. Senator Obama is showing pragmatism leading toward healing and bi-partisan cooperation. He is to be lauded for this effort, not damned.
Perhaps with Obama as President and a working majority in Congress, this country may be set back on the proper track to the future.

[nastyvirus]

Nope. Ain't gonna happen.

[pizzmoe]

Thank you. There is no far left in America.

[BrickSykes]

Very.....G­ood.....Po­st.....!

Thanks, Brick

[WoodyCPM]

Turn off the TV and start thinking for yourself. You're just repeating the same mindless baloney you've heard from the political press. "....a new wave of pragmatic Democrats who refuse to buckle down to the far left....." You need to keep up. The Democratic Party is not full of left wing radical crazies. The Democratic Party has given George W. Bush every single things he's ever asked for. They have never, never, ever denied him anything he's asked for. The Democrats are not in practice one scintilla different than the Republican Party. There are Democratic politicians who may be, but the party is just as conservative as any Republican ever thought about being in practice. Harold Ford fits easily into that conservative march. You're just repeating mindless garbage spewed over the airwaves in the papers from the conservati­ve/wealthy establishment of the United States regardless of what Party label is goes under.

[Bettysdad]

Once again, we have someone typing about the "far left parts" of the Democratic Party.

Exactly who would that be? You know any Democrats that aren't capitalists?

Republicans think if you don't support Bush you're a commie. Now some of that is creeping into the Demo world.

Just what criteria are you using to define someone as "far left?"

[notthistime]

You are missing the point of this post. Here it is.

Any real progress towards recovery of this economy and recovery of our moral compass overseas will, by necessity, be done through compromise.

We can't afford to be stuck in our ways of thinking. We simply are not going to agree on everything but we can still put our ideas on the table and work to agree on a real solution based on compromise, one that although it may not be perfect, will benefit "we the people".

[DAE]

The "far left" Democrats are center right most anywhere else in the world.

[lainey]

Excellent post happyboy. True progressives seek to find answers, not just through their prism, yet through reason. Compromise is part of reason and reason is how we should make decisions. Any thinking person or politician knows that and believes that. Really, not everything is a conspiracy. The term "progressive" does not belong to "liberals" but rather with the majority of people who want to progress through stalemates by listening to all sides. Moderates are the true progressives--we want solutions that benefit not only ourselves, yet all of those in need of answers.

[Boris]

If you want to talk PROGRESSIVES, then talk Bob LaFollette. If you want to talk progressive, then you need to look at Teddy Roosevelt. LaFollette was a true leftist Democrat, Teddy was a true conservative Republican.

Unlike today's neo-Conartists, Teddy Roosevelt looked at what was best for his country, not for his party. Roosevelt helped write the regulations that became the Food and Drug administration. He left the GOP then for the same reasons he would do so now. He said the GOP had betrayed small businessmen by writing rules that benefited only Wall Street. The GOP had been the party of independent businessmen and farmers but became the whores of Wall Street at the turn of the twentieth century.

Okay, I am babbling, but I believe a progressive is any thinking person who understands that things can be made better by intelligent legislation and good planning .

[lainey]

Harold Ford, Jr. is a very smart man--especially on fiscal matters-- and has a natural ability to see things through the lens of moderation, not simply "left" . If life was so clear cut we would dwell in a problem free world. While I am more left than he is, I respect his ability to respectfully disagree with others and offer Democratic advice from a more centrist view. I think it would behoove those who call themselves "liberals and progressives" to begin acting as such. Jeering and yelling demonstrates a closed-mind and a mean spirit, the very things they profess to hate. Senator Obama and others like him, are urging Americans to come together and realize that we are "not as divided as our politics suggest." It is time to bring civility back to matters of policy and personality, and not always seek to pull people down. Harold Ford has done good work as a Democrat, even if you don't agree with everything he has said and done, and has demonstrated a willingness to learn and grow. It is a lesson we could all learn. Thanks for all you have done Harold and congrats on your recent marriage. Blessings.

[Witchitalineman]

Here's another wishy washy politician.

[mary82]

Who, bush?

[geber22]

Speaking as a moderate dem? What the heck does that mean?

I believe in gun rights. I dont' own one.
I am pro choice, I don't think anybody should ever have one.
I am against the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the drug war.
I support lower taxes because I don't think we need to spend 20 times what second place spends on military toys, wasteful corporate govt subsidies, etc...
I don't support torture!
I think Gitmo is criminal.
I dont' have a problem with the death penalty, but it does need to be applied more fairly.

So what does that make me? A moderate dem, a moderate rep...

I don't have a candidate in this race, nobody is advocating my views! Maybe next time!

[notthistime]

if we don't get it right in 2008 there may not "be" a next time.

Go Obama 08!

[Deaninphilly]

I agree with everything you stated. I get called a republican by extreme left democrats and a liberal far left democrat by those who are far right republicans.

I want the right out of my bedroom and I want the left to stop telling me what I can and can't do for the "public good".

I want the right to stop telling me which church I need to attend and I want the left to stop telling me I'm a bible thumper and believe in imaginary people.

I want the right to stop telling me I have to have kids and the left telling me how to raise them.

So yes, what exactly does that make me? It seems I find more and more people like me than I do on either side of far left or far right. It seems America is waking up and getting fed up with both sides of the vocal minorities of each side.

[Egalitare]

Well, at least he stood there and took it, even though he knew it was not going to be fun.

It's a good start, Harold.

[Danny]

Harold Ford Jr. is a DINO (Democrat-in Name-Only). Many more where he came from. Beware on election day. Vote for TRUE progressives.

[spaceman3838]

ahh the primary's are over. what are you going to do, vote green party candidates in. please, think before you write

[lainey]

Progressive are those of us who seek to find answers through listening to all sides and finding the best solution. It does not belong to those on the far left or far right; it belongs to those of us who seek solutions, not incessant fighting.

[ChristopherLib]

Well if you're both progressive and pragmatic you will vote for all Democrats, liberal and moderate, because that's the way we are going to get this country back on track.

[Biracial1]

Harold Ford agreed withJoe Scumborough on far too many issues during the primary season. A friend of Joe is no friend of mine.

[Hadok]

Rachel Maddow made an interesting point this evening on MSNBC. In view of a number of recent (alleged) Obama shifts in position which have been not to the liking of (much of) the netroots, the netroots is now coming to grips with the following question:

Will the netroots demand ideological purity of its candidates (much like the Republican right), or...

Will the netroots be flexible on a number of issues, and basically function as a money raising machine for the Democratic party?

Neither of these positions is particularly attractive, but, that is Maddow's assessment. And we all know, that Maddow is the most insightful person in the media today.....

[Superbus]

Harold Ford will be the first black president of the United States. I'd vote for him over McCain anyday.

[FilthyPerson]

He certainly doesn't seem to have to hide a slew of radicals from his past.
That's a plus.
Crooks?
That's another matter.

Your point is valid.

[disgusted48]

Wrong.

[josephbua]

Not a chance in hell.

[spaceman3838]

he would of been a great running mate for hillary. his wife is a knockout

[MsLiz]

Male logic.

[Krikkit]

You want to know why most of the US is in the moderate center? Because both the Right and Left make no sense whatsoever. All you people who would rather see the FISA court lying defunct on the floor on the principle that prosecuting the telecoms is a more important issue were the same people who howled after 9/11, but then forgot as you rushed to take up your next cause, and the next and the next. The far Right, on the other hand, rallied behind the president and waved his flag no matter what. Both sides are equally wacko in my centrist opinion.

The only reason the telecoms were ever targeted in the first place was because prosecutors might have manipulated them into talking by offereing immunity. They were NEVER going to be prosecuted. So the other side managed to get them off the table by making them the barrier to the passage of a beefed up FISA bill, one that was necessary to allow legal warranted FISA surveillance on known al-Qaeda operatives making calls into the US.

So keep on howling because they took one of your banners away from you. Or go pick up another one and run with it. In either case, I'm GLAD they passed the new FISA bill. We needed it.

[oogabooga]

Ford's okay in my book, not an extremist of either left or right.

[Ramirez]

Heckling a public speaker is wrong. It is not "free speech" but rather the shutting down of free speech and open debate.

[thefringecenter]

I am in tears. Free speech should be excercised behind closed doors so as not to offend. I see it clearly now. Thank you so much. I had nearly forgotten that my only duty as a citizen is to vote every two years and shut up until called to vote again.

[MsLiz]

I wish President Bush would speak before an audience which would heckle him. He might realize that not everyone agreed with him.