Hm. Not that I want to turn this into a full-on war (mostly because I try to keep a do-no-harm philosophy concerning liberals...even if I think we have a ghost of a chance of getting one elected statewide for a while), but I can easily find a few quotes on Kos in the weeks before the election where you personally slammed Ford pretty hard. I won't cut and paste them unless you insist on pushing this issue, but I think you might want to be careful how you're claiming to have conducted yourself.

I do see where you're coming from with this; you guys have to deal with Ford family shenanigans, and I can understand your being pissed off about it. I'm quite sure there are some nuances here that aren't immediately apparent to those of us in other parts of the state. I think your motivations are good - I'm not about to go after you for sticking up for the Democratic Party, for example - but I believe reasonable people can disagree on this issue. I think there's a time to sit down and keep your concerns to yourself when there's a (much) bigger picture at stake, and taking back the U.S. Senate was it. Giving hell to the state Dem leadership over its treatment of Kurita would have been a good option too, and I hope you're prepared to undertake similar behavior in the future, as I am.

As I mentioned earlier, I think there are a lot of reforms needed in the Democratic Party in this state, and I'm not going to go into specifics because there are members of the media and of state Republican leadership reading this blog. Which is a shame, because I'm sure we could have a great conversation about it, and maybe we ought to do that via email.

As far as Cohen goes, I continue to believe he should not have aired his grievances with Rep. Ford in the media. I can understand the dynamics of his competition with Jake Ford, but I think his supporters should realize that those machinations aren't obvious to people outside Memphis. The vehemence of Cohen's supporters (and their seeming revelry in Ford's defeat) make his motives appear questionable.

I hardly think my limited criticism of Rep.-Elect Cohen qualifies as your "fork." It pales in comparison to the public criticism he made of Rep. Ford, who - may I repeat - was the only Democratic Senate candidate Tennessee was going to get, and it may have contributed to Ford's downfall. Some may believe that leading a flawed nominee to defeat is some kind of ethical victory, but when said defeat helps contribute to the continued success of the folks who brought us the Iraq war and cynical initiatives like the "Healthy Skies Act"...well, I think there's just no contest, morally speaking. This is before we consider what a Ford Senate term may have done to integrate the state Democratic infrastructure, and to decenter Gov. Bredesen's power base, which some folks would assert has developed too strong a gravitational pull on Tennessee Democratic affairs.

It occurs to me y'all may have some reasons to herald Cohen's victory that aren't apparent to those of us in other regions, as well. Celebration over the undoing of the Ford family? Hope for more prominence statewide for Memphis politicos? I can only speculate. For my part, I do sincerely hope Rep. Cohen doesn't give us any more reasons to go after one another, when for Pete's sake we ought to be working together to defeat the Republicans who'd dearly love to legislate us into oblivion. Best case scenario, may he inspire the hundreds of thousands of blue voters in Memphis to help win some hearts and minds in the rest of the state, because heaven knows we could use it.

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A girl with fingernails that shine like justice

Autoegocrat, you may want to revisit your account page and tweak the URL for your site. Instead of:

(link...), I found you at:

(link...)

I liked it once I got there, though.