Friends in high places

I've been observing the brouhaha over the dead voter scandal here in west Tennessee from the sidelines. Local blogs such as Main Street Journal and Thaddeus Mathews have extensive coverage (you can even read about a drive to recall our mayor at Mr. Mathews' blog).
Surely voting scandals such as this are not uncommon across America.

To quickly summarize the case, democrat Ophelia Ford squared off republican Terry Roland for the State Senate seat left vacant by her Ophelia's brother, the notorious John Ford after his indictment and resignation due to the Operation Tennessee Waltz sting. The district has been controlled by the Ford machine for a long time, so it was actually quite shocking Terry Roland made it a race. He lost by 13 votes.

The mess was recommended to a committee for further study, which has amounted to about zip. Upon that the Senate acted yesterday and preliminarily voted 17-14 to vacate the election. The reaction was typical and trite. Ms. Ford was quoted as saying,

It's about racism. It's about Jim Crowism, and I've been talking to my family and we're going to let the federal courts decide," she said.

First, it's kind of funny to hear someone claiming racism and Jim Crowism in a city with two black mayors (city and county) and majority on the city council, along with her family itself. Speaking of her family, when she referred to conversing with them she probably meant her brother, former US Representative Harold Ford, Sr. Then today we get this bombshell:

NASHVILLE -- A federal judge in Memphis late Wednesday blocked the Tennessee Senate from its planned vote today to overturn the Senate District 29 election and expel Sen. Ophelia Ford.

And who was the federal judge?

..US Dist Judge Bernice Donald.. appointed to the U.S. District Court 10 years ago after a recommendation from Ophelia Ford's brother, then-Congressman Harold Ford.

Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Most rational people would probably look at this election, an election with PROOF that dead people voted and that was only decided by 13 votes and proclaim "do over". There's no guarantee that will happen. This is a shining example of life in the big city. Way too many people owe their careers to the Ford family and their power won't disappear easily.

Still, the idea of fair elections and ethics in public office should never be abandoned, no matter what the reality. It's a process we need to all protect, but things like this can tarnish it greatly. If we do nothing, elections could become no more legitimate than Saddam's last great victory in Iraq when he got 100 percent of the vote.