Commentators not impressed with Harold Ford Jr.'s possible New York Senate bid

Reaction is pouring in to this morning's New York Times story on Harold Ford Jr. considering a Democratic primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and little of it is positive for the former 9th District Tennessee congressman.

* Politico focuses on a report of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg working behind the scenes in prodding Ford to run. The billionaire's two recent attempts to get involved in federal races were spectacularly unsuccessful:

Bloomberg's aides pushed Caroline Kennedy's abortive bid for the seat Kirsten Gillibrand now holds, and Bloomberg himself pushed hard for Alan Khazei in Massachusetts, where he ran third. And if the wheels come off Ford, that's a bad pattern for Bloomberg.

* The Village Voice suggests that "the pro-Ford folks ... don't seem too worried about annoying Barack Obama," who once considered Ford for a Cabinet post.

* Andrew Samwick of Wall Street Pit calls the Ford mini-boomlet "a Sad Commentary on Politics": "It's about donors and fundraising, not issues and constituencies."

* On the left end of the spectrum, Daily Kos blogger Jake McIntyre drops the "C"-word (carpetbagger) and dismisses any analogy to Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate run. In fact, he mentions another former senator to whom he believes Ford's bid would be more comparable.

* Another blogger of the left, David Dayen of Firedoglake, points to Ford's ties to both Wall Street and the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and hopes that liberals could mobilize against two betes noires at once.

Look, if Wall Street wants to buy a Senate seat for the chair of the DLC, they can certainly try. But it's pretty obvious that this would seriously energize the Democratic grassroots, perhaps in a way that no other candidate would. This is akin to Joe Lieberman making a primary challenge today.

* NPR: "If you're a Democratic strategist worried about maintaining the 60 seats needed to end filibusters in the Senate, a divisive primary for the Senate seat is the last thing you want right now, especially on the heels of the news that Democratic senators like Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Chris Dodd of Connecticut aren't standing for re-election." MSNBC's First Read has more on that.

* Wonkette plays the story for a few laughs:

(O)n the minus side, Ford does not support gay marriage. This may put him at a disadvantage in New York City, which is 98% homosexual.

* Gawker covers the gossip angle, including some background on the infamous 2006 attack ad with the blonde panting, "Harold, call me!"

A couple of thoughts: First, that racially coded Republican attack clearly stuck -- nearly every post or story I have read about the possible Ford run has mentioned it. New York voters might know of Ford only from that ad; political junkies might recognize him from his appearances on cable news talk shows, but Junior never really sets the world on fire when he's on TV.

Second, as many have pointed out, Ford is running as a Wall Street guy -- from scandal-plagued Merrill Lynch, even! -- with major Wall Street backing, in the aftermath of a Wall Street-fueled economic meltdown. Not exactly the position a Democratic candidate wants to be in. Then there's his No. 1 backer, bigshot financier and Democratic check-writer Steven Rattner. Rattner was appointed by President Barack Obama to oversee the unpopular bailout of the auto industry, and he himself is tainted by scandal:

(T)he private equity firm Rattner co-founded is the focus of pay-to-play accusations made by the New York State Attorney General and Securities and Exchange Commission. While Rattner has not been charged with anything, he was an executive at the firm during the time the alleged misdeeds took place and reportedly may have met with those accused of criminal activity.

A Memphis connection: Recall that Memphis-based Consulting Services Group also is being investigated for its possible role in the same scandal, which involves alleged kickbacks in exchange for business with the New York state pension fund.