Shakedown, Breakdown

As TBogg points out (and as the Bob Seger song goes) Harold Ford is running a shakedown of Empire State Dems, and it's not going very well.

Shakedown, breakdown...

Harold Ford wants the people of New York to know  that he’s just like Sarah Palin: a commonsense lone wolf who will not toe the party line. Also, a grifter.

Everybody wants into the crowded light...

“It’s good to have credible candidates explore this race. So what are they afraid of?” began the statement, from Mr. Ford’s spokesman, Davidson Goldin.

In a swipe at those who have asked Mr. Ford to stay out of the primary contest, Mr. Goldin said that New York needed a senator with the “independence to stand up and do what is right for our state, regardless of what the party bosses in Albany and Washington want.”

Shakedown, breakdown...

This has all of the indications of an elaborate shakedown of the Democratic Party by Ford who will no doubt want some form of “compensation” or “consideration” for not running a divisive campaign that he can’t win considering his conservative voting history.

He just wants to be treated like the political royalty he thinks he is. So, asshole.

You're busted, Harold.  When you're selling a shakedown, make sure it's a problem that you can solve that actually exists.  People seem rather happy with Gillibrand in New York.

And playing the Palin card when you've been selling yourself as a Democratic insider pundit on TV for the last two years?  Not happening.