A story over on MSNBC's first read has rumors of his rise:
Harold Ford Jr. for Commerce Secretary? It's something a few Democrats around town are pushing and, according to sources, the idea of appointing the former Tennessee Congressman is being given serious thought by folks high up in the Obama administration.
Yeah, I really never liked Ford. Here he is showing how little he knew about the election:
http://www.youtube.com/...
Turns out all Obama had to do was to be hinself.
On paper, Ford checks a lot of boxes for a an easy-to-confirm nominee for this post: He's a pro-business Democrat (remember, this is Commerce Secretary so the job is to be a promoter of business); he's a former member of the Congressional Black Caucus (you'll recall this whole kerfuffle over control of the census under a Judd Gregg-led Commerce Dept. was started by complaints from the CBC); and he's a practiced spokesperson on TV (the Geithner rollout this week is a reminder that the administration doesn't have enough solid media savvy members of his team who can sell the administration's policies.).
There is one, potential, gigantic problem: Ford's current place of employment -- Merrill Lynch. Given the current views of Wall Street, Ford's nomination could come under immediate fire and he'd have to disclose exactly what his job was with ML etc. and whether he was one of the 700 million dollar bonus recipients before Merrill completed its sale to Bank of America in late 2008.
Ford?
The fact that he worked for Merrill Lynch is an end gamer. If this guy took some of the bailout cash, MAN!