Gotta Call BS on This One

I haven't blogged in a good long while on this blog's namesake, Jackson Baker, the political columnist for the Memphis Flyer. In fact, he's Memphis' only political columnist! The lapse has mostly been because I don't read the Flyer all that much these days.

So as part of the "catching up with local media" thing, I surfed on over to their website and read his latest offering. Jeez, what a brown-noser.

The hook is running into Mayor Herenton at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last weekend. You can see a picture of Herenton with his "Frist is my leader" button here courtesy of local Democrat Polar Donkey.

But reading the article, it seems more like Jackson is promoting the ease with which he moves in these circles, the camaraderie he has with political bigwigs, the bonhommie of his relationships with them.

Feh. He sounds like he's polishing the teacher's apple with Herenton.

The real fun is this tidbit:

[Herenton] quickly rose to the bait when told that Duffy agreed with me that 9th District congressman Harold Ford Jr. had good chances of being elected to the Senate this fall.

First of all, define "good." If he means "not losing horribly," then maybe, just maybe he's right. If he thinks it means really winning, well, he needs to lay off the wacky weed a while.

Second, this is another marker in what I remain convinced is Baker's bid to one day be James Boswell to Ford's Sam Johnson. (Look it up.) For someone with such access to political news, both public and behind the scenes, he can only be serious in this opinion if he's firmly planted in the Democratic camp. He may position himself as the elder observer of the life politic, equally amused and interested, but he serves his party in everything he writes.

However. He may have left himself an out. He writes about "the bait" as though it might have been a joke. I don't believe that; he's been too much Ford's shepherd to think otherwise. But it is there, possibly awaiting the day he must ruefully admit he really believed Ford could do it, but it wasn't meant to be. It's his carefully laid trap door.

Ford's road is all uphill and the chains of his family legacy long and heavy. He faces strident opposition and criticism from his putative supporters right in his home base! A lot of Memphis Democrats will hold their noses and their stomachs when they pull the lever for him in November, does Baker expect independents to follow?

Sorry, I call brown-nose on the whole article.