Harold Ford: MIA

For someone who wants to be a leader, Harold Ford Jr has a distressing tendency to go missing at important votes. Yesterday, the House of Representatives, with the Senate concurring, voted 347 - 65 in favor of a Resolution in Support of Solomon Amendment. The Solomon Amendment says that universities and colleges that take Federal money must allow military recruiters onto their campuses or face withdrawal of those Federal funds. It was just upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court.

Where was Ford on this important show vote? I don't know yet, as I'm knocking this out early before heading out the door, but the final roll call shows him "not voting."

Republicans voted entirely in favor of the resolution (with only a few "not votings") while Democrats split two-to-one in favor.

So where was Ford and where does he stand? We don't know yet. And this isn't the first time he's skipped an important vote, including voting on bills he's sponsored! Is this how a would-be Senator behaves? Tennesseans overall, I believe, would want him to support the resolution; Tennessee has Guard units serving in Iraq right now and others just returned. But his base has a vociferous anti-war faction that would pillory him if he voted in favor.

Heck, even his aunt Ophelia and primary opponent Rosalind Kurita had the nerve to vote against the abortion bill that passed the Tennessee Senate!

Where was Harold?

WEDNESDAY NIGHT UPDATE: JB over at Blogging for Bryant asked the same question (Thanks for the link!) and got some suspiciously non-responsive replies from Ford's most vigorous non-official blog supporter. I also checked the two main Ford websites (his official House site and his Senate campaign website) but learned nothing. Still waiting to find out where he was.