Ford's Motor Sputtering

The FBI went fishing in Memphis and caught a big fish. The bait? A $10,000 bribe. The catch? State senator John Ford.

Ford was arrested Thursday as part of a sting operation in which undercover agents created a sham company named E-Cycle Management and posed as executives who asked lawmakers to introduce bills to help their business.

According to the indictments, the lawmakers and two other men took $92,000 to usher bills for E-Cycle through the Legislature. Ford is accused of taking $55,000 between August and April.

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Over three decades in the Tennessee Senate, Ford has lost paternity lawsuits, given a political job to a girlfriend, used campaign money for his daughter's wedding and been successfully sued for sexual harassment. The Senate Ethics Committee and a federal grand jury are also investigating $429,000 Ford received from a consulting company with financial ties to the state's Medicaid program.

It's important to remember that Ford has yet to be convicted, but he is the model of what a politician shouldn't be. I suspect larger political forces are at work here (Ford's nephew will be challenging Republican leader Bill Frist for senate in 2006), but let's hope the people of Tennessee don't need a jury to tll them: flush Ford.