How is John Ford like Shrek?

Meanwhile in Memphis, ex-legislator John Ford, who is currently waiting trial for corruption charges, has been hit with six more indictments. This time, he is accused of taking more than $800,000 in illegal payments from state contractors associated with TennCare.

A six-count federal indictment charges Ford with wire fraud and concealment of material facts related to huge consulting fees from two firms contracting with TennCare, the state's taxpayer-funded Medicaid program.

Ford schemed with others to hide payments he wasn't legally entitled to receive, prosecutors allege. ...

According to the indictment, the scheme started in 2001 when Doral Dental, a Milwaukee firm seeking a TennCare contract to provide dental benefits management for 620,000 children, first met with Ford. Believing that a bidding process was about to start, Doral executives turned to Ford, then an influential lawmaker who sat on three key Senate committees.

What makes this story even worse for ol' man Ford is that the charges apparently stem from investigations into his finances by the Commercial Appeal when he tried to fight an attempt to increase his child support payments. A North Carolina woman whom he never married wanted to up the payments, but Ford contested it because he just couldn't afford it. After all, he was supporting (and alternately living with) two whole other families:

In the hearing, Ford said he lives some days with ex-wife Tamara Mitchell-Ford and the three children they had together. On others, he said, he stays with his longtime girlfriend, Connie Mathews, and their two children.

So Ford was supporting three families, living with two, married to none. He was taking money disguised as consulting fees from at least one company seemingly set up specifically to make these fees appear legitimate. Yet he later takes bribe money from FBI agents with no appearance of legitimacy at all.

One would think that a conversation between John Ford and Donkey would go something like this:

FORD: For your information, there's a lot more to politicians than people think.

DONKEY: Example?

FORD: Example? Okay, um, politicians are like onions.

DONKEY: [Sniffs] They stink?

FORD: Yes. No!

DONKEY: They make you cry?

FORD: No!

DONKEY: You leave them out in the sun, they get all brown, start sprouting' little white hairs.

FORD: No! Layers! Onions have layers! Politicians have layers! Onions have layers.
You get it? We both have layers. [Sighs]

DONKEY: Oh, you both have layers. Oh. [Sniffs] You know, not everybody likes onions. Cake! Everybody loves cakes! Cakes have layers.

FORD: I don't care... what everyone likes. Politicians are not like cakes.

Up, in John Ford's case politicians are exactly like onions. They stink, make you cry, go rotten and have layer upon layer of lies and deceptions.

Posted on Wednesday at 10:22 AM in category Corruption in Government
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