Junior Gets Frisky: The ambition of young Harold Ford.

A conservative might be tempted to say that Democratic representative Harold Ford Jr. is growing in office. In 1999, Ford, then 29 years old, scored a perfect 100 in the annual index of congressional liberalism compiled by Americans for Democratic Action. But he slipped badly in 2000, managing only a 60. Last year, he was up a bit at 85, but still short of the perfect 100 of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who on November 14 crushed Ford's bid to become House minority leader.

In recent months, Ford has famously voted in favor of authorizing President Bush to wage war in Iraq. (He was one of 81 House Democrats who voted with the president; Pelosi was one of 126 who voted against.) Ford has also been a bit more open to some of Bush's tax cuts than most of his fellow Democrats. And he has openly criticized the liberalism of some of his colleagues. When it comes time to rate lawmakers again, the ADA will not be amused.

What's going on? Three things. First, Ford is growing. "When he came out of law school at 25, he was definitely an ideological liberal," says Kenneth Holland, a University of Memphis political scientist who has been following Ford's career for a decade. "But once he was elected to Congress, he started evolving and asking himself what he really thought." Ford's father, Harold Ford Sr., was a doctrinaire liberal who served 22 years in the House. Young Ford, educated among the Washington elite at St. Albans, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan Law School, set out on a different path. "By nature, he really is a moderate," says Holland, noting that Ford is solidly aligned with the centrist New Democrat wing of his party.

Second, Ford is ambitious. Whatever his personal odyssey, it's also true that his move toward moderation began about the same time he cast his eye on the Senate seat held by Tennessee Republican Bill Frist. Frist was up for re-election in 2000, and Ford considered mounting a challenge. But that would have required appealing to Tennesseans far outside the Ninth Congressional District in Memphis -- where Ford was most recently re-elected, with 84 percent of the vote -- so Ford accelerated his move toward the center. In the contest with Pelosi, he seemed to shift even more.

The third -- and perhaps most important -- aspect of Ford's recent development is his realization that there is a major generational chasm in the Democratic party. Pelosi is 62. Ford is 32. World events look different to him than they do to her. "The Berlin Wall fell shortly before I graduated from college," Ford explained in a recent interview. "And really since that time, we've not had to focus on foreign policy and national security. Well, we live in a new era and a new day . . . And frankly, the party that is more trusted on these issues remains the Republican party. And I don't believe it's in the best interest of our party -- particularly if we want to govern in the majority anytime soon -- to elect leadership or put forward leaders who, frankly, don't inspire that kind of confidence in voters." Ford understands that Vietnam-era liberalism will not appeal to most younger voters. "I think he senses that this generation is a more moderate generation than their parents were -- and ...