Ford Called Self a Lawyer But Did Not Pass Bar Exam (Harold Ford Jr)

Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Harold Ford Jr. referred to himself as a lawyer earlier this week, but the congressman has not passed the bar exam.

Michael Powell, senior adviser to the Ford campaign, said U.S. Rep. Ford took the Tennessee bar exam in February 1997 and failed. He said that was the only time Rep. Ford has taken the test.

Rep. Ford, of Memphis, got his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996, according to his congressional Web site.

He said Tuesday during a meeting with Chattanooga Times Free Press editors and reporters that Republican opponent Bob Corker has said the next senator should be a businessman and not a lawyer.

"I told Senator (Lamar) Alexander, I said, ‘I won’t hold it against you if I’m elected, and there’s two lawyers in the delegation who try their hardest to work through the issues," Rep. Ford said.

Corker campaign spokesman Todd Womack said, "If Congressman Ford will stretch the truth about his own resume, what else will he stretch the truth about?" Mr. Powell said it is his understanding that Rep. Ford was joking when he made reference to being a lawyer during Tuesday’s meeting.

"I think it makes sense to send somebody up to Washington who’s not a lawyer," President Bush said at a Nashville fundraiser in late August, according to a transcript. "Nothing wrong with lawyers, we got a lot of them up there."

"We’re a month out from the election, and the Republicans and Mr. Corker still are not talking about the issues," he said.

It was on that thread that I learned that you can practice some aspects of the law without passing a state bar exam so technically Ford is telling the truth when he calls himself a lawyer. I also learned on that thread that he graduated from law school in 1996 and took the Tennessee bar exam in 1997. He has never attempted to take it again. JFK Jr. took the NY state bar exam, which has a reputation for being particularly hard, three times before he passed it. It is widely known that JFK Jr. wanted to establish himself in his own right without using his famous name to start a career in politics.

In contrast, Harold Ford seems to have had no serious intention of ever practicing law because in almost 10 years he has never attempted to take the bar exam again. He knew that by going back to Memphis he could pursue his political ambitions and never have to really work at all. That, to me, says something about the man. In addition, by saying that he is a lawyer, he knows that most people would assume that he HAD passed the bar because, like me, most people thought that you had to pass the bar to really be a lawyer. This reminds me so much of Clinton who was very adept at carefully parsing his words so that he did not really lie while at the same time not really telling the truth.

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