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| Home Front: Politix |
| Dupe entry: Harold Ford warns of Aussie nuke threat at campaign stop |
| 2006-10-28 |
| by Geoff Elliott, The Australian HAROLD Ford, a handsome 36-year-old from Tennessee, has become one of the sensations of the mid-term elections in the US and a reason why Democrats are a good chance of winning back control of the US Congress for the first time in 12 years. But if Mr Ford, already a US congressman, wins his bid to become a more powerful senator, Australia had better watch out. Because according to Mr Ford, Australia has an interest in nuclear weapons and is part of the broader nuclear threat to the US. In a speech to county government officials yesterday in Knoxville, Mr Ford - listed in People magazine in 2001 as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world "Crikey! 'E's a beauty, ain't 'e?"- electrified the audience, as he does everywhere he speaks. . . . . . . "Here we are in a world today where more countries have access to nuclear weapons than ever before," Mr Ford said, adding that when he left college in 1992 he thought the nuclear age had come to an end "and America would find ways to eliminate the number of chances that a rogue group or a rogue nation would get their hands on nuclear material". "Today nine countries have it - more than ever before - and 40 are seeking it, including Argentina, Australia and South Africa," he said. "Australia with nukes! Bot, 'at'll make ol' Matilda waltz!" Mr Ford was referring to the nine known nuclear weapon states: the US, the UK, Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and now North Korea. He said this made the US less safe because "more countries have nuclear weapons today which means the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands has increased dramatically". On North Korea, he claimed Pyongyang had conducted two nuclear tests, the first of which he said occurred on July 4. This confuses the ballistic tests Pyongyang carried out on that date with the single nuclear test earlier this month. The gaffes were lost on the audience and he was given a rousing standing ovation from Democrats and Republicans alike. Any chance of clarifying Mr Ford's remarks with the man himself was impossible as minders shielded any international media from asking questions, ushering Mr Ford away. "We have to protect him . . . from himself." "You don't win us any votes," said his spokeswoman. And she might have added that it also means he is insulated from pesky questions probing his limitations on enunciating a foreign policy involving a trusted ally. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #3 #1: "they must have gone to special trouble to find someone with an IQ low enough to say this sort of thing to run for US senate" Afraid not, AB - that low IQ is pretty normal for the Dems. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-10-28 19:37 |
| #2 Oz with nukes? Hmmm...maybe not such a bad idea in that it would *ahem* concentrate the minds of Indonesia's Islamists wonderfully. |
| Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2006-10-28 18:15 |
| #1 One of the big problems with the Democratic party in general is that they must have gone to special trouble to find someone with an IQ low enough to say this sort of thing to run for US senate. |
| Posted by: Abdominal Snowman 2006-10-28 17:58 |