Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who is facing a challenge in the Democratic primary by former Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN), is already using tonight’s State of the Union address to take a shot at her rival.
Gillibrand posted this on Twitter: “Looking forward to the #SOTU tonight. If HF were here, he would probably be sitting on the Republican side.”
The really funny part about all of this is that when Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate a year ago, the conventional wisdom was that she would face a Democratic primary challenge on the grounds that she allegedly wasn’t progressive enough. But since then, one potential liberal challenger after another has bowed out of the race, thanks in part to pressure from the White House and the Democratic establishment. And her new challenger, Ford, is a former chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, who talked up his pro-life, pro-gun and anti-gay marriage credentials when he ran for Senate in Tennessee back in 2006.
