H
arold Ford, running for the idea of maybe running for senator from New York, was running into a Brooklyn coffee shop for takeout. “I’m starving,” he told me. “I just met with some leaders here and now I need to meet with a meal to go.”
We first talked October 2008, right after he’d proposed to fashionista Emily Threlkeld, who was in Paris for the collections. Tennessee’s former-congressman-turned-New York businessman had flown there and booked a Champagne engagement party with friends at the Ritz. His future fiancée arrived late and announced she had to leave him flat to rush back to her hotel for a charger because her cell was dying. But first he gave her a ring. Second, he called me.
So, now, how is Mrs. Harold Ford taking his newest decision?
“She’s excited. She’s my director of research, checks my daily schedule and the people I’m seeing. She’s gone through a political race with me before because we dated for three years and it was during one of my campaigns. Today she’s into marketing so she works from home, our condo in the Union Square Flatiron District, and she is totally involved in this decision.”
Campaigning for office is a form of birth control, so how’s he figure he’ll have time for the new wife?
“Ohh, listen, I’ll find time for that. Always have, always will.
“It’s a fallacy that I don’t truly live and breathe New York. She and I lived together, and when we decided to settle down and someday have a family and raise kids, I said I wanted this to happen in New York. She lives in New York. I was here in college days and always knew New York is where I want to be.
“My wife knows what I am and that I never lost my desire for public service. Not like I woke up one morning and said, ‘I think I’ll try for public service.’ It’s part of who I am. I’ve always looked for ways to contribute. I’m into philanthropy. I teach at NYU. I work with Fox News. I’m on a leadership council. It’s not the action I miss. Corny and idealist as it sounds, I care about educating kids, raising taxes, health benefits, and I care that, to me, this country is going down a wrong road.
“As for my wife, she makes me smile. She humanizes me. I never thought I’d do it, but she has me walking her tiny Chihuahua who’s 11, even though I get funny looks. Fabby, by the way, is a New York creature. Tough. Takes on every big dog that comes near her. And we both love our neighborhood. Places like Rosa Mexicana, Starbucks, BLT Fish or, after church, First Presbyterian on 12th and Fifth, it’s Big Daddy’s on Park and 20th. They do great fried chicken.”
Yeah, yeah, but what makes a dude from Tennessee think he can take on New York?
“That lady from Illinois did it, and that man from Massachusetts did it. That’s the story of so many other Americans who come to this town to live out their dreams. New York is a city of transients. I love its energy, its attitude, everything about it. The idea of my running surfaced through friends. It was they who mentioned it. It started casually in the spring when Carolyn Maloney was gearing up.
“Now I’ve taken a 45-day unpaid leave of absence from my job at Merrill Lynch. It’s not right to draw a salary when I’m out every day campaigning. Fortunately, I’ve still got a little NYU teaching job and some MSNBC, so for a while I think I can put food on the table.”
With our black governor and black president, Harold Ford also discussed “the black issue.” He said: “I’ve done statewide runs before where that issue was important. I would hope to be judged on what I stand for, but if it becomes important here I’ll handle it head-on like I’ve handled everything else in my life.”
And then Harold Ford the maybe iffy who-knows candidate for senator from New York hit the coffee shop. For takeout. Just like every other New Yorker.
JENNIFER Aniston, 5-foot-5, 112 pounds, once 142 pounds: “I hate that self-worth is metered by your weight. I didn’t even sense I was heavy until someone told me.” She exercised, got a diet plan and dropped cherished mayonnaise on white bread sandwiches. “Now I watch my foods, but salad and fruit is no fun, so I won’t not eat a cheeseburger.” . . . Pros mumble they earn more doing one show at an Indian-owned casino than for a week in Atlantic City . . . 1998 Christie’s art auction. Collector Peter Silverman underbid a 9-by-13 vellum chalk and ink drawing mounted on oak. Nine years later, finding it again in another gallery, he paid about $23,000 for it. He has since proven it an original Leonardo da Vinci. Today it’s in a bank vault, valued at $150 million, and his book “The Lost Princess” is making editors rounds . . . Just before the earthquake, Western Union donated $225,000 to Wyclef Jean‘s Haiti foundation for the care and feeding of its poor.
LET it be known, per our Misstatement of the Union, that for every action, there is an equal and opposite gov ernment program.
SIGN in Third Avenue beauty salon: “Our manicurists love making money hand over fist.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.