Ford Jr.: "I'd Have Voted To Torture"

Former Congressman Harold Ford Jr. told Chris Matthews on MSNBC's "Hardball" that he would have voted for torture: "You have to remember when this was occurring. This is 2002, 2003. The country was in a different place, in a different space. And if you were to say to me, as an American, put aside my partisanship, that we have an opportunity to gain information that would prevent the destruction of an American city, to prevent killings in American cities, and we have to use certain techniques, I’m one of those Americans that would have voted a certain way, Chris. And that polling said it might have been torture, but I’m not as outraged."

Mr. Matthews goes into a rant and accuses Mr. Ford Jr. - who is currently chair of the moderate-liberal Democratic Leadership Council - of veering into "Cheney country," as in former Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Ford Jr. and Vice President Cheney are right on this one.