Lincoln in Ford Theatre

Adam Kleinheider dissects the drama surrounding Lincoln Davis and Harold Ford Jr. after the latter gracefully chucked Beecher Frasier under the bus, and the former responded by saying "bless his little heart". Kleinheider says:

While in the days of old, the “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine” quid pro quo was more explicit, to say that Lincoln Davis didn’t think he was banking a bit of love with Ford for giving him credibility with yellow dog dems would be naive.

Davis expect a return on investment. What did Davis get for his troubles? Not much it seems. While Lincoln vouched for Ford with rural whites going so far as loaning out his Chief of Staff to serve as campaign manager, when the wormed turned and Davis and his staff found themselves in a racial beef, not only did Ford not help Davis out, he threw his man to the wolves.

If you look solely at this incident, perhaps, but from what I understand the relationship between Ford and Davis hasn't been exactly chummy for a while. Especially after Lincoln Davis, on rumors that Ford might run for Governor, said "[The people in Nashville promoting Ford for Governor are] like me, they have a great deal of confidence and faith in him. But candidate for Governor is somewhat different than a candidate for Federal Office. You've got to be an executive and a manager to be a Governor."

I think a lot of the acrimony currently being seen stems from these rumors of Ford running for Governor (promoted by Tom Lee and others) and I can only imagine that Beecher Frasier, Chief of Staff to a Congressman and likely higher-up in a Davis Gubernatorial administration, was not too pleased of this news and likely expressed his opinion behind the scenes.