Rep. Harold Ford offers for House minority leader

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Harold Ford, saying House Democrats crave "a clean break" from the party's legislative and political strategy, on Friday threw his name into the mix of candidates vying to succeed House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt.

"I recognize that I am an underdog because I'm starting out late," said Ford. But the Tennessee Democrat also said that in the wake of Tuesday's election losses, "there's a real yearning and a real appetite for change in the party."

Ford made the announcement in an interview Friday morning on the nationally syndicated Don Imus morning radio show.

Two other House veterans, Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Martin Frost, had jumped into the race Thursday and immediately began jabbing at each other over the future of a party reeling from midterm election losses.

Ford said Friday he thought both represented a leadership style that the party needs to change.

"I think my colleagues on the Democratic side are interested in radical change and, if they are, I submit that my candidacy and my leadership would offer that change," Ford said. "It would be not only me, but a whole new generation of leadership."

Democrats are scheduled to choose their new leaders next week.

Earlier, Frost had taken on Pelosi.

"I think that her politics are to the left, and I think that the party, to be successful, must speak to the broad center of the country," said Frost.