The World According to Oatney

Where are Tennessee's leaders?

The talk in Tennessee's blogosphere is thick with speculation that Bill Frist is going to run for Governor in 2010. I think we can take it from the avenue of speculation to obvious given since Frist was apparently working the House Republican Caucus before the inauguration of Governor Phil Bredesen on Saturday. It is one thing to shake n' howdy with a few folks-every politician does that, even those who are about to retire. It is quite another to work the room hard. Since this is indeed what Frist was doing, I think we can put to bed any speculation that he is through in politics-He's running for President.

The problem is that he intends to do nothing more than use the Governor's Mansion as a vehicle to get to the White House, and thus he has no real desire to be Governor or to lead us. He is obviously hoping that after four years as Governor, he can have enough success to say that he would be a good President-even though he replaced an effective Senate Leader (Trent Lott) and then proceded to squander the majority that Leader worked so hard to maintain. Frist has no solid position on any issue, and has even voted for bills he knew Tennesseans opposed just to curry favor with the White House and K Street.

The thought of Frist as Governor makes me want to hurl. There are still rumors that Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn may run for the Republican nomination-which is good, someone should challenge Frist. Bill Frist, however, has all that Washington money to turn to and he will be nearly impossible to dislodge if he makes a Gubernatorial run.

We have some very talented political leadership in Tennessee in both parties, most of it to be found in the State legislature. Many of these folks have been in the legislature for years and they aren't going anywhere. I think it is fair to say that there are a few among them who have a real passion for Tennessee and for Tennesseans. If they have a grand design of any kind, the Governor's Mansion would be the top of their political heap. It is a shame that between the two parties, we must resort to users (Bredesen) and losers (Frist) to run this State. We no longer resort to finding real leaders.

Labels: Tennessee politics

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 8:16 AM