The World According to Oatney

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Tennessee House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower has produced the signatures of all 50 Republicans in the House stating that they will support a Republican for Speaker:

Mumpower released a list with signatures of all 50 GOP House members announcing their “unified commitment to vote for a Republican for speaker.”

“We wanted a visual testament to the fact that indeed, our Republicans are united,” he said.

Rep. Stacey Campfield says GOP members were "made" to sign a pledge of fidelity to the Caucus on the Speakership vote:

Leadership had us all come up to sign a pledge that we would vote for a Republican. All 50 of us signed. Several more conservative Democrats are supposedly calling to join the team in the expectation that a more fair hearing will be now given on important issues.

If a slew of Democrats, even those of the most conservative variety, jump ship and votes Republican for Speaker of the House, it would be poetic justice for all of those years that Jimmy Naifeh cajoled Republicans into voting for him. If all 50 Republicans actually keep their pledge, we can rightly call Jason Mumpower the Speaker-designate. I will only feel secure when the roll is called on January 13th.

While Republicans and conservatives everywhere should be rightly ecstatic at the prospect of a Republican Speaker, our new Speaker-designate should be given a word of caution: While it is to be expected that negotiation and bargaining were and are necessary to insure that the Naifeh Republicans come home and vote right at roll call-including offering these folks some very choice committee posts, I'm sure-the new Speaker should not sell the store at the price of leaving the true believers from the grassroots on the backbenches. Many good conservative Republicans battled the establishment in the trenches for years, believing that someday all of their seemingly endless fighting would pay off. These are the people who have given you your majority, Mr. Speaker, whether you realize that or not. Please do not throw them the table scraps.

Frank Niceley needs to be back on the Agriculture Committee, and placed in a position of authority so that Democrats must answer to him, and they can feel firsthand what it is like to have their bills killed and then ressurrected as the original thought of the majority.

It is because of your predecessor Bill Dunn that you are in this position, Mr. Speaker. In a year when Republicans were supposed to lose seats, Bill Dunn held the fort in what even seasoned political veterans thought was a miracle. Bill Dunn has spent years fighting Jimmy Naifeh and standing up for justice for the infirmed, the aged, and the helpless unborn. Remember those who came before you and who got all of us as Republicans to this point.

You may think Stacey Campfield is crazy, but a whole lot of people love Stacey, and with good reason-Stacey Campfield is the most responsive member of the House, and is the one people are most likely to say they have had a positive interaction with. Rather than be treated like dirt after the manner that the Democrats treated him, Stacey's bills deserve a fair hearing-give him some serious committee assignments that reflect issues that he cares about, and with those assignments he can now set about doing good.

Continue to be as accessable to the grassroots of the party as Speaker as you were as Minority Leader. Let us hear from you as often as possible.

Republicans have the potential to change the very way business is done at the Plaza. Speaker Jason Mumpower can lead the way.

Labels: Republican Party, Tennessee politics

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 1:52 AM