I have heard this story told in similar fashion by miltiple sources, including one respected Statewide (non-elected) Republican political player who actually favors readmitting Kent Williams to the GOP, but said that these comments by Williams did more to hurt his cause with the Executive Committee than anything else he has (or has not) done, and I heard this some three weeks ago. Hence, I believe Rep. Stacey Campfield's version of the story as told him by an SEC member from West Tennessee is probably quite accurate.
More recently, some details have been leaked that in these comments, Williams named names and even threw known supporters or potential supporters under the bus. Apparently, the Speaker doesn't believe that Charles Sargent, who had been opposed to throwing Williams out of the party to begin with, is qualified to chair the House Finance, Ways, and Means Committee. Nevermind, of course, that Sargent has one of the best fiscal minds in the House and is respected as such on both sides of the aisle-oh, and he has been in the House three and a half times longer than Kent Williams. Charles Sargent-unqualified...
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea, and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina; Under the high priests Annas and Caiphas; the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachariah, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins; As it was written in the book of the sayings of Isaiah the prophet: A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled; and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight; and the rough ways plain; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Rumors abound that the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee may take up a motion to re-instate Tennessee House Speaker Kent Williams at their quarterly meeting tomorrow. In my column today, I explain why that should not happen:
The problem is that Kent Williams put his name to a paper stating that he would vote for a Republican for Speaker, and he knew that by "Republican" it was accepted that this meant the Republican nominee for this position. Williams joined 49 other Republicans the month after the 2008 election to nominate Jason Mumpower for Speaker unanimously, 50-0. For his part, Kent Williams has always claimed that his final decision to accept the Democratic nomination for Speaker of the House did not come until moments before the vote. Williams says that he just "changed his mind," and he apparently had problems with Jason Mumpower for quite some time. Apparently, changing one's mind is, in Kent Williams' universe, enough of an excuse to forgive the breaking of one's good word.
Kent Williams had ample opportunity to voice his objections to Mumpower, and even to do so in a very public way. I know that if it had been me in Kent Williams' shoes, and I had been turned off by Jason Mumpower's means or methods of securing power to the degree that I would consider colluding to stop him, I certainly would not put my name to paper saying that I would support him, much less say I was planning to vote for him on the air or in public, as Kent Williams did at least once. Beyond merely issues relating to Williams' (or anyone else's) relationship to Jason Mumpower, Williams' behavior brings into question whether his word can be trusted, and then even if it is proven that it can be, he apparently failed to let his true feelings about the developing situation on Capitol Hill be known when he had the chance. If he objected to Jason Mumpower being Speaker of the House, he needed to take a stand rather than run, hide, and then engage in chicanery and deception. When I believe something strongly enough to put my name to it, I stand by what I have said, and if I can't, I don't make the promise to begin with-even if not doing so might cost me dearly politically.
Tennessee's political parties should consider closing our primaries-and in the long run, paying for part or all of the nominating process on the party's dime:
State law already allows for a political party to choose its nominees for office in a way other than by primary, because how a party chooses to nominate candidates is ultimately up to that party and its governing body. Yet by custom and tradition, primaries are the preferred method to nominate candidates. Because the process is a party political one, parties may throw out a perfectly good result at will, or accept a questionable one as they see fit (not that doing either is the right thing to do).
Closing the primary in Tennessee seems the logical way to insure that candidates pass either party's rules of muster-and in a closed primary system, the major parties must enact such standards of legitimacy and keep them. Without a closed primary and set standards, our parties engage in a "pick and choose" standard with no criteria but anger for the enforcement of that standard. However, if the political parties are going to exercise the franchise in the form of a primary to nominate, parties ought to foot the bill.
Brother Kelsey did not win this election, he was anointed with acclamation by the voters of the 31st District. Democrats will whine about low-voter turnout, but there could have been a 60 per cent turnout yesterday and Brian Kelsey would still be going to the Tennessee Senate. This was not a victory, this was a thorough preview of the coming destruction of the Tennessee Democratic Party. If anyone had doubts that a conservative true believer like Kelsey could win, those doubts are erased. Those who still live in the fantasy world of Democratic relevance will be thrown into reality in a very hard way next November when Brian Kelsey is re-elected to a full term in his own right.
Meanwhile, West Tennessee Blue Dog Democrat Congressman John Tanner has announced that he will not seek re-election, and State Senator Roy Herron-well, he is not running for the Democratic nomination for Governor anymore-now he is running for Congress.
This development is said to make Mike "Not Ned Ray" McWherter the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. On the bloody morning after, one tin soldier rides away.
Some of the trash talk from the Left in the blogosphere in West Tennessee about how badly Brian Kelsey is going to be beaten today has become so ridiculous that one can only deduce that the Democrats know they are going to lose the election in Shelby County today, and they might lose it by a wide margin. For all of the talk about Brian Kelsey and his "antics," the thing that makes Kelsey unique is that when Brian Kelsey tells you what his principles and beliefs are, he turns around and votes the way that he tells you he believes.
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