What could the party say, that Windle doesn't show up for votes because he is risking his life in uniform on the other side of the world? How do you campaign against that, and is there anything about that level of devotion to the armed forces and the country that could cause us to rightfully assert that Windle's record is poor, especially when he will have around 400 of his constituents under his command?
You know it could be bad in 2010 for Democrats and liberals when some of the most dedicated liberals in this part of the country are warning within their press organs for their people to prepare for the coming political apocalypse. Furthermore, when Democrats become scared that a gospel-singing farmer might defeat an old political veteran like State Sen. Roy Herron for an open congressional seat, the Tennessee Democratic Party appears to be in far worse shape than previously expounded on in these pages.
For all of the talk among dedicated Democrats about politics running in cycles, what we are seeing develop in Tennessee and around the country is beyond the mere cyclical comeback of Republicans. If current political trends continue, Democrats will havesquandered their majority status in less than four years' time. The sad part for Democrats (and pleasing part for Republicans) is that every bit of it could have been prevented.
Realistically, it is neither politically advantageous or a political disadvantage on a Statewide scale for Kent Williams to tout the whole "Carter County Republican" line. The reaction of the voter on the street is "Republican, not a Republican, who gives a flying flip." The issue does matter to two subgroups of people-those who have invested money, time, or energy in the cause of a Republican majority-one which would allow the Republican Caucus to choose its own nominee for Speaker-and those Republican legislators who might be predisposed either to vote for Williams for Speaker or are diametrically opposed to him.
The only place where the Speaker can gain anything by his responses to actions about which he supposedly sees as a distraction is in the political universe that is Carter County, the only place on earth where anyone actually buys the "poor persecuted Kent" routine. No one who has seen the way things are working in the House of Representatives-whether they favor or oppose calling Kent Williams a Republican-can rightfully say that Williams gets the icy treatment from his colleagues (who let him back into the House Republican Caucus of their own accord) and that this somehow makes the House ungovernable, or that Williams' saga with the SEC impacts anyone other than him, the Executive Committee, and the Chairman. The only way that it would impact anyone else is if Kent Williams believes what others, including me, do not-that he could have a Republican opponent in Carter County in November and be beaten.
A cotton planter and lawyer by profession, John Wilderadmitted in his farewell address to the Tennessee Senate in 2008 not only how much he loved the upper chamber, but that the Senate was where he believed he had made the most difference in his life. Indeed, much of Tennessee's modern road system, as well as our dramatic improvements in education over the last three decades have John Wilder largely to thank for their existence. It was one of the great ironies of his life that Wilder spent much of it as one of the last great relics of the "old Tennessee" while helping to bring the Tennessee that we know today into existence.
Wilder was often at his most partisan when attempting to advocate for so-called "non-partisanship," as was the case with his Tennessee Plan for selecting State judges. In order to keep "partisan politics" out of the judiciary, John Wilder pushed through a plan which allowed for a commission to select judges and voters to then retain the judges most never saw or knew anything about by Yes/No retention votes. This is a blatant violation of the Tennessee Constitution, which clearly calls for elected judges. The reasonwe still do not elect judges today-in violation of our State's supreme law-is largely because of John Wilder's original "Tennessee Plan." The selection as opposed to election of judges has led to one of the South's most liberal and arguably Democratic-partisan judiciaries, and may be the most glaring black mark on Wilder's largely stellar political legacy.
Amid the hope of New Years Day, Tennesseans have learned that our longtime Lieutenant Governor died early this morning, while 2010 promises to be a very good year for Republicans if the political situation remains even remotely like it presently is.
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