Vaughn's Doublespeak
Former Rep. Nathan Vaughn is trying to get his old seat back, and
he can't make up his mind about illegal immigration:
First of all, who on the Republican side is asking for the Constitution to be changed? Did Vaughn's opponent, Rep. Tony Shipley (R-Kingsport) assert that the federal Constitution should somehow be changed to make immigration the purview of the States alone? No Republican in Tennessee-let alone Shipley-has made such an outlandish proposal. What many conservatives and Republicans do believe is that the federal government has failed in its responsibility to protect our borders and secure the several States from a tide of illegal immigration so great that it amounts to a foreign invasion on the scale of the Germanic invasions of Rome, and from which the federal government is obliged to defend them (see Article IV, Section 4 of the federal Constitution).
Labels: Conservatism, Democrats, Elections, Local politics, Political correctness, Republican Party, Tennessee politics
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
State Rep. Josh Evans (R-Greenbrier) has set off a firestorm
because he decided to be neighborly:
Representative Evans' letter was not, as the Nashville press seems to be painting it, a campaign letter. A campaign letter would not only be on campaign stationary or come in the form of a campaign flyer, and it would have said "vote to re-elect Josh Evans for State Representative." This letter did not do that or attempt to do that, it did state the committees that Evans serves on, did allude to some of the services his office might provide, and did state that he lives in Greenbrier, attends Ebenezer Baptist Church, and said that if the newcomer didn't have a church home, they were welcome at Ebenezer. Apparently, the one person in Robertson County who decided they didn't like that also decided that they were too much of a coward to tell their Representative they didn't care for it themselves. Instead, they had to go to WSMV to do it under the cloak of secrecy-you can just smell the ACLU in here somewhere.
Labels: Elections, Local politics, Political correctness, Republican Party, Tennessee politics
T-R-O-U-B-L-E
Barack Obama's lemmings
know they are in trouble:
Barack Obama has coattails alright-for Republicans-and the Tennessee and national GOP both know it, and so do the Democrats. That is why the Democrats have their "community organizing" lemmings in places like North Memphis, because they can't get their own disillusioned voters to the polls after these people discovered that the Mr. Yes We Can has turned out to be a tall glass full of Oh No You Don't. Those voters who did vote for Obama in 2008 and either voted for the first time or swung to the Democratic side from the Republicans are now just as likely to vote Republican as they are to vote for the President's party. That won't just have an impact on Congressional races, but could cause the Republican tide in many Tennessee General Assembly races to truly "go viral."
Labels: Conservatism, Democrats, Duh, Elections, Federal politics, Local politics, News Media, Political correctness, Republican Party, Tennessee politics
Redistricting Quandry
There is more at stake in the coming General Election than
which party will be in legislative control:
What national constituency maps really highlight-whether such models intend to or not-is the importance of elections for State Legislatures in Tennessee and around the country. Parties that control their respective Legislatures in any given State control the process whereby congressional and legislative district lines are redrawn after a federal census, which is one reason why Tennessee Republicans are so keen to let the world know that they are favored to pick up seats in the State House of Representatives this year. Whatever your political party, those who are in-th-know politically realize that there is much more at stake in the 2010 General Election than which political party controls Congress or the General Assembly, but literally which party could control those institutions for years, and perhaps decades to come.
Labels: Congress, Conservatism, Democrats, Elections, Federal politics, Local politics, News Media, Republican Party, Tennessee politics
Pot, Meet Kettle
Today in Tennessee politics,
the pot calls the kettle black:
Tennessee House Republicans, on the cusp of expanding their majority in the House to allow for the electing of officers of their choosing, do seem to have been trying to encourage lobbyists to give to Republicans. This was far less obvious and politically forceful, of course, that the Democrats used to tell lobbyists and their firms that it was in their interest to give to the majority party to remain in the good graces of their Leadership. Mike Turner, who is one of the most politically astute figures in the General Assembly, says Democrats contact lobbyists to "tell them to be fair."
Labels: Conservatism, Democrats, Duh, Elections, News Media, Political correctness, Republican Party, Tennessee politics
