TN Governor Phil Bredesen was interviewed on NPR’s On Point this morning.
Delaware and Tennessee win the first round of Obama’s 4.35 billion dollar “Race to the Top” in education. We’ll look at how they won — and where the race goes from here.
Audio will be available at 2 P.M. CT. Listen here.
So this has been quite a week for politics in Tennessee. First, news broke that long-serving West Tennessee congressman John Tanner would not seek re-election in 2010. Almost immediately after that announcement, state senator Roy Herron, who had been doing quite well seeking the Democratic gubernatorial primary nod, announced that he would instead seek the Democratic congressional primary nod in the 8th congressional district. A day later, Ward Cammack announces his withdrawal from the Democratic gubernatorial contest, reducing the number of announced candidates from 5 to 3.
Let’s play political pick up sticks:
Congressman Roy Herron
The first big question is: Why did Roy Herron switch races? Based on the political winds blowing in Tennessee, Phil Bredesen’s unprecedented 95-county sweep was an anomaly unlikely to be repeated by a Democrat for a generation or more (or, probably, any politician). A statewide win for a Democrat in a mid-term election year likely to favor, at least congressionally, the party in opposition to the President would be a hard-fought coup. Especially looking at the fundraising breakdown by party. So for Herron, winning the governor’s mansion, even should he win the Democratic primary, would be difficult. But let’s say that he is, in fact, the frontrunner in Tennessee’s fightin’ 8th. How could he possibly hold the seat as a freshman congressman after the Republican-controlled General Assembly redraws the districts to transform our 5-4 Democratic-majority congressional delegation to a likely 7-2 Republican-majority congressional delegation?
Possible answers:
Honestly, I can’t see how a long-term view that suggests that less than a single term could possibly be appealing to a state senator in a seat that is assumed to be safe. Is 2 years in Congress better than 4 (or) more years in the state senate? Can Herron somehow become a rare Tanner-like figure who is a legendary Southern Democrat perceived as independent-minded and authentic in a mostly rural part of the state? We probably won’t know the answer till 2012, should Herron best Stephen Fincher, darling of the NRCC. Regardless, I fully expect Herron to emerge as the Democratic frontrunner, even if other Democrats (not named Lowe Finney) emerge to fight in a primary.
Side bet for political poker players: Did Herron and McWherter discuss the Tanner seat? Did each prefer the race he’s now conclusively in? I.e., Herron preferred the Tanner race and McWherter preferred the gubernatorial race?
The Governor’s Club
Herron’s departure lets the other son of Dresden, Mike McWherter, shore up his Northwest Tennessee base. Some have suggested that it advantages Jim Kyle, too, but I don’t see that. The big question will be the fight among all three of McWherter, Kyle, and McMillan for Middle Tennessee supporters, where Herron had a broad base of support, and McWherter just fired a loud opening shot.
Cammack’s departure… well, it’s unlikely to have a meaningful impact. Unless, I suppose, one of the remaining three finds a way to extend Bredesen’s legacy in making Tennessee a green technology center and generally becoming a green policy technocratic candidate.
I hadn’t predicted that the Democratic primary would’ve been particularly brutal with 5 candidates, at least nowhere nearly as brutal as the Republican primary has been and will be. And that’s in part because the Republicans feel the need to perpetually seek Truth in Conservatism, whereas the Democrats have presented as relatively un-bold pragmatists, with frontrunners McWherter (gays) and Herron (God, guns) anchoring some socially conservative points but otherwise generally hoping their ability to connect with a base was likely to determine a winner. I shudder, actually, to think what the general election might look like without Herron, as he was a forceful floor speaker who was probably the most unafraid to take on progressive causes strategically and with charisma. Kyle has no problem on the attack (“Kurita.” “Who?”), so that might be fun, but I’m still waiting for a grand populist (or otherwise) outburst from one of the Democratic contenders that makes running for governor as a Democrat seem like it’s not only fun but also the right thing to do. Otherwise, Bill Haslam, coasting calmly above the wingnut fray, will likely resonate more genuinely with Tennessee voters angling for another Bredesen (a pragmatic administrator coming from a recent background of municipal executive experience) and not disrupt my original prophecy.
Summary: A Liberadio(!) Healthcare Reform Virtual Town Hall and guest Elbert Ventura and the Media Matters for America Smackdown.
Healthcare Reform Virtual Town Hall – Part 1 The “to do” list (Tennessee town halls with Davis, Gordon, Tanner), an O’Connell Factor on why our system of healthcare is a nearly guaranteed system of oppression for unhealthy Americans, where are the Christians on healthcare reform, your calls (including a shout-out to Governor Bredesen’s Cover TN), and tales (tails?) of Barney Frank. [25MB download mp3]
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Healthcare Reform Virtual Town Hall – Part 2 More of your calls, emails and stories about healthcare and healthcare reform, including the expertise of registered nurse and healthcare reform activist Michael Chapman. Plus, the insurance companies are spending a lot of dollars on opposition to reform and Media Matters research fellow Elbert Ventura tells us that it really, really, really, really, really matters that our mainstream media chooses to report on controversy instead of what really matters – public policy. [23MB download mp3]
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First, from the AP via Kleinheider, the Tennessee Firearms Association exhibits their true beliefs – they only value your personal liberty if it matches exactly their personal vision of said liberty:
The Tennessee Firearms Association is seeking to publicly identify each law enforcement officer and prosecutor who attended Gov. Phil Bredesen’s veto of a bill to allow people with handgun carry permits to take their weapons into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
And now, Tennessee Gun Owners want to punish a small-business owner for operating his business the way he sees fit. Andy Feinstone, co-owner of Bosco’s (Nashville, Cool Springs, Memphis), posted signs in all his restaurants banning handguns, because, you know, it’s his business and he has that right and the freedom to make that choice. “I think it’s great that the governor vetoed it, and hopefully it doesn’t get overridden,” Feinstone told The Leaf Chronicle.
But “his business, his decision” is a tenant that doesn’t sit too well with the TGO organizers, who want to force Mr. Firestone to operate on their terms:
So I am curious. How many of you would participate in a lawful, peacful protest in front of the Hillsboro Village location of Boscos restaurant following the presumed Tennessee House & Senate override of Governor Bredesen’s veto?
…
The goals of this would be to:
* Put these restaurant owners on notice that not only will they lose our business as pro-personal protection consumers, but they will also have unwanted attention drawn to their practice.
* Inspire restaurant owners to reconsider their decisions and remove their individual ban on being able to protect ourselves while dining in their establishments.
* By dressing nicely, having intelligently worded signs and flyers, and conducting ourselves peacefully and with tact and decorum, show that gun owners are not all neanderthal redneck backwoods hicks as the media paints us so broadly.
In other words, you have the personal freedom to operate your business the way you wish until we don’t like what you’re doing. The Party of Personal Freedom? FAIL
Today, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, vetoed legislation that would have allowed guns in bars, stating:
In recognition of this basic principle of firearm safety, Tennessee state law has long prohibited the possession of firearms in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. House Bill 962 would remove this protection in a manner that I, along with many law enforcement officers, believe to be reckless and lacking basic safeguards to ensure public safety. The notion that this bill would permit one to carry a concealed weapon into a crowded bar at midnight on a Saturday night defies common sense, and I cannot sign such a measure into law. As you consider this veto, I respectfully ask the legislature to rethink this issue.
We agree with Governor Bredesen. And despite what the TNGOP would have you believe, so do most Tennesseans, as we found out during our last show when we opened up the phone lines to talk about guns and guns in bars.
We spoke to a lawyer, a mother, a serviceman, and several citizens (one of who wonders out loud if he feels safer knowing that his Roane County representatives are packing heat) about it all – if there is a Constitutional right to be safe in your person, what specific rights are being taken away from gun owners (if any), does alcohol makes you less likely to follow the law, does the public have a right to know the names of gun permit holders, what is the responsibility of bar owners and bartenders and why didn’t anyone ask them what they think about guns in bars, and why do your second amendment rights stop at the door to Legislative Plaza? And not everyone was on the same page.
Listen to our discussion with our listeners on guns [download mp3 49.7MB 31:02].
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Despite the political machinations of certain Republican legislators and special interest groups who use hot-button issues to try and divide and conquer, we found out that Tennesseans who disagree can have a thoughtful and thorough discussions on issues like guns and find common ground and consensus. Too bad that’s not the goal of the TNGOP.
Mayor Karl Dean will join Governor Phil Bredesen at the Howard School Building on Monday morning, Jan. 12, at 8:00 am to early vote against Councilman Eric Crafton’s “English-only” charter amendment and Amendment No. 2, which would make it absurdly easy to bring these kinds of referendums to a public vote (twice a year!). Then, the next day, Andrea Conte (Mrs. Governor Bredesen), Anne Davis (Mrs. Mayor Dean) and Martha Cooper (Mrs. Congressman Cooper, who let’s us call her “Mrs. Coop!”*) will do the same at 12:30 p.m.
Today, African-American leaders, community organizers, and public officials including Rep. Brenda Gilmore, Councillady Erica Gilmore, and Councilman at large Jerry Maynard, held a press conference in front of the Howard School to encourage votes of “Against/Against.” The coalition standing with them included representatives from the Nashville branch of the NAACP; the Urban EpiCenter; the Urban League of Middle Tennessee; the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship (IMF); the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC); the Nashville Movement; the Tennessee Alliance for Progress (TAP); Jobs with Justice (JwJ); and the National Organization for Women (NOW).
The remarks focused on the social, economic, spiritual and moral impact of the referendum as well as the myth that most African-Americans were for the referendum. Although no statistics were cited, Councilman Maynard did explain that a lingering resentment over a lack of coalition building in response to school rezoning, the operation of Metro General Hospital, and juvenile crime statistics could be responsible for fueling pro-English Only sentiment in the African-American community. Maynard’s answer to such resentment is to cite the potential negative impact of the English Only referendum on the city and offer the tried and true adage of “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
The Mayor, the Governor, respected community leaders of all kinds. The coalition against the referendum is impressive. The list on the NashvilleForAllofUs.org website even includes the strange bedfellows of the Chamber of Commerce and the ACLU.
And who’s for the referendum? Well, there’s no list of Nashville-based groups or community leaders on the English Only website so one would have to assume that their coalition consists of Councilman Crafton, Svengali Jon Crisp, ProEnglish (the Virginia-based group helping to fund Crafton’s referendum that was designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of it’s affiliation with John Tanton’s U.S. Inc.), and one not-so-friendly neighborhood truth-stretching talk radio host who, despite knowing that not all non-citizens who come to this country are sources of cheap labor (they are students, executives of international corporations, scientists, etc.) nor are they all seeking citizenship, wrote in the Tennessean last week:
It’s an undisputed fact that people who don’t have a working knowledge of English are either non-citizens or are illegal immigrants. How do I know? Because you are required by law to speak, write and understand English to become a U.S. citizen. Opposition to this measure, disguised as a pro-diversity coalition, is all about one thing: keeping a steady flow of cheap, illegal labor streaming into Nashville.
Oh, Teddy Roosevelt is with them too. Happy New Year 1919!
*No, she doesn’t.
If Governor Bredesen had welcomed Barack Obama to Tennessee during his campaign he might have learned something about fostering party unity with grace and quiet leadership. Hell, he could have learned that from Republican Jason Mumpower much more recently.
Instead, the titular head of the Tennessee Democratic Party decided, with his latest statement funneled through spokesperson Lydia Lenker, to ignore the old axiom “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging” and make public his “trust issues” with current House Majority Leader Gary Odom.
“Unfortunately, there have been some trust issues with Rep. Odom,” Bredesen spokeswoman Lydia Lenker told The Associated Press in an e-mail exchange late Wednesday. She did not elaborate on what those issues have been.
“We’re actively exploring options other than Rep. Odom to carry the administration’s legislative package,” she wrote.
Has the Governor’s relationship with the Democratic caucus deteriorated so badly that he has to communicate his leadership preference through the press? Or is his intended purpose to embarrass Rep. Odom?
Regardless, during the past year our Governor “suggested” the Democratic nominee for President not visit the state, all but disappeared from the stump when the State party needed his 95-county-winning-ways the most, and made public a long-standing political feud within his own party.
Perhaps now would be a good time for him to take a play from the Obama book and put an end to the petty bickering. Yes, he has a state to run and a budget to balance and he may not always get the cooperation of his fellow Democrats on the hill, but the people (remember them?) who make up the Democratic Party of Tennessee – those who foresee two hellish years of fighting the last gasp of this country’s culture war – are aching for leadership.
Despite what he and many others may want to believe, the United States is not a “center-right” nation. No political candidate needs to wallow at Walmart for votes. Nor are we “center-left.” In the words of WaPo’s E.J. Dionne, we are a “fundamentally non-ideological nation” because “Many who would like the government to act more boldly still need to be persuaded of government’s capacity to succeed.” So use the skills of your able-bodied spokesperson for good and not evil, Governor, and help develop a message that will define Democratic ideas and persuade of the capacity to lead and succeed. Then choose the right language with which to present the message and build an infrastructure to communicate it.
And what is the Democratic/Progressive message? It’s simple, really. Smart and efficient government. Freedom, equality and security for all. Responsibility to ourselves and to others.
UPDATE: Senator Andy Berke is on it: “So I find nothing wrong with our party that can’t be solved by talking to voters about Democratic accomplishments, Democratic commitments and Democratic values.”
Please. Because Aunt B. has enough to worry about without innumerable trips to a chiropractor.
So how about instead of this:
“My preliminary conclusion is, you’ve got a guy with too much time on his hands and is nosy and was showing people that he had access to all this kind of information and doing favors for friends and looking things up over a period of time,” the governor said Tuesday. “If it goes beyond that, it’ll be a very serious matter and we’ll handle it appropriately.”
You try this:
“It makes no difference what the motivation. It’s a very serious matter and we’ll handle it appropriately.”
Quick and to the point. Seriously.
In a visit with the Grey Lady today, Bredesen offers a prescription for his party: a superdelegate primary.
It’s particularly interesting to see Bredesen calling for a common sense solution to help the Democratic Party considering his own comments on his party’s shallow bench in the upcoming race to challenge Lamar Alexander for U.S. Senate, which almost portended Hillary’s own remarks that McCain has made it more clear than Obama that he’s ready to serve as commander-in-chief. If his party mattered that much to him, Bredesen could’ve encouraged some young Democrat he’s impressed with to make a challenge to a statesman he admired. Or maybe he’s got his eye on a bigger prize…
Personally, while I don’t think Bredesen’s proposal is particularly problematic, I am not a fan of changing rules midstream after a lack of foresight has yielded an unexpected and unwelcome result. After all, does choosing a nominee sooner mean choosing a nominee better? Based on the closeness of the primary competition through and after Super Tuesday, I’d be surprised. I think any Democrats in either the Hillary or Obama camps who will unite behind any Democrat are going to do that regardless of whether they are asked to do so in August rather than June. And I think any undecideds are going to see a series of attacks and issues relating to both Hillary and Obama continue to be expressed by conservative mouthpieces well beyond the appearance of a clear nominee.
Ultimately, though, I think Democrats frustrated with this year’s process, where many, many states had their primaries and caucuses under the magnifying glass, need to scrutinize their nominating process to avoid, say, treating Republican states better.
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