Tennessee Republican Party

Honk if I’m Having Trouble Paying My Bills

On February 26, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

WTF?

I just don’t get this bumper sticker the Tennessee Republican Party is selling. If someone puts it on their car, doesn’t it mean they are struggling with paying, or have defaulted on, a home loan? Or, couldn’t it also mean that they don’t really need help but are somehow gaming the system? And if they do need help or are gaming the system, why would they advertise it on their car? I must be missing the smackdown through all the nuance.

Sean Braisted over at Nashville21.com finds the hypocrisy in it and Southern Beale and friends have some better ideas:

â€¢ “Honk if you took a big bonus just before the government bailed out your worthless company.”–Hecate

â€¢ “Honk if you paid for your bankers’ cocaine” — MasterD, damn yankee

â€¢ “Honk if you’re sorry the Republicans didn’t get to put your social security into the stock market.” — rootless-e

â€¢ “Honk you’re driving on a taxpayer funded highway.”– Libby

â€¢ “Honk If You Think my Uterus Belongs to You”–Culture of Truth

â€¢ “Have your driver honk if I’ve been paying your taxes for you.”–minusp

â€¢ “Honk if you want Bush back.”–(anti-noise-pollution sticker)–Dirk Gently

And the winner is …. (drum roll, please!):

“Honk if you’re going to the job fair.” –Duane V

I have one too:

Can We Throw the TNGOP Off the Boat with the Tea?

On February 26, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Can we throw the Tennessee Republican Party off the boat with the tea? Because this “protest” they’re organizing tomorrow is simply laughable. Not a peep out of these people about White House economic policy for the last eight years and now they find their voices?

“This is not about political parties or partisanship,” said TN GOP spokesperson Bill Hobbs, winner of the 2008 Liberadio(!) Jive Turkey Award. Not about partisanship? Really? So where was your organized protest when:

President George W. Bush was spending like a drunken sailor?
When our government’s discretionary spending – fueled by President Bush’s refusal to veto a spending bill, any spending bill – was increasing in 2001-2007 at an average annual rate of 5.3 percent?
When President Bush lied about his nasty little discretionary spending habits?
When a Republican-controlled congress enacted, and George Bush signed, a 2002 farm bill that caused agriculture spending to double its 1990s levels
When the same congress and president rammed through a $295 billion “porkulus” 2005 highway bill?
When Peggy Noonan wrote, “George W Bush is a big spender. He has never vetoed a spending bill. When Congress serves up a big slab of fat, crackling pork, Mr Bush responds with one big question: Got any barbecue sauce?”
When we found out about the pallets of cash?
When we found we were about to cross that “bridge to nowhere?”
When it became clear that Governor Bush’s campaign promise that income tax cuts would be “especially focused on low and moderate income families,” actually played out like this: the wealthiest Americans received an average tax cut of $123,000, the bottom one-fifth of households received an average tax cut of $27, the one-fifth of households received an average tax cut of $647.
When President Bush said he was “pleased with” the $170 billion economic stimulus package that he signed into law on February of 2008.
When we realized that George Bush’s “war, wealth, and oil” spending was, at its core, a crony capitalist’s redistribution of wealth?

So the question to Hobbs, Robin Smith, and the TNGOP is, wasn’t it “our money” from 2001-2008, too? Didn’t the government have their “hands in our pockets” when George W. Bush was president?

Excuse me, dude, but your partisan hackery is showing.

Tagged with: Bill Hobbs • Economy • George W. Bush • Robin Smith • Tennessee Republican Party

Tennessee GOP to Congressman: Stay in Your Office and Do Nothing

On February 17, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Wah. How dare John Tanner – Congressman from Tennessee and president of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly – do his job. Instead of engaging with the global community to ensure the security of the American people, he should just stay holed up in his Washington DC office obstructing any kind of meaningful legislation and then take credit for it when it passes, like these guys.

That’s what Bill Hobbs and the TN GOP think anyway. In their twisted world view, Congressman Tanner is taking advantage of the American people by leading a congressional delegation on a fact-finding mission to some *gasp* fancy-pants European cities when he should be just sitting in his Washington office waiting for his marching orders from Rush Limbaugh:

The estimated average tax cut that middle class Americans will receive for the last six months of the year as part of the bloated â€˜economic stimulusâ€™ package that John Tanner and the Democrats passed in Congress today is $13 a week…At $13 a week, it would take the average American several years to save up enough money to take their sweetie to Paris for Valentineâ€™s Day, but John Tanner and Bart Gordon arenâ€™t average American…They are Democrat congressmen who claim to be fiscal conservatives but are right now jetting off to Europe at taxpayersâ€™ expense instead of coming back to Tennessee to explain why they voted for billions of dollars in pork projects and payoffs to special interest groups but only $13 a week for the average middle class taxpayer.

You want to talk about the average middle class taxpayer? OK, let’s talk about the average middle class taxpayer. The last attempt at tax relief for them from one of your guys was a one time only $600 tax rebate in 2001. How’s that $1.44 per week working out for you, dude? More importantly, how’s that that tax rebate working out for the U.S. economy? By one economist’s calculations, that rebate “cost four times as much as it put back into the economy because so much of that money was saved or used to pay off old debts.” In other words, the last time a Republican tried his hand at driving the economy we got the largest 13-month job loss since 1939 (3.6 million since December of 2007 bringing the total number of unemployed Americans to 11.6 million), a plunging stock market, and the near-total collapse of the banking industry.

I also don’t think Hobbs noticed that he’s in the minority when it comes to thinking that Tanner did the wrong thing by voting for the “pork projects and payoffs to special interest groups” – or what we in the reality-based community like to call a “long-term plan to turn around the economy.” Public support for President Obama’s stimulus package increased to 59% in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll – up from 52% in January.

Hobbs also conveniently leaves out a couple of other simple facts, 1) Tanner’s delegation is bi-partisan – joining tanner are Republican Reps. John Boozman (Ark.); Jo Ann Emerson (Mo.) and Jeff Miller (Fla.) – and 2) traveling to these places – no matter how fabulous – is what these particular lawmakers do to, you know, keep up with political, economic and security challenges that face the United States. At least that’s what the Defense News – which is part of the Army Times Publishing Company, the leading military and government news periodical publisher in the world – says.

Congressman Tanner has a full schedule on this trip and if he and the Mrs. are lucky they might be able to fit in a nice meal.

H/T: Jeff Woods at the Scene’s Pith in the Wind

Tagged with: Bill Hobbs • Economic Stimulus • John Tanner • NATO Parlimentary Assembly • Tennessee Republican Party

I am Robin Smith, Queen of Irony

On January 16, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

In a statement released today cheering the financial contribution (also referred to as a “downpayment”) to the Tennessee Republican Party by GOPAC, the national Republican organization “dedicated exclusively to electing Republicans to state and local offices,” and earmarked to help boot newly elected Speaker of the House Kent Williams (R, The Fightin’ 4th!) out of office in two years, Chairperson Robin Smith said:

“It is an honor to stand with great folks and organizations committed to more than political position and power…We have already begun to recruit and support candidates committed first to principles that serve this great state. We express sincerest thanks to GOPAC and others who are investing in our efforts.”

Seriously, what part of “dedicated exclusively to electing Republicans to state and local offices” does she think isn’t committed to political position and power?

(H/T: Post Politics & that Kleinheider)

Tagged with: Oh the Irony • Robin Smith • Tennessee Republican Party

Memo to Mumpower, Smith & Hobbs: You Can Catch More Flies with Honey

On January 15, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Let’s face it, Tennessee Republicans, you got the political shaft. You had the 106th session of the General Assembly in your proverbial back pocket and then *poof* all your plans went up in a puff of back room shenanigans smoke.

Now you’re playing the victim – lamenting on how you’ve been betrayed by a RINO. And we’re not surprised because it’s what you guys do. I call it Trickle Down Victimization and conservatives in power do it better than anyone or anything else (especially governing). From President George Bush to the whatever conservative local talk radio host you listen to, you’re all about blaming others and presenting every issue in Us vs. Them terms. In other words, yours is the “Party of personal responsibility,” my patootie.

So no one should be surprised that after her Party got the political shellacking of her career, the messages sent by TN GOP Chair person Robin Smith, victim, who needs to be in total control and does not like to lose, went from the magnanimous post-election

“I think the Republican Party now is at a point in its life in maturity where weâ€™re going to have to have regional messages…The party should not compromise its core ‘DNA’ of small government and lower taxes…but ought to allow for some deviation where politically necessary. We canâ€™t just hang our hat on one social message”

to this week’s hostile

“Action will begin immediately to address the actions of Rep. Kent Williams…His commitment today was not to Republican Principles, but to the blind and shameless pursuit of personal power. He cast his vote for a Pro-Tax, Pro-Gay, Pro-Abortion, Anti-Gun Liberal Democrat to preside in leadership against all 49 of his Republican colleagues.”

We also shouldn’t be surprised by Rep. Kelsey’s call for Speaker Williams to resign while positioning the people of Carter County as victims. Or Rep. Campfield’s call for him to stay out of his angry and deceived face.

Because as the rest of the country moves on to a less divisive brand of politics and policy-making, you, my good Tennessee Republicans, still have that divide and conquer attitude of 1994. While we’ve gone to a place where governing, public policy, and compromise have become a priority, you’re still with the take no prisoners, win at all costs, my way or the highway mentality.

While some of your rank and file have come to terms with their anger (victim: Rep. Hawk’s sleeping patterns), even today, after you have had a few days to stew and simmer, you remain hostile and bitter. Maybe it will take a few more days until you are ready to capitalize on what is a rare opportunity and take Scott Dismuke’s advice to release the following statement:

While we are dissapointed [sic] with the results of todayâ€™s leadership elections, we are still committed to working to create opportunities for all Tennesseans at this critical time in our state.

We will work with Speaker Williams to make sure that all Tennesseans are proud of their elected officials, but more importantly, tackle the very tough issues facing our state.

At a time when Tennesseans are struggling to pay their electric bills, pay their mortgage, keep their jobs and put food on the table, we firmly believe that it is time to put people before politics.

There will be a time and place for the events of today to be dealt with, but right now, it is time to put politics to the side and start working together to ensure our government effectively works for all Tennesseans.

In other words, get over yourselves, check your egos at the Capitol door, and reconsider kicking Rep. Williams our of the your Republican club. Because if you don’t, you’ll force him further into the Democratic Party camp and the tenuous hold you have on the majority will slowly and painfully (for you) dissipate.

Be careful what you do in the name of revenge and while you’re still stinging from what has to be one of the more stunning political coups in Tennessee history.

Deep breaths, my friends. Deep breaths.

Tagged with: Bill Hobbs • Brian Kelsey • David Hawk • George Bush • Kent Williams • Robin Smith • Tennessee Republican Party • Trickle Down Victimization

Well Played So Far

On January 13, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Robin Smith, Chairperson of the Tennessee Republican Party, issued a statement regarding the election of Republican Kent Williams:

Kent Williams has betrayed his constituents and the people of Carter County in breaking his pledge – his signed oath – to vote for the nominee of the Republican caucus for Speaker of the House. He lied, in a quest for personal power, in league with Democrat Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and House Minority Leader Gary Odom, in their desire to retain power despite the results of the 2008 elections.

Here in the reality-based community, where the paper and digital record of the pledge lives, it’s clear that there was no betrayal and no broken pledge. The House Republicans just got bested. The full language of the pledge reads:

Republicans Committed to Voting for Republican House Officers

NASHVILLE – Together, as members of the House Republican Caucus, we are proud to announce our unified commitment to vote for a Republican for Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

We also commit to vote for a Republican Speaker Pro Tempore. This is yet another historic moment in a series of what has already been and what we are sure will continue to be historic events leading
to the Republican control of the Tennessee House.

We are all honored and humbled by the trust Tennessee voters placed in us both individually, as representatives of our own districts, and collectively as a majority. Tennessee voters asked for change
by electing Republicans to lead, and Tennessee voters are ready for common sense to make a comeback in government. We take the responsibilities that come with being the majority party very seriously
and are ready to meet the challenges ahead.

As a visual sign of our commitment, all 50 House Republicans have signed this document:

Rep. Kent Williams gets kicked out of the Republican Caucus in 3…2…1…or does he?

UPDATE: OK, the reality-based community must acknowledge that when Williams voted for Speaker Pro Tempore DeBerry, he broke his pledge.

Tagged with: Kent Williams • Robin Smith • Tennessee Republican Party

Liberadio(!) Podcast: December 08, 2008 It’s (the Day Before) Freddie’s Birthday Episode

On December 9, 2008, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Summary: Guests include Rev. James Lawson, civil rights icon and Distinguished Vanderbilt Professor; Elbert Ventura, research fellow for Media Matters for America.

Part 1 – Get Your French On – Freddie shows off his french to make a point, this week’s news droppings, and Tennessee Republicans commend Bush’s legacy. Really? [43.2 MB 26:58 download MP3]