LIBERADIO(!)

TN House Ethics Committee streaming live right now (10 am Central). The members are moseying – Chairman Jones, Turner, Mumpower, Odom, Harwell, et. al..

Will What will happen to Speaker Kent Williams? Find out now on As the House Turns! Dun-dun-duhn!

UPDATE: TN House Ethics Committee just recessed at the behest of Rep. Gary “Swingset” Odom to try and decide if the complaint against Williams is in their jurisdiction. (Swingset. He likes recesses. Get it?) Reconvene at 1:00 PM.

UPDATE II: More deets from Kleinheider.

UPDATE III: Those intrepid correspondents on the scene are reporting that Rep. Brian Kelsey, who brought the ethics complaint against Speaker Williams, is none too pleased with the lack of action on the part of the committee. From Woods at Pith:

“This is a complaint about sexual harassment and about lying to cover it up. Clearly this committee came in here with the idea that they are going to cover up this whole issue and not even investigate this. It’s really absurd.” …

“I don’t know where this committee is going right now, but if they came in here not ready to investigate it then that’s the wrong attitude to have when you’ve got serious allegations of sexual harassment and of lying about it to the public.” …

“I came here ready to have a hearing. We’ve got several members who were witnesses to this. To deny them the opportunity to comment on this is a travesty. The reason Representative Lynn is not here is that she had major feelings of stress this morning and she is in the hospital and unable to make it here. This is a serious charge. This is not a joking matter.”

If Rep. Lynn is indeed in the hospital because of the stress, we hope she gets the pharmaceuticals she needs. But since neither her staff nor other House Republicans seem able to confirm Kelsey’s report, he has some explaining to do. Is he so consumed by his obsession with his personal vendetta against Speaker Williams that with all the eyes of Tennessee’s best political reporters on him he’s attempting to create his own own reality to further his case? Disingenuous at best, delusional at worst.

Oh, and remember that mysterious person that attempted to interrupt this morning’s proceedings? The one we couldn’t see if we were watching the live streaming? If you thought it was an unhinged spectator who doesn’t understand Robert’s Rules of Order and wasn’t mature enough to contain his or her emotions, well, you were spot on! From Punk Rock in the Whitehouse:

When that committee convened this morning, Chairman Rep. Ulysses Jones (D-Memphis) asked the legal counsel whether the committee had jurisdiction over the case. Staff attorney Doug Hines said that he did not believe it did and that the matter is the domain of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Tennessee Human Rights Commission.

The statement caused Kelsey to jump out of his seat and say that he had an avenue in which the matter could be heard, to which Jones quickly banged his gavel and said Kelsey was out of order and had not been recognized.

UPDATE IV: During their short 1:00 session, Rep. Beth Harwell (R) made a motion for the ethics committee to NOT go ahead with hearing Kelsey’s complaint. The motion carried unanimously.