Uppity women

So Mark Albertini thinks TN GOP Chair Robin Smith has forgotten her place.

I believe the Bible teaches that a woman’s primary concern should be to stay at home and take care of her husband, her children and her home. I do not see the public arena generally as a place for a Christian woman to be.

Keyword here is GENERALLY. When the woman is the one with {ahem} a pair ...what else can you do but elect her?

So Mr. Albertini...what do you say about Deborah or Esther of old? If they hadn't stepped outside of their 'place' where would Israel be now? And maybe, just maybe, MR. & Mrs. Smith have agreed that her political activity IS the best way for her to take care of their family?

Has Mr. Albertini even read Proverbs 31? Oh, wait, he's got a J.D. & and M.Div. That explains a lot. Generally JD's and MDiv's are law lovers to the ith degree. While they study the jot and tittle and argue about the meaning we uppity women are going to get the job done--with our husband's blessing.

Hat tip: AC Kleinheider

He left the party

For years people have been complaining that there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. Now, when the Tennessee Republican Party is trying to demonstrate that there will be, people are complaining that they've done a foolish thing in kicking
Speaker of the House Rep. Kent Williams (R I -Elizabethton) out of the party. They fear we'll lose our 'majority' or being out gamed. In a world that doesn't like black and white and excuses everything by pleading for fairness, compromise and begs us to consider extenuating circumstances the man with the backbone in the debate who will stand on principle is a woman named Robin Smith, TN GOP Chairman.

The bottom line here is that a political party is a team. The team depends upon people agreeing to certain principles that define the mission of the team. Part of being a team is working with your teammates to accomplish the goal. Trust in your team members to do their jobs and not be 'ball hogs' is essential. Trusting the team captain to call the plays and your fellow team members to execute those plays is what makes a successful team. On what planet should someone who is not a team player expect to stay on the team? It wasn't rogue players like Williams that got Pat Summit 1000 wins.

From my point of view Speaker Williams crossed the line when promised to vote for a Republican Speaker and Speaker Pro Tempore and did not. No one had a gun to his head. No one was threatening his family. He signed that pledge, gave his word, and now we know what his word is worth....nothing. No man who is a proven liar should be running the Tennessee House. Period. Why can't that be agreed upon? Because we expect politicians to lie? We shouldn't.

In her statement announcing that Williams will no longer be considered a Bona Fide Republican Smith lists a good number of things that demonstrate clearly to me, and every other frustrated Republican in this state, that there was more than ample reason to tell Williams he's off the team. What team member treats his teammates this way? He gave the other team significant power over legislation which will hobble the mission of the team. He gave the bigger offices and salaries to the other team. He IS dragging down the good name of the rest of the team. Frankly, I believe Smith's only acknowledging the fact that Williams has already left the team.

Obviously, the man is an island unto himself. Big snort comes when you know what shenanigans he's being playing out and then read this:

"I am a yes man for the people of Carter County and now that I am speaker I am a yes man for the people of Tennessee. They are my boss.” Kingsport TimesNews

And I should believe anything that comes out of the mouth of Speaker Williams? Your bosses, Speaker Williams, voted for a Republican majority. You gave us the back of your hand.

Having demonstrated that he is untrustworthy the Republicans have done exactly the right thing in cutting Williams from the team and moving on with team members that can be trusted and will work for the party goals. So here's your dimes worth of difference between the parties. The Republicans won't give safe haven to dishonorable men.

UPDATE: Here's the video of Robin Smith's 9:00 minute statement via Truman Bean. Two points jumped out at me.

1. Kent Williams hadn't met his party chairman until December 15, 2008 when she introduced herself to him. He's been in office 2 years already. How is it that they hadn't met before then? How involved in your party are you if you haven't even met the Chairman? (Minute 3:01 in the video below.)
   
2. Smith points out the absolute truth that Williams was elected Speaker of the House by the Democrats and himself. He is clearly the Democrat's Speaker, not the Republican's.

Breathing now

I'm breathing a bit easier now that the Tennessee legislature swept the vote for constitutional officers. Though I will grant that I am disappointed by the previous conduct of our new comptroller. I'm trusting that Tre Harget will not allow the sort of Election Commission nonsense that resulted in the special election in Nashville for English as the city's official language. That democrat controlled body dug its heels in and has done all it can to keep the people from voting. Plenty of house cleaning to be done in that portion of the job to be sure.

I was happy to see Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) actually acting as majority leader instead of Rep. Gary Odom (D-Nashville) as was the case on Tuesday.

However, I'm still very suspicious of what's going to go one during this recess. I'm conflicted about tossing the traitor overboard in swift retribution and waiting to see if the fellow can redeem himself by placing Republicans in charge of the important committees at least in line with their majority numbers. This would include Calendar and Rules where so much good legislation that did manage to get through the partisan system went to die. I'm wondering about Rep. Les Winningham's (D-Huntsville) excused absence from voting, presumably to tend to his gravely ill wife. Will he return as Education Committee Chair?

And you've just gotta wonder what's up with HR 0001. Blue Collar Muse has a very ghoulish take on that this morning:

Given the extreme detail with which the rest of the document [creating a Speaker Emertus position for Naifeh] details the qualifications for Speaker Emeritus, the lack of detail concerning the office's powers, functions and duties is startling. Would Naifeh refuse to perform any function or duty assigned to him by the Speaker unless he gets to be Speaker Emeritus? Is it customary for the Speaker to specifically assign functions and duties to a particular member? Given that Kent Williams chose, as his first official act as Speaker of the House, to turn the Speaker's gavel back over to Naifeh is it possible Williams could simply step down as Speaker for an unspecified time and appoint Naifeh as Speaker in his stead?

It's one thing to honor the man for his service (and as I write that I remember that income tax fight) but it's another to make accommodation for handing power back to him. Let's hope the Republicans can hold the line as well as they did today and vote no on HR0001. No offense, sir.

The Honorable Speaker

Speaker of the House Rep. Kent Williams (R -Elizabethton)

Williams said that "I probably did violate my promise," but that it was outweighed by a desire for change that would bring bipartisan fairness to the Legislature while protecting employees.--KnoxNews.

November 11, 2008 he committed vote vote for a Republican Speaker AND Speaker Pro Tempore. Wonder what else will outweigh his word.

Video from Tn GOP.


From Rob Huddleston: "Republicans will never be able to match Democrats when it comes to treachery." Lord, have mercy, I certainly hope they never are. I voted for honesty. What Carter County gave us was a liar.

Blue Collar Muse has a long list of conservative comment on yesterday's ---what do we call it--Democratic politics as usual?

From the City Paper:

"I'm not really all that surprised,” noted Rep. Frank Nicely (R-Knoxville) , “It is interesting. We were depending on honor, which is scarce these days. You can't force someone to be honorable, it comes from the inside out not the outside in."

Good start

The Tennessee Republican Caucus has issued a statement (with the 50 signatures of its members) demonstrating their

"...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."

I'm waiting to also see a version of this letter for the constitutional officers and every committee chair in the House and Senate. Then I'll feel a bit more comfortable about whether they really understand what our votes meant.

Tennessee voters asked for change by electing Republicans to lead, and Tennessee voters are ready for common sense to make a comeback in government.

Common sense says we voted a Republican majority we want Republicans, not RINOS, not Democrats who voted with us now and again and figure they're owed any sort of bone, but Republicans who are real conservatives running the legislature and those constitutional offices.

Do not mess this first step up! We cannot show Tennesseans how superior conservatism is if we act all hands-across-the aisle and lose that hand to get the job done. Let the Democrats squeal and complain. I'll start listening to their complaints about how unfair it is in about 140 years.