The World According to Oatney

McKinley's Gone

2009-07-18T02:37:00.001-04:00

The ETSU Bluegrass Band breaks it down on the White House Blues

God's Rightful Place

2009-07-17T12:27:00.000-04:00

My fellow conservative and Jefferson Countian Frank Cagle expresses concern about what he sees as a proliferation of conservative politicians who beat their proverbial religious drums, but live another way when the cameras aren't rolling. Cagle believes that these elected leaders are merely using Godas a political prop, and he doesn't think religion was as important in our government in years' past:

It’s interesting how Tennessee attitudes toward religion in public life have changed. In the original state constitution, Article IX, Section 1, preachers are forbidden to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly. That’s because “their profession dedicated to God and the care of souls ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions...” It was sound advice then and it’s sound advice now. Not that preachers ought to be banned from public service, but rather the attitude that if your mission is to care for souls and serve God, you don’t need to be doing it in politics.

Frank Cagle is correct that using the Almighty as a political crutch is neither sound theology nor appropriate for the political arena. One does not need to make a flashy show of one's faith for the world to understand that a person has faith. The framers of the Tennessee Constitution clearly did not intend our Capitol to be a church.

At the same time, the constitutional fathers also didn't mean for people in our State government to check their faith at the entrance to the House or Senate Chamber. How necessary is faith in God to holding office in Tennessee? Our State Constitution says that it is a requirement:

No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State.

While the Tennessee Constitution says that ministers may not serve in the Legislature, atheists are not to be welcomed into any department of State government. Clearly, having a conscience that is informed by faith in a Higher Power-known more popularly as God-was very important to those who laid the foundations of government in Tennessee. Obviously, these men did not believe that it was right for someone to compartmentalize their life because they enter politics. We were not intended to live under a regime made up of people who say "I shall worship and serve the Almighty one day a week, and ignore the principles of my faith when I enter the halls of government, lest others be offended." Tennessee's founders wanted people in public life who believe in God and are willing to conduct themselves accordingly.

As Frank Cagle shows us in his column, we have the same problem today that governments throughout modern history have had, the hypocrisy of some of the so-called faithful:

Sin is not the exclusive province of either political party. What most of us find disturbing, however, is not the sin. We understand it. All have sinned and fallen short, the New Testament tells us. What we find particularly disgusting are politicians who get elected and reelected mouthing Biblical platitudes and family values, and attacking the private lives of others while they are busy getting it on with a staffer or a south of the border mistress.

Our Lord was quite clear that none of us should concern ourselves with the splinter in our neighbor's eye without first removing the plank in our own. The Church is not a political party, and its purpose in this world is the salvation of souls, not electoral success at the polls. Neither does GOP stand, as some seem to believe, for "God's Own Party." The difference in the modern age in America, however, is that while some in one party use God in a way that is politically inappropriate, a great many in the party opposite run from God like the plague, ridicule those whose politics are informed by and rooted in their sense of faith, and make a mockery of God's rightful place in the public square. One attitude is both unhealthy and unwise, while the other is ungodly and uncalled for.

God is neither meant to be used for political gain, nor is God to be ignored by those in power. Perhaps the best advice on the place of God in anyone's life, but certainly a public figure, comes from that very public (and very flawed-he had an affair too) figure King David in the First Psalm:

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Democrats in Fantasyland

2009-07-16T09:00:00.001-04:00

Tennessee Democratic Chairman Chip Forrester is already busying himself with making excuses for that party's lack of fundraising fortune:

Forrester also said "Republicans traditionally have deeper pockets" that Democrats can offset by "boots-on-the-ground activist support."

Forrester, however, noted that the most of the Republican candidates started much earlier than most of the Democratic candidates. More fundraising time, he said, has translated into more money and the GOP lead will likely be reduced "as we get downstream."

While I will be the first to say that I am no fan of our election process starting as early as it does, it is no one's fault but the Democrats that they haven't raised any money until recently. Arguments can be made for those people who are members of the Legislature and were under financial restrictions while the General Assembly was in session, but not for people like Kim McMillan or Mike McWherter-one no longer in the Legislature, and one that never was.

It is understandable that Forrester is the Chairman, so he must make a bad situation sound better than it actually is. However, Ned McWherter certainly had no trouble raising money going up against a well-funded former Governor Winfield Dunn. Phil Bredesen raised plenty of money to compete with former Congressman Van Hilleary, who ran a very fine campaign considering that the outgoing Republican was so unpopular. To use the excuse that the Republicans just have deeper pockets, so that accounts for the discrepency in money raised between the two parties is simply a kind way to disguise the reality that no one with the money to give believes the Democrats have a snowball's chance in Hell next year. If enough deep-pocketed Democrats believed this (and yes, there are quite a few in this State), at least one Democrat would already have over a million dollars raised by now.

Forrester's problem is that if when the Democrats lose the election next year, his will be the head on the chopping block after a number of prominent Democrats warned what would happen if Forrester and the Leftist elements he leads took control of the State Democrats. A defeat will be-for better or for worse-the legacy of Chip Forrester's leadership of his party. Forrester's writing is already on the wall.

Odom Already Plays the Sore Loser

2009-07-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

Tennessee Republican Chairman Chris Devaney has apparently enhanced his lower anatomy by writing an open letter to Tennessee House Democratic Leader Gary Odom in response to Odom's grandstanding over the implementation of the Voter Confidence Act. Apparently, in Leader Odom's reckoning, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett has power from on High to make federally-acceptable optical scan machines appear from thin air in order that paper ballots may be counted in a manner that the Federal Election Assistance Commission deems appropriate.

The next time that I happen to see the Secretary of State in the hallway at the Capitol, I will be sure to look for the pillar of cloud if the sun is up, and the pillar of fire should it be eventide. Perhaps I need to ask Moses Hargett if he would extend his rod to rid the Legislature of the whiniest members of the party opposite.

Chairman Devaney hit the nail on the head in his words to the Minority Windbag:

It appears that politics are playing more of a role in your party’s actions than those of concrete public policy. It is doubtful you would be raising such an issue if you had not lost your legislative majority and retained a Democrat as Secretary of State and a Democrat majority on the State and County Election Commissions. Your leadership in overseeing these losses for your fellow party members certainly appears to be intensifying your misleading attacks towards the current Secretary of State and is unproductive in moving our state forward.

Democrats in this State are not used to losing legislative elections, but last year they lost one for the first time in any of our lives. If current political trends continue they appear to be on their way to two election defeats in a row, the blame for which would be laid squarely on Gary Odom and his lack of political acumen.

Odom's strategy for the 2010 election currently seems to be for the Democrats to lose and then blame that loss on the lack of vote-counting machines which have yet to exist according to law. How the mighty have fallen! It wasn't long ago when I really believed that despite my political differences with him, Gary Odom was a man of character. Attempting to blame the vote counter for the strong potential that one may lose is not indicative of good political character. Rather than fussing like a baby who is about to have its lollipop taken away, Odom should be campaigning to turn the fortunes of his beleagured party around. Instead, he already sounds like a sore loser, and the election is still almost a year and a half away.

If Those Old Walls Could Talk: 1859-2009

2009-07-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

Tom Humphrey points out that the Tennessee State Capitol is celebrating its 150th Anniversary this year, and it has seen some interesting times indeed:

One of the legislator-selected historical displays set up in a wing of the Tennessee State Museum this summer features a pair of dueling pistols said to have been made sometime between 1830 and 1860.
And while it's probably been many decades since the guns were put to use, the Capitol is still functioning and beautiful, especially since a facelift a few years back. The House and Senate still meet within its walls.
Rep. Jimmy Eldridge, R-Jackson, displays a letter written by an angry Davy Crockett to a man who owed him $200. Among other things, Crockett threatens to reveal the fellow as a cheater in playing cards.

Sen. Doug Henry, D-Nashville, exhibits a copy of the legislative acts of the 33rd General Assembly in 1861, including the state's secession from the Union. There's also a handbill signed by then-Gov. Isham Harris, who after the Civil War, became speaker of the United States Senate.
Rep. Joe Armstrong, D-Knoxville, features an 1876 engraving of an "African-American political convention" held at the Capitol and a print of people celebrating the ratification of the 15th Amendment prohibiting slavery to the U.S. Constitution.

A couple of corrections to the historical record are necessary. Isham Green Harris did not become, as Humphrey alleges, the "Speaker" of the U.S. Senate. There is no such office-Harris was President pro-Tempore of the federal Senate from 1893-1895. The 15th Amendment did not abolish slavery-that was the 13th Amendment. The 15th Amendment guaranteed that no man may be denied the right to vote on account of race.

With that said, as the Capitol celebrates its sesquicentennial we should be reminded how truly blessed we are to have a living testimony of sorts to the history of our great State in our midst, and so accessible to every citizen.

She was completed and put into use as the sectional conflict was beginning to boil over. Two years into the use of this beautiful new building would tear the Union apart. The Capitol walls bore witness to Tennessee's 1861 Ordinance of Secession, and the subsequent federal occupation of Nashville. The Union would transform part of the building into a field hospital for its wounded soldiers. Isham G, Harris, Andrew Johnson, and Parson Brownlow all walked the halls of the Capitol at some point-three men whose politics were as different and diverse as the State they represented.

The Capitol bore witness within its walls to the ratification of female sufferage, it will forever be known as the place where votes for women became the law of the land. Frank Gorrell and Jared Maddux bore witness to the political intreagues and power of the Tennessee Senate and the office of Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Senate which it controls. Jimmy Quillen began his long career in Tennessee public service not in the halls of Congress, but in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Bill Jenkins became the first Republican Speaker since Reconstruction in a House that was divided 49-49-1-partly because of the vote of a friendly Democrat. The longest serving leader of a legislative body in the world during his time was to be found serving inside the Tennessee Capitol, the bulding where he cobbled together several coalitions to hang on to power, finally trying to stay just long enough to fall. Historic political intreague can happen in the Capitol every day-could you imagine what the walls would say if they could actually talk?

Not Ned Ray, Democrats, and East Tennessee

2009-07-13T11:46:00.005-04:00

Not Ned Ray McWherter declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Tennessee at Rocky Mount, along with three other Democrats. Of the Democrats present, it is widely believed that Not Ned may have the best chance of winning the nomination merely because of name recognition.

While Democrats have shown in the past that they can carry chunks of East Tennessee in a Statewide race, or in the case of Al Gore and Phil Bredesen, carry every county in the State, including the heavily-Republican East, Democrats only tend to do extremely well in East Tennessee when they run candidates who are right-of-center moderates or outright conservatives. After all, the Al "I've Hoed-It-and-Hung-It-In-the-Barn" Gore who ran for election to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and again in 1990 was a far cry from the Gore we know today. That Gore ran as a populist, Southern, right-of-center, pro-life moderate before becoming a serious national Democratic figure (if Gore were really the "raging Southern moderate" that he portrayed himself as being, he sold his soul to achieve national stature-and we wonder why he couldn't carry Tennessee in 2000). Phil Bredesen won and was re-elected by running as a right-of-center Democrat, even attempting in certain instances to run to the Republicans' right.

This is why it is so funny to watch some of these Democrats come to East Tennessee and have a dog-and-pony show. A few of them might be sincere about some of the things they say, but if they are they also know that they could never achieve national prominence as Democrats, since they sound too much like Republicans. Most all of the serious Democrats in the area were probably in Piney Flats the other day eating barbecue. Meanwhile, they haven't run a real candidate for Congress since Robert Love Taylor, who would probably be a Republican if he were alive today.

Their political offerings work hard, and get crushed like a wet noodle at General Election time. The Democrats they do manage to elect to the Legislature (Eddie Yokley, John Litz) from this part of the State vote with the Republicans on all the major issues somewhere between 80% (Litz) and 90% (Yokley) of the time. Most of the bills which the Statewide Democratic party is presently decrying passed with a large number of Democrats-most from rural, red-meat parts of the State-voting in the affirmative.

Few people in these parts even know who Kim McMillan is, despite her years of leadership in the House. Ward Cammack is someone who only political hacks are aware of, and a few more know something about State Sen. Roy Herron-but not enough. That leaves only Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle and Not Ned Ray. Of those two, only Not Ned has the Statewide name recognition to concievably survive the General Election of 2010.

Ned McWherter is not a man whose political ideas lend themselves to agreement from the likes of me, but I do believe that Ned McWherter carried himself with a level of class and dignity that the Democratic field of today-indeed the entire Tennessee Democratic Party-is sorely lacking. He set an example for Democrats around the country that they failed to follow over the long-term. While Mike McWherter may be a fine person, it is hard to see Daddy's common touch in his son, because unlike his father, Mike didn't grow up in the hardships that his father did, and I doubt that he has the understanding of life for everyday Tennesseans that his father seemed to have. On top of all that, the political acumen that Ned McWherter displayed throughout his career doesn't seem to be there for Mike. Mike was never a State Representative, nor has he had much experience in State government. Mike was never elected Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, and Mike's role in State government prior to running for Governor was not so influential that the Tennessee House of Representatives still uses rules and procedures he established as Speaker-those things were all Ned McWherter's legacy, not Mike's.

The Democrats' most well-known candidate is a Legacy with an uphill climb, and they are talking about a 2010 House majority.

A lot can happen between now and next November, but I somehow doubt the Democratic brand is going to get much more popular in the current climate, especially in East Tennessee. The Democrats can keep on dreaming, though.

Immortal Invisible God Only Wise

2009-07-12T01:55:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite hymns...

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great Name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice, like mountains, high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all, life Thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish—but naught changeth Thee.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
But of all Thy rich graces this grace, Lord, impart
Take the veil from our faces, the vile from our heart.

All laud we would render; O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee,
And so let Thy glory, Almighty, impart,
Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart.

Ballad of Thunder Road

2009-07-11T02:46:00.003-04:00

This might have been a theme song to a movie, but the movie wasn't widespread in East Tennessee at the time.

This is an example of East Tennessee's heritage portrayed in song

The Stupid Party

2009-07-10T12:51:00.003-04:00

The twelve Tennessee State Representatives who voted against the final version of the State budget were accused of not wanting to find needed programs. Former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh even made that accusation from the floor, insinuating that the Mighty 12 were meanies who didn't want to fund anything, but did want the political benefits of signing on to the enabling legislation of programs designed to help schoolchildren or returning wounded war veterans.

There isn't a Representative in the Legislature in either party who wouldn't be proud to help wounded veterans, or give Tennessee kids the best education we can, or fund any of the other necessary programs and projects that make this State a great place to live. However, initiatives should be funded in a way that is responsible and honest about the spending capabilities of the State in the current crisis.

The Republican budget proposal, as well as those who proposed it, were called "stupid" by the Governor because that proposal assumed that revenues would be far less than what the Governor's staff was projecting:

State revenue in June was $134.8 million less than budgeted. State officials said $1.088 billion was collected. The drop marked the 11th consecutive one in the current fiscal year.

Year-to-date collections for 11 months were $1.146 billion less than the budgeted estimate. Finance and Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz said the state is positioned to adjust to the economic downturn.

I would humbly suggest that if the Governor is really attempting to ascertain who the stupid party might be, he should begin by looking in the mirror.

Former Election Administrators All Whined Up

2009-07-09T13:26:00.004-04:00

Several now-former Tennessee counter Election Administrators are whining because, they say, that "politics" cost them their jobs and they have filed suit:

That shift of power after decades of Democratic control has led to more than 30 changes in local administrators at the hands of majority Republican commissions since April.

"It's wrong," said Lisa Peterson, who lost her job in April after 11 years as DeKalb County election administrator. "To use someone's voting history over how they perform their duties to determine whether they have a job is wrong."

"While we cannot get into the details of pending legal action, this litigation makes one thing clear — when Democrats lose an election they file a lawsuit," Devaney's statement said.

By nature, the position of an election administrator is one of contradictions. They are appointed by local election commissions, which are controlled by whichever party is in power at the state legislature. But administrators, once on the job, are supposed to carry out elections in a fair and functional manner. They are not, however, protected by civil service rules designed to shield most government employees from politics.

Whether Ms. Peterson and the other Election Administrators in this suit realize it, they are political appointees, and were from the day that they took office. That is not some thin air creation by the Republicans as part of a mean and nasty power grab, this transition is a function of Tennessee law-law created by an overwhelmingly Democratic General Assembly. Control of Election Commissions and the Administrators of Elections is such a political hot potato that in the 1970's, the then-Democratic-dominated General Assembly changed the rules. The law had stipulated that the Governor's political party could control the State Election Commission, but the General Assembly changed that when Winfield Dunn was elected Governor, the first Republican in decades.

Since Tennessee Democrats are traditionally obsessed with maintaining control in an almost authoritarian fashion (elections be damned), Republicans being allowed to clean house at the Tennessee Election Commission could not be allowed to happen, so the General Assembly changed the law, and made control of the State Election Commission dependent on control of the General Assembly-something Democrats of that day never believed that they would see change. Now Republicans have control of the Tennessee General Assembly, and we get to do what the Democrats have done for nearly a century and a half-put our people in the run of things.

The argument could be made that the election administrator in each county should not be a political appointee, and should be appointed on a non-partisan basis. I'm certainly not immune to the argument that those who are doing a good job should be kept on, because I have made the argument that former Jefferson County Administator of Elections Tycia Kesterson (D) should have been retained by Jefferson County's new Republican majority Election Commission. However, I did not dispute the Election Commission's right to replace Kesterson. She was a political appointee in a patronage job, and when a new government takes power at the State level (and in Tennessee, the government really is a function of the Legislature), political appointees should have the reasonable expectation that they might be replaced. It was the Democrats who created this system, the Republicans are merely exercising the rights and duties given to them by previous General Assemblies.

For the system to change, there must be a very broad bipartisan consensus, not merely the collaboration of a few. The Democrats may try to initiate some effort to change the system not in the name of fairness, but simply to prevent Republicans from exercising the full scope of this new authority.

When you are in a patronage job you might get replaced, that is the nature of the beast. If you don't like that possibility, or you believe as Ms. Peterson does that your political persuasion should play no role in your employment, then you need to find a non-political civil service job, or enter another line of work.

Be 'Still My Beating Heart

2009-07-08T12:35:00.003-04:00

One of the many laws which took effect on July 1st in Tennessee was a law that allows counties which have liquor by the drink to have legal distilleries operating in their community. Many of us who are opposed to dry laws have rejoiced in this development:

Several entrepreneurs are interested in opening legal distilleries in East Tennessee counties, according to Nashville developer Jim Massey, who plans to open a distillery in Nashville and possibly start a side business helping other distillers with the startup process.

Under the new law, about 44 counties are now eligible for distilleries. Manufacturers will be allowed in any county where both retail package sales of liquor and liquor-by-the-drink sales have been locally approved.

Since liquor, like cigarettes, is considered a sin tax, there will be tax revenue from the new spirit producers, he noted.

Whether proponents of dry laws want to admit it or not, the new distillery law is the beginning of the end for widescale county and community dry laws in Tennessee. The process may take awhile to play out, but those counties who simply refuse to go wet will lose out on millions in annual tax revenue from the ability to tax the sale of spirits. Many consumers, after all, will come to prefer a spirit made locally and will likely display a preference for whiskies and other spirits made close to home. Not every county eligible will have a distillery, but nearly all counties could reap the economic benefits of having legal stills nearby, but far moreso if those counties go wet.

The opposition to making more Tennessee counties wet comes from the predictable quarters, most notably the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Oddly enough, we don't hear a huge demand from their sister body in Kentucky to shut down the Commonwealth's myriad of whiskey distilleries. One has to wonder if that might have something to do with the thousands of jobs that would be lost not only at the stills, but at package stores, candymakers, farms, factories, warehouses, and certainly the State of Kentucky itself. Entire towns in certain parts of Kentucky would become ghost towns without the stills, Bardstown being the chief example. Even the Cistercian monks at the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani outside of Bardstown would likely need to close their doors, since the distilleries provide the whiskey they need to make the famous fruitcakes and bourbon fudge that provides the monastery with more than 2/3rds of its independent income.

(As a side note, if the Bishop of Knoxville has given this issue more than five minutes of thought, he may be chomping at the bit over this new law. One of Bishop Stika's goals is to bring contemplative religious communities into the Diocese of Knoxville. For such communities to survive, they need to be self-sustaining and have a source of income free of other Church support. This law would conceivably allow a religious community either to open their own distillery or to produce a product that uses locally made spirits and sell it, and they could do so tax free. This law provides, perhaps unwittingly, the Church with the means to open multiple monasteries and friaries in Tennessee should She wish.)

Kentucky is clearly the model for this law. While a number of Kentucky counties are dry, that number is far fewer by percentage than Tennessee, and Kentucky law allows for the sale of wine (and watered-down spirits) in grocery stores in wet counties. Those in the liquor lobby have to know that the day is coming when Tennessee will have wine in grocery stores as part of the natural legal evolution of the State going wet which this distillery law has begun.

Meanwhile, Cocke County Mayor Ileff McMahan Jr. doesn't understand why Cocke County was exempted, and he doesn't like it:

"At the last minute, Cocke County has been taken out. Nobody asked me," Cocke County Mayor Iliff McMahan Jr. said.

McMahan is in favor of legalized distilleries and would like to see them in Cocke County. He didn't know his county has been exempted from the law and thought as county mayor no one had the authority to opt out Cocke County without his approval.

"For better or for worse Cocke County has the reputation of being the moonshine capital of the world. At some time, someone might want to capitalize on that," McMahan said.

As someone who lives about five minutes from the Cocke County line, that county's moonshining reputation is well-earned. Most of us who live around here know how to get white lightning if we want it. I'd venture to say that it is possible that Rep. Eddie Yokley was "convinced" by someone other than McMahan to exempt Cocke County. You can probably guess the reason why, and it wasn't the Baptists.

At a time when Tennessee is struggling to meet its budget, this new law could bring millions in tax revenue in the coming years, and has the potential to put a lot of Tennesseans to work. It will also give Kentucky a run for its money as the whikey capital of the world, because we all know that Tennessee whiskey tastes better anyway.

It Takes One to Know One

2009-07-07T11:41:00.004-04:00

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale has refused to sign a resolution censuring Knox County Law Director Bill Lockett:

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale has refused to sign a resolution passed by Knox County Commission censuring county Law Director Bill Lockett, asking for his resignation and asking that all investigations into Lockett's misappropriation of funds be expedited.

It was prompted by Lockett's admission on May 26 that he pocketed clients' payments intended for his former law firm of Kennerly, Montgomery & Finley before taking office last August.

Chief Deputy Law Director Joe Jarret wrote to commissioners Monday, informing them that "Mayor Ragsdale has declined to affix his signature" to the resolution.
Jarret also wrote a memo to County Clerk Foster Arnett Jr. noting that Ragsdale refused to sign the resolution and that if the mayor fails to sign a resolution, it becomes law within 10 days after being submitted to the mayor. Resolutions are routinely filed in the county clerk's office.

"It's his prerogative," County Commissioner Mike Hammond said. "He has taken a position that he was not going to be critical of Mr. Lockett. He should let us know why he isn't signing it. I would like to know why he isn't signing it."

Mr. Lockett certainly deserves a fair hearing, but Mike Ragsdale's refusal to sign the Knox County Commission's resolution raises all kinds of questions, largely because it has long been established that Mike Ragsdale is himself a crook. It may be a bit of guilt by association, but would it not be reasonable to say that birds of a feather flock together, and that it certainly appears that Ragsdale is condoning wrongdoing?

As it is, Mike Ragsdale has little room defending Lockett in any fashion in light of the allegations against him, considering that Ragsdale's own problems will mean that when he leaves office as Knox County Mayor next year, his political career is over.

Why Sarah Wanted Out

2009-07-06T07:00:00.002-04:00

Speculation abounds as to the cause-and-effect of the resignation of Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin:

The presidential fund-raising process "starts earlier and earlier with each election cycle," said Marc Hetherington, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University

"You're not going to find big donors in Alaska," Hetherington said. "She has to convince the people in Washington, D.C., the heavy-hitting fundraisers, that she's ready to do the job."

But like many others, he was unsure Friday whether Palin's decision was made to prepare for higher office, or to remove herself and her family from the intense national spotlight.

"It's hard to know at this point," Hetherington said.

While it would be nice to believe that Sarah Palin is leaving the Alaska Governorship to run for the Presidency, it would make far more sense for her to finish her term and then announce, as there would be little to keep her from raising money while in office-especially in a climate where her absence from the State would be expected if the people of Alaska had the implicit knowledge that she is going to run for President. It does seem that when she resigns officially at the end of the month, it will signal Governor Palin's exit from active politics.

While I strongly believe that Sarah Palin should not have resigned, I also agree with her that the normal rules of civility which the press applies to political candidates have not been applied to her or her family. Traditionally, these unwritten rules have stipulated that the children of political figures are off-limits, and general references to a person's family are to be kept in good humor and decent taste. Sarah Palin is everything that her critics hate-she is a beautiful, intelligent, successful woman who happens to be very conservative. Open fire.

As often as I criticise the President in this space, and have even been critical of his wife as she sometimes merits it, I would never dream of bringing his daughters into the equation. Not only do those young ladies have the right to grow up in peace, but when they do they deserve to be able to make their own choices and commit whatever mistakes they are going to make without our scrutiny. They are not politicians unless they choose to be.

These standards of decency didn't apply to the Palin family. Bristol Palin's former boyfriend was paraded around on the morning talkshows in what was clearly on attempt to get revenge on his ex-girlfriend, but which the press ate up like free twinkies. Had Sarah Palin been a liberal Democrat, Bristol Palin's breakup would have been a non-story. Michelle Obama would not have had jokes told on late-night television about looking like a "slutty flight attendant," or about her teenage daughter being raped by an All-Star baseball player.

After the first 50 or so ethics complaints were dismissed, most people would have packed it in. Sarah Palin was costing the State of Alaska good money so that she might be defended against falsehoods. It is reasonable to assume that she had quite enough of what the press was putting her and her family through, and that she was not prepared for it. Should she have been? No man and no liberal would have been given the character assassination that Sarah Palin has had to endure.

No, Palin should not have resigned-but she may believe that her family deserves better than what they are enduring through no fault of their own.

God of Our Fathers

2009-07-05T01:41:00.004-04:00

On this Independence Day Weekend, the organ score to the great hymn God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand-sometimes called the National Hymn.

Those regular readers here who are people of faith and prayer, I would like to ask your prayers during a time in which Nicole and I are experiencing sudden and unexpected hardships, the outcome and end of which I am quite uncertain. We can use all of the prayers you can muster at this time.

Radical Right Wing Extremist Manifesto

2009-07-04T02:04:00.001-04:00

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

That Gibbons Fellow

2009-07-03T11:58:00.005-04:00

As someone who has run for office, been defeated, and would like to seek office again at some point, I have great respect for Shelby County Attorney General Bill Gibbons' desire to run for Governor of Tennessee. At some point in everyone's political race, however, they have to face certain realities-they have to get real:

Memphis prosecutor Bill Gibbons reported Thursday raising about $415,000 for the 2010 governor's race, placing him well behind his three GOP rivals.
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Gibbons, the Shelby County District Attorney General, will face an uphill battle against well-financed opponents. Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam's campaign announced Wednesday that he had raised about $3.8 million this year.

State Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey of Blountville announced the same day he had raised $1.3 million, and Congressman Zach Wamp of Chattanooga said he had raised about $1.2 million.

To be fair, everyone else in the field faces an uphill climb against all of that Haslam oil money and the big contributions coming in from people who (if the truth were known) probably believe that they had better contribute to Bill Haslam so that they are on his good side if he is elected. However, both Zach Wamp and Ron Ramsey-who had the disadvantage of being unable to raise money during the legislative session-are showing that if their support isn't wider than Bill Gibbons, it is certainly deeper. Ramsey's fundraising feat of raising $1.3 million in a month is nothing short of miraculous.

The reality that Gibbons has not been under the same restrictions as Ramsey, but could only muster $415,000 is a sign that his campaign is anemic. In Gibbons' case, this isn't just about money. A lot of people on the other side of the State do not know who Gibbons is, and sadly when some of them find out, they often do not care. "I'm the Shelby County District Attorney" isn't often a great selling point in Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City, Maryville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Crossville, Murphreesboro, Franklin, or points in between. His message has been obscured by the question "Bill who" in many places. At least with Jim Kyle, people might get that he is a State Senator from Memphis, and that he currently serves as the Tennessee Senate's Democratic Leader.

Gibbons also must deal with the hard truth that the Republican Primary can be won without Shelby County, and that Republicans can carry the State without it in a General Election. If the Democrats were to lose Shelby County, however, it would likely be the political signal of a Republican landslide at the State level. As a Republican, I'd love to carry Shelby County and do it more consistently, but I also know it isn't necessary and that we can get the numbers we need to win somewhere else. That is the hard reality.

I hope that perhaps Gibbons will give running for Governor another try, perhaps after spending a few years in the General Assembly.

Legals Don't Need To Live In Fear

2009-07-02T15:56:00.002-04:00

The Tennessean wants us to feel terribly sorry that illegal immigrants in Davidson County who break the law run the risk of being deported:

When the Martinez family drives the half-hour from home into Nashville, wife Deanna is behind the wheel every time.

It's not because of some standing debate between husband and wife about who is the better driver. It's because Deanna Martinez's husband is one of the estimated 130,000 to 170,000 illegal immigrants living in Tennessee.

He can't renew his driver's license since Tennessee tightened the documentation requirements a few years ago. And Davidson County is the only place in the state where the sheriff's office participates in a federal program in which a traffic stop can lead to deportation.

"Imagine sitting at the breakfast table one day and your husband saying, 'I'm going to be deported because I forgot to use my blinker when I changed lanes the other day.' That's just not a risk we like to take," Martinez said.

As much as one can empathize with the Martinez's situation, somebody apparently forgot to remind The Tennessean that Mr. Martinez already broke the law by entering this country illegally. When I was growing up, we were told that those who did no wrong-those who did not break the law-have nothing to fear from a relatively minor police stop.

Despite what the paper says, the reality that illegals in places where the local authorities have the ability to enforce immigration law are afraid to gather in one place, or are afraid even of being pulled over on a minor traffic violation, is proof that these restrictions, laws, and programs are working quite well indeed. These rules and laws are meant to restrict the movements of illegal aliens in the hopes that they will choose to return home and come back legally rather than live in the fear of being departed and then having to really start over.

Those who come here legally should be welcomed-and would not have this problem.

Did Curt Cobb Blaze the Path to 51?

2009-07-01T13:43:00.005-04:00

Rep. Curt Cobb (D-Shelbyville) has resigned his seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives to take the position of Bedford County Clerk and Master:

State Rep. Curt Cobb has been named Bedford County Clerk and Master by 17th Judicial District Chancellor J.B. Cox and has resigned from his House seat.

Cobb said that a general election will be held to fill the seat. In cases where there is less than 12 months remaining in a term, the county commission from the previous member's home county makes an appointment, but if more than 12 months remains, a special election is held.
The election is likely to draw significant attention because of the close division in the House. Republicans in November gained a 50-49 advantage in the lower chamber.

Cobb had to know an appointment like this was in the offing, and considering his family history (his father was once the Chancellor for the district) it is likely that he knew about this for some time before the appointment was made. Cobb had to give his assent for the whole arrangement, and he also had to know what the political consequences could be.

Out of 23,340 votes cast for Cobb's seat in last November's election, Cobb was re-elected with a majority of 2,356. It was a surprisingly close victory over Republican Barbara Blanton, who is already rumored to be considering a run in the special election. The Democrats are hoping the candidacy of Cobb's brother Ty will keep the seat in the family and keep the Democratic Caucus from having its cornflakes urinated upon.

Because of family name alone, Ty Cobb has to be considered the favorite to win. One advantage the Republicans may have is that this will be a special election in an off-year-called in some parts of the world a "bi-election." That means that turnout will almost certainly be lower, so the Cobb majority will be more easily cut into when the election occurs. This is a real opportunity for a Republican gain which could make the majority more bona fide.

Rockin' Robin

2009-06-30T12:20:00.002-04:00

Former Tennessee Republican Chairman Robin Smith is preparing an announcement tour tomorrow and Thursday throughout the 3rd Congressional District:

Former state Republican Chairman Robin Smith has scheduled a two-day tour through the 11 counties of the 3rd Congressional District to kick off her campaign for the seat now held by Rep. Zach Wamp, who is running for Governor.

In a list of campaign stops distributed to media, Mark Winslow, who served as chief of state for the state Republican party, is designated as contact person for Smith. In an interview, Winslow said he left his party post last month and is "helping Robin out as she goes through the decision-making process."

How effective could Robin Smith be as a Congressional candidate? Smith was by far one of the best (if not the best) State Republican Chairman in the country during her tenure, and was by far the most politically effective Chairman that the Tennessee Republican Party has ever had. If Robin shows even half the zeal for a Congressional campaign as she showed for getting Republicans elected to the Tennessee General Assembly, she will win the seat in the 3rd District. If she should allow the race to consume her in the manner that she let the General Assembly control her political movements as party Chairman, she will be elected in a landslide.

It speaks much of her abilities that as soon as she departs as GOP Chair, the internal communications structure she built with Bill Hobbs devoted to Statewide victory fell to pieces under inferior leadership.

A Congresswoman Smith will likely have a voting record that makes her predecessor look like a rabid liberal (compared to Robin, Zach Wamp really does look liberal), and her election could signal the beginning of the end of the lock that the Howard Baker wing of the party has had on East Tennessee Congressional politics.

Sadly, I live in the First District so I won't be able to vote for Robin (and ironically enough, I think all of Jefferson County should be drawn back into the First District as it once was, since we don't have as much in common with Chattanooga), but I am more than willing to help her win.

No Sunshine in Dandridge

2009-06-29T14:48:00.002-04:00

On Friday I discussed some of the ups and downs of the proposed Norfolk Southern Inter-modal facility which the railroad wants to build in Jefferson County. Some of the controversy surrounding the proposal has to do with the fact that Norfolk Southern wants to build on undeveloped farmland when there is already developed "brownfields" which are going unused just over the county line in Knox County.

Of far greater concern, however, is the secrecy with which this project is being carried out. A number of people inside the county government of Jefferson County or somehow connected to it have signed confidentiality agreements not to let the things they've learned be known to the wider public yet. If this is a project that is going to be so good for Jefferson County business and employment development, why do our leaders need to keep the details so quiet, and why isn't the railroad willing to talk in detail?

I had occassion to speak with one member of the Jefferson County Industrial Development Board over the weekend, who said that they were none too thrilled because they had essentially been kept in the dark about the project. Further, one has to wonder just how much the railroaders have actually told Jefferson County Mayor Alan Palmieri. I strongly suspect that Palmieri has not been told everything that he would need to know, and if he has, by not making it public he is misleading the people of Jefferson County. It would be wise for Palmieri to actually listen to the voters, but also to let the voters know what he knows about the inter-modal project.

Palmieri will almost certainly face a serious primary challenge in May of 2010, and his failure to be forthright about the inter-modal will be a major issue in that campaign. If Alan Palmieri and the other officials who have kept their conversations with Norfolk Southern confidential do not spill the proverbial beans, it is highly possible that they could be found in violation of the Tennessee Open Records Act, the Open Meetings Act, or both. Palmieri is beginning to behave in a way which makes the neighboring government in Knox County look like a paragon of openness and accountability.

All Creatures of Our God and King

2009-06-28T03:57:00.002-04:00

This has always been one of my favorite hymns. It is especially stirring as an opening processional for Mass.

Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer

2009-06-27T02:36:00.002-04:00

When Democrats vote for Crap and Slave, I reach for a cold one in the very un-liberal Red State kind of way.

Incensed Over the Inter-Modal

2009-06-26T11:39:00.002-04:00

Frank Cagle writes a great piece in the MetroPulse about the controversy regarding a proposed Norfolk Southern inter-modal rail facility in New Market. Jefferson County residents want to see the facility in the area because of the jobs that it will create, but many don't want green farmland ruined when there is plenty of unused industrial property in East Knox County that the railroad could utilize:

Knox County has spent millions of dollars on Eastbridge Industrial Park. It sits on Mine Road in Mascot with hundreds of acres of expensive graded land still empty. It is considered too far from the interstate to be successful. It sits in an area with 2,600 acres of idle land already zoned industrial, with water, sewer and a railroad line.

Norfolk Southern wants to build an inter-modal facility, where cranes will take up to 300,000 tractor trailers a year and put them on railroad cars for shipment across country. They propose to put the facility in New Market, on 1,300 acres of farm land because it’s cheaper than locating it on an existing industrial site, as in Morristown or near Eastbridge in Mascot.

But there is one cost factor that has not been considered. Though the land is cheaper in New Market, it is 12 miles from the Asheville Highway exit of I-40 and it’s even further going the other direction through Jefferson City out Highway 92 to I-40. That’s 300,000 trucks a year going through Jefferson City or going down Asheville Highway to East Knoxville.

It would be a profitable venture for the State to build an industrial road which is just long enough to make the trip from the industrial site to I-40, as Frank points out, because of the tax revenue involved. However, Norfolk Southern would prefer to develop green fields in Jefferson County instead of using lands already prepared for this kind of industrial use.

Norfolk Southern is once again showing that the railroad has no real understanding of the people who live in these parts:

The railroad will only listen to dollars and cents. They have to be convinced Mascot is a better deal. I know my neighbors. They will fight Norfolk Southern in court for years and to the last man, woman, and child. They will fight for their tomato fields, their chicken farms, and their dairies. They don’t understand the logic of losing 50 agriculture jobs and millions in agriculture revenue to provide jobs for 12 Norfolk Southern crane operators.
At the meeting Saturday not one person made any statement opposing an inter-modal facility. Everyone wants it in the region, everyone sees it as an environmental plus and an economic boost to jobs in Morristown and Knoxville where their children might get a job. But they cannot understand raping the environment in New Market for an environmental stimulus project to get trucks off the road.

Norfolk Southern executives have the problem of believing that they are entitled to whatever they bloody well want. Further, they really have no concept of why some people might be inclined to oppose their plans, and they assume that everyone who opposes them is opposed to any kind of industrial development when that isn't always the case. In response to Frank Cagle's article, Bob Wolfenbarger writes:

Your analysis of the situation sounds like an ad by TDOT for the Tennessee Road
Builders Association. WHY NOT JUST BUILD THE INTER MODAL TRANFER STATION AT ONE OF THE CURRENTLY EXISTING INTERSECTIONS OF THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM AND THE RAIL LINE?

Bobby has to remember that his idea makes sense, and this is something Norfolk Southern as a company is markedly short on. It was Norfolk Southern, after all, that tried to tell Nicole and I that they had 100 feet of right of way on our property and our neighbors to do whatever they wish with (the railroad runs through my back yard, and a hundred feet would take my outbuildings and put them in my living room). My deed and the deeds of my neighbors begs to differ, as all of those documents say that the railroad has 15 feet of easement, not 100. A company with so little going for common sense can't be counted on to do the obviously right thing.

I have mixed feelings about the inter-modal being in Jefferson County. I agree with Frank Cagle about the prospect of good farmland being ruined in this agrarian county in which we both live, and both he and Frank Niceley are correct that if an alternative can be found without destroying greenfields, that needs to be done. The one fear that I have is that this may embolden those forces within the county-and there are plenty of them near White Pine-opposed to any industrial development. At a time when Jefferson County needs to expand its tax base to avoid being placed in a situation where it must raise property taxes perpetually to avoid default (which in turn hurts farmers), the only way to do so is through industrial and business development.

We need to develop our available resources, and find a way to do it without completely destroying Jefferson County's unique agrarian character.

Why Sanford Should Go

2009-06-25T12:41:00.004-04:00

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina should not resign his office because he had an affair with a woman in Argentina. Governor Sanford should not leave because he admitted the affair and is apparently trying to reconcile with his wife:

Later in the day, Jenny Sanford said in a statement she asked her husband to leave their Sullivan’s Island home two weeks ago.

“This trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage,” she said

How Mark Sanford and his wife choose to deal with his infidelity is their business, but how that infidelity may impact Sanford's ability to do his job is the business of the sovereign people of South Carolina. The damage that Mark Sanford has done to the Republican party nationally by his actions (as he has been seen as a rising star in the national GOP) is a concern for every one of us going into next year's election.

Sanford's actions were beyond selfish. The Governor didn't only endanger his marriage and his relationship with his sons, and he didn't merely ruin any chances he might have had at the Presidency in 2012. Mark Sanford left his staff, the General Assembly, and the people of South Carolina wondering where he was and who was in charge for four days. Because South Carolina law does not allow for the transfer of power unless the Governor authorizes it (or unless he or she dies), had their been some catastrophe that required leadership from executive authority immediately, Mark Sanford would have left South Carolina without a leader.

Governor Sanford has also sullied his party and the conservative movement by enhancing the reputation that while the movement speaks of strong family values, our conservative men can't keep their pants on. As readers may recall, I have been openly critical of Republican leaders who I actually know because of their propensity to fool around while putting their political careers at risk.

When you are involved or connected to politics in any way, shape, form, or fashion, and you are male, the devil comes to you in the form of someone looking very attractive, being very sweet, and wearing great perfume. For some reason that I will never understand (neither will anyone else who has tried), there are women in this world who live to be the "other woman" in the life of a man in a place of political authority. As many times as it has happened throughout history that a woman has been the undoing of great political figures, one would think that political men would know by now that when the pretty girls come calling, just stay away if you intend to remain in public life for very long.

Back when Bill Clinton was impeached for lying under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, it was common to hear the Democrats say "it was just sex!" The sex was something to be dealt with between Bill and Hillary, but the lying under oath-the perjury-was the problem that made it our business. Similarly, Mark Sanford's Buenos Airies friend became our business when he abandoned his duties for four days and harmed his party and perhaps his country, and maybe even some Iranian protestors who were counting on the news coverage to stay with them in order to keep their movement alive.

It is for those reasons, and not merely because he had an affair, that Mark Sanford should resign.

"For the Children"

2009-06-24T11:52:00.003-04:00

The impulse to spend money which we do not have has finally trickled down, it would seem, to the Mayor and Aldermen of the Town of White Pine. It was announced this week that the city is prepared to borrow $85,000 from the account of the White Pine Water and Sewer Department for the purpose of finishing a splash pad to be used by children playing at Lions Park. The splash pad is meant partly as a replacement for the former municipal pool, which long ago needed replacing but was a drag on revenue and expenditures even before the Depression hit.

White Pine's Water Department is by far the most efficient and cost-effective local utility in the area. Residents of the town and of the surrounding county district which may tap into the city's water system enjoy some of the lowest per capita water rates in East Tennessee. I can't recall ever having a monthly water and sewer bill over $40, even when my usage has been very high. As a result of the low cost, people generally can afford their water bills and are able to pay them, which in turn means that the Water Department is also able to meet its expenses. The result of this munumental efficincy is for the Aldermen of this town to borrow money from the Water Department to complete a project that is utterly unnecessary.

I can hear them now, the cries of "but its for the children!" Much of the waste and mismanagement in our State government is done in the name of "the children," even though few if any of the bureaucrats in Nashville can show how this money is impacting the lives of "the children," and real children here in Jefferson County are getting a less-than-suitable education-and not because their teachers and staff aren't trying, but because the State will pony up for a pre-K program of questionable effectiveness but not for books, technology, and teacher pay that we know will enhance the quality of education for kids old enough for the spending to have a discernable impact on their direction in life.

We are in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the 1930's, and our municipal government is preparing to rob Peter to pay for a splashpad?

Let me be clear in saying that I actually think the splashpad is a wonderful idea, and I don't even have a problem with dedicating municipal funds for that purpose (as a parks and recreations improvement), but before doing so, we have to be careful that we have the funds available and that the town does not have more pressing needs. As it is, the budget passed this year just barely allowed the city to meet its expenses without a tax increase. Further, the kids here do have a playground behind the pavilion at the park itself. In this present crisis, our municipal governments need to stick to the basics by necessity to save the resources we do have for what we hope are better times ahead-for the children.