It’s interesting to note state legislatures lack the strictest party discipline in choosing legislative leaders. Numerous examples abound. SC rats in 95 electing a GOP Speaker, PA rats with a 1-vote edge making a RINO speaker. The coalition in the Alaska Senate. RINOs proping up John Wilder in your state.
I don't think that was too exceptional. The GOP had effectively gotten control of the House in the '94 elections (tied, IIRC but I think party switches followed). PA in '07 was a bit odd, because the Dem nominee for Speaker was damaged and there was quite a bit of concern who was actually going to end up in the position. BTW, did that guy survive reelection this year ? You also remember the insane situation in the CA Assembly beginning after the '94 elections where a narrow GOP majority had Willie Brown making mischief for an entire year as they went through puppet RINO Speakers who were recalled until Brown exited the chamber after getting elected SF Mayor. It took a year before we got the GOP nominee, and he was out in under a year when the Dems got back the body in '96, so we scarcely were able to make an impact.
Wilder I will say enjoyed bipartisan support for some time and quite literally led the Senate chamber in a NON-partisan manner, absolutely unique to anywhere in the nation. Any member, left or right, who asked for his help in a campaign got it. However, this stopped when we obtained a numerical majority in 2004 and with 2 Republicans voting to keep him, he ruled like a partisan Democrat and gave most of the chairmanships to Democrats despite our party being the majority (!)
He was a sad spectacle in his last 2 years as Lt Governor and watched as several members (virtually all Dem) were indicted and convicted, and he lost control of the situation when Auntie Ophelia made a monkey out of the body with her threats and race baiting. One West TN Democrat switched parties in disgust at the incompetence and when we retained our majority (losing that party switcher by an extremely slim margin), that led to Rosalind Kurita's courageous vote to oust Wilder (after seeing her own party refuse to dump him in-caucus), which preempted the RINO from East TN, Michael Williams (who was the Senate Speaker Pro Tempore, rewarded for supporting Wilder). Kurita got Williams's slot for her courage. Williams quit the GOP and allowed himself to be photographed and labelled for the 2007-08 TN Bluebook as a member of the "Independent NASCAR fan" party (the photo makes him look like a jackass bank robber with a sports cap pulled down over his head and sunglasses wearing a racing jumpsuit -- clearly he took his service as a joke). Williams was finally ousted last Tuesday after 18 years in office. Kurita was "replaced" by the State Dem Committee even after she won renomination and lost a write-in... however, she's going to be the first battle in January in the Senate as Ron Ramsey has not ruled out seating her as the duly-nominated candidate from the primary (that kind of boldness we usually only see from Democrats). The election WAS stolen from her, so this is only the right thing to do.
I might add as well that RINOs have propped up the despicable punk dictator Speaker Naifeh here in TN. The GOP could've held together and picked off Democrats Naifeh had maligned and punished over the years (and believe me, they were there), but they weren't strong and cohesive enough to do it. I suggested even a bipartisan coalition with a DINO named Frank Buck who got f**ked by Naifeh and stripped of a chairmanship after years in the body, but Buck wasn't up for the heartburn of doing so. He stepped aside this year and a Republican lady took his seat (she had run against Buck in '06, but didn't run a hard race, which was essentially setting her up for this year). It doesn't appear, given the situation in the past week, that Naifeh may try to hold on, but you never know what might happen in January -- he still need only get 1 RINO and hold on, and I warned a Republican member that we need to get Conservative Democrats for backups in case Naifeh springs a surprise.
Oh, btw, here’s a pic of the Jackass Williams, but it’s in .pdf format: scroll down to page 24 of 26 at the top of the page (it’ll say 29 by Williams’ headshot):
http://www.state.tn.us/sos/bluebook/07-08/1-senate.pdf