By Tom Humphrey, News-Sentinel Nashville bureau
April 7, 2002
Legislatorland is losing some of the most colorful and capable characters remaining in a landscape that had already grown rather bleak.
For capable, House Finance Committee Chairman Matt Kisber and Rep. Gene Caldwell, who chaired the TennCare Oversight Committee, provide fine examples.
Kisber knows every bit of budget backwater in the state, having waded through it repeatedly - and changed the channels - during the past 20 years. Caldwell, a retired pediatrician who is the only physician serving in Legislatorland, brought both a warm heart and keen insight to the tangled TennCare web.
Both cited family considerations as the primary reason for making an exit, but both acknowledge considerable frustration with the budget bickering that has made stalemate the status quo.
For colorful, House Commerce Committee Chairman Shelby Rhinehart and House Calendar Committee Chairman Pete Phillips would be hard to top. Both were gifted in baloney spreading - to the point of making it an entertaining art form.
Rhinehart, the most senior citizen of Legislatorland and something of a legend, has spent 36 years in office. He once killed a bill by declaring, in a thundering speech, that it would violate the 33rd amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Only after the bill was dead did his thunderstruck colleagues realize that there is no 33rd amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
But he operated best in backroom deal-cutting and parliamentary maneuvering. In all things, he had the extraordinary knack of leaving opponents laughing after losing - adapting the demeanor of a wily but lovable rogue.
Phillips, a country-talking lawyer, has been around almost as long as Rhinehart and could best anyone in the realm of bombastic, animated oratory - usually in defense of "the little man" - who stood to suffer from some proposed legislative act.
The colorful had expressed some frustration, too, of late. Rhinehart said in announcing his decision to quit last week that he had "loved every minute of it."
But recall that Shelby of the silver hair once was proposed as the Legislature's designated representative to a "liar's contest" - only to have the idea squashed when the sponsor explained that the contest was "for amateurs only." And that he declared not so long ago that the current legislative session "is the most dastardly I've ever seen."
In other words, it may be suspected that Rhinehart was just being a gentlemen in his parting remarks, now that he's decided to leave that underground bunker known as Legislative Plaza.
In all, 12 state representatives and two senators are fleeing the legislative scene. Four are seeking other elective office; the rest are just returning to life outside of Legislatorland.
In 2000, the last election year, only four representatives and two senators chose not to seek re-election. Three ran for higher offices. (It's debatable these days whether there are lower offices.)
Another House member, Rep. Mike Williams, D-Franklin, quit to become a lobbyist in 2001 after winning re-election.
Some of the quitting crowd this year may well come by a way to return to the political arena without the necessity of suffering as legislator.
All of the dearly departing, after all, like politics and public service. If not, they would never have sought the office. It's just that, after being in Legislatorland for a while, they've learned there is surely a better place to be.
(There's been much speculation, for example, that if Democrat Phil Bredesen wins the gubernatorial election, he could pick Kisber as finance commissioner, the departing House Agriculture Chairman Ken Givens, D-Rogersville, as agriculture commissioner or the exiting Rep. Ronnie Cole, D-Dyersburg, as transportation commissioner.)
Despite the surge in numbers of those fleeing Legislatorland, last week's candidate qualifying proved that there are far more folks eager to get in. Not only are they swarming to run for the open seats, but there are challengers to most of the stubborn incumbents who remain.
I suppose we should be thankful they don't know any better. And hope that at least a few are capable or colorful.
Tom Humphrey, chief of the News-Sentinel's Nashville bureau, may be reached at 615-242-7782 or humphrey@edge.net
By Frank Cagle (who is Van Hilleary's campaign manager I believe). Cagle was the only conservative writer for the Tennessean.
Tennessee often center of national politics If you are a political junkie there's no place like Tennessee.
Can you name another state the size of Tennessee that has figured so prominately in national politics over recent decades?
Howard Baker, Lamar Alexander, Fred Thompson and Al Gore have played prominent roles on the national political scene. Bill Frist is coming into his own as a national player. Regardless of your views of each man it demonstrates the role Tennessee has played in national affairs.
It harks back to the days when Andrew Jackson and James Polk came from the Tennessee frontier to take the presidency and lead the nation. No Tennessean has yet to grasp that brass ring in recent years, but no other state has had as many political leaders in contention.
Tennessee was the focus of attention in the 2000 election, when native son Al Gore was the Democratic nominee and his loss of his home state cost him the presidency.
Tennessee has become the focus of national politics in 2002 because it is again crucial to national political power in the battle between Republicans and Democrats.
The Republicans hold a six vote margin in the U.S. House and there are three congressional seats in play in Tennessee this year.
The Democrats have a one-vote margin in the U.S. Senate because of the apostate, Jim Jeffords of Vermont.
The retirement of Sen. Fred Thompson puts the safe Tennessee senate seat in play.
In the 2004 election Gore will again be in contention for president. Control of Tennessee's governor's office and the statewide party machinery will be crucial for both Gore and Bush. If Phil Bredesen wins the governor's office and the Democrats capture the open senate seat, Democrat dominance in Tennessee will help Gore capture his home state which provided Bush with the margin of victory in 2000.
If the Republicans turn back the Democratic surge and Van Hilleary captures the governor's office and either Alexander of Ed Bryant win the senate seat the Democrats will be revealed to be a minority party in Tennessee, unable to come back from the Republican watershed year of 1994.
It will set the political landscape for another decade and put the Democrats in a hole from which they may not be able to recover for a generation. They may find themselves where Republican were in Tennessee for most of the 20th Century.
If the Republicans lose it could signal a return to pre-1994 status, when a popular Republican might win the occassional office, but Democrats totally controlled political power in the state -- with the corresponding patronage.
Tennessee is a conservative state and, all things being equal, the Republican message resonants with the majority of Tennessee voters. Democratic candidates this year are running to the right and trying to out-conservative the Republicans.
If you listen to Bredesen or Congressman Bob Clement, the Democratic senate candidate, you have to look hard to find the Democratic label. The best hope for Democrats to capture a U.S. House seat is state Sen. Lincoln Davis, running in the 4th District. Davis also votes conservative.
The job for Republicans is to drive home the point to conservative Tennessee voters that no matter how conservative these Democrats sound there is one thing to remember. Davis will cast his first vote for Richard Gephardt to be House Speaker. Clement will be a vote for Tom Daschle. And Bredesen will be able to put the state policial machinery to the service of presidential candidate Al Gore.
Given all the Republican primaries going on this year, perhaps that's a message the Tennessee Republican Party ought to be delivering. Forcefully. Repeatedly. And at length.
If you believe in limited government, low taxes and conservative values party labels make a difference, especially in national politics.
As Tennessee has been a major player in national politics, it will do so again in November.
That's one reason why President Bush will be in Knoxville on Monday.