Haslam says he's directing 'culture shift' in Tennessee government

NASHVILLE — Gov. Bill Haslam declares that he is successfully presiding over a "cultural shift" in Tennessee's government operations and the state's education system, though occasionally dealing with a "perception factor" caused by inordinate media attention to some legislative activities.

His own relationship to the Legislature, dominated by fellow Republicans, is marked by a general unity of purpose and broad support on substantive issues, Haslam said in an interview last week. He discounts talk of a conservative-moderate split in Republican ranks.

"I honestly think that's exaggerated. I really do," he said, though acknowledging that "Any time you have a party that has the majorities Republicans do now, you're going have times when there are people who are not in agreement."

The governor issued his first veto during the recently completed legislative session, blocking a bill aimed at overturning a Vanderbilt University policy that Republican sponsors saw as discriminating against campus religious groups. He also refused to sign two measures, one a bill that would protect teachers from discipline if they talk about creationism in the classroom and the other a resolution condemning United Nations Agenda 21.

Instead of such cultural issues, he much prefers to talk about the "cultural shift" in governing.

I don’t trust Haslam (not like I should trust politicians, and to correct Secretary Kissinger’s comment, it’s the 99.999999% of all politicians that make the other .000001% look bad). He’s a Willard-bot (an early supporter) and has been part of the same country-clubber establishment elite that kept the state GOP in the doldrums for so long. Only because of a perfect storm of reaction to national Democrats along with the 140-year ‘House of Cards’ the Democrats had established in the state did the collapse come so rapidly in the past few election cycles, and NOT due to any hard work on the part of the Haslam/Scumquist/Lamar!/Corker cabal.

I neither voted for him in the primary (I voted for the Conservative Lieutenant Governor, Ron Ramsey, who is in actuality, considered the most powerful political figure in the state), nor in the general (I voted for a Conservative Independent). TN Democrats couldn’t even get a first-tier candidate to run (they ran the son of a former Governor who was way out of his element as he’d never run for office before).

The thing about the TN Governorship is that it is somewhat weak, because it was designed so that in the case of a GOP Governor, a previously reliable Democrat legislative majority could override (by simple majority vote) any vetoes cast.

I have to believe Haslam (along with the other elites) isn’t happy with a legislature that is far more committed to traditional social issues (or rather undoing the damage) than he will ever be. However, because the establishment slipped in one of theirs into the House Speakership, it can put the brakes on any more overtly, bold reforms (although Speaker Beth Harwell isn’t a left-winger, neither is she a committed social Conservative).

Haslam, the always-smiling politician (which is a tell-tale sign right there) wouldn’t want to overtly risk any internecine war (he’s also too spineless), so he’ll usually get dragged along. But it is solely due to a now-heavily GOP legislature (which will now be even more so come next January with a lot of the remaining old Democrat machine jumping ship, including the execrable rodent tyrant Boss Hogg Naifeh, who has occupied a GOP-leaning district since he knocked off a freshman Republican in the Watergate debacle - as you well remember what it was like for any Republican running that year). It is not out of the question the GOP could get 80% of the legislature (they have 2/3rds already), leaving the remaining Dems hailing almost solely from urban areas (Blacks & White moonbats).

The downside, of course, to having such a lopsided majority is that with the Democrats a powerless rump, the left will work overtime to install GOP puppets (the downside in TN is that we have open primaries, which BADLY need closing) to wreak havoc as necessary. As we’ve so often seen, they’re more dangerous and deadly working within the GOP than staying where they belong in the Democrats.

Anyway, so long as the current setup holds, Haslam won’t be able to inflict the kind of damage so many RINOs do, so long as he remains Governor. My worry is that if Lamar! retires, he will want to go to DC, and it would be as a Senator his squishiness and smiling ‘moderation’ (sic) would be a serious threat. TN deserves far better from its Senators.

Corker all but bought the 2006 primary out from under the preferred Conservative choice of former Congressman Ed Bryant (who had been similarly shafted by Lamar! in 2002 when he, too, also showered the race with big $$). It didn’t help matters that we have an open primary and no runoff.

Corker was actually so poorly received by the Conservative base that Junior Ford (who literally ran as though HE was the Conservative Republican in the race) looked as though he’d win (and Corker all but vanished from the race after his Spring “win”). It was only because Ford got too cocky and made an incredibly bad mistake and miscalculation that gave Corker the edge.

The national media narrative was that Corker won because of a so-called “racist” ‘Playboy’ ad (where some White girl says, ‘Call me, Harold !’), which was predictable nonsense. It was Junior who attempted to play the race card first. At a high-end private GOP function for Corker, Junior attempted to crash it with the intent of having some big bruiser White bodyguards haul him & kick him out (and he brought a film crew to capture it). Instead of that, Corker came running out to greet him cordially, but firmly, and called him out on Junior’s baiting. In the public’s mind, it turned the tide and made Corker look like an adult and Junior like a willful, spoiled child. It was a far closer race than it should’ve been, but Corker won.

Much like with Zero, Junior (via his father) was merely using the Senate race as a stepstone to the White House (indeed, he quite possibly might’ve taken the wind out of Zero’s sails for 2008, as he had a much longer period of time in DC, as Zero had only appeared on the scene in 2004, Junior came to Washington in 1996). Also, as an aside, the single Junior Ford ended up marrying a woman who bore more than a passing resemblance to the lady in the ‘Playboy’ ad... yup, he married a blonde, White woman.

I accidentally left out another point from the 2006 GOP Senate primary. The race had initially been expected to be between Corker and Bryant, but got muddied immensely when the losing candidate for Governor from 2002, ex-Congressman Van Hilleary, decided to get in. Problem was, Conservatives didn’t want him in, because his votes would come almost entirely from Bryant. To this day, I still have no idea why he chose to enter a race he had no hope to win and suspect there may have been chicanery afoot to willfully divide Corker’s opposition vote.

Hilleary himself had been the victim of chicanery on the part of the former RINO Gov. “Scumquist”, when the Guv dragged in a filthy rich liberal country-clubber RINO ex-House leader whose sole purpose was to leave Hilleary completely unable to fund the fall general campaign. As a result, the rich liberal Democrat, my ex-Mayor, “Pharoah Phil” Bredesen, was able to shower the airwaves in heavily GOP East TN with campaign ads which was just enough for him to eke out a narrow victory (had Hilleary been fully-funded, he would’ve won — as it was, Bredesen willfully broke campaign financing laws in order to win, but the Democrat hack Attorney General would do nothing to enforce such laws against him).

It would’ve been understandable Hilleary running for a Gubernatorial rematch, but not the Senate race. As the primary day grew closer, calls went out to Hilleary to withdraw, but he arrogantly refused and claimed he was going to win. As it was, predictably, he deprived Bryant of the margin needed to win. I called for an investigation of Hilleary’s campaign (at least to find out if there was any definitive evidence of quid pro quo on the part of the party establishment or the Corker campaign), but nothing was done (lest the Senate seat fall to the Fords). In any event, Hilleary’s credibility was destroyed and he (as far as I know) has never crawled back out from under the rock he slithered into 6 years ago.

Ed Bryant at least kept his dignity and credibility intact. If we conducted elections for the state Supreme Court as Constitutionally mandated (instead of the shameful illegal practice currently being done), I think he’d make a fine Chief Justice in his retirement years (or Attorney-General, of whom is “elected” in the singularly most byzantine way in the entire country — by the “unelected” Supreme Court, a clear conflict of interest).

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