Extremism Breeds Extremism & A Weak Governor

One of the Scripps Howard D.C. bureau reporters called me yesterday for a comment on the newest post-election phenomenon — secession petitions!

These petitions, posted on the White House website, ask the Obama administration to "peacefully grant" Tennessee and others the right to withdraw from the union and form its own government. As of Wednesday morning, the Tennessee petition had met the 25,000-signature threshold needed to initiate a response from the White House. (We're all waiting with bated breath!)

This is, of course, counterproductive and a waste of everyone's time and tax dollars. Who's to blame?

Here's what I told The Memphis Commercial Appeal:

Brandon Puttbrese, spokesman for the Tennessee Democratic Party, called the secession petition "radical nonsense" that is "a direct result of the tea party extremism and intolerance we have seen from elected Republicans in Tennessee."

"Sadly," Puttbrese said, "this kind of extremism only breeds more of the division and rancor that is prohibiting our leaders from making progress on putting Tennesseans back to work and protecting middle class families."

For far too long, Republican politicians have been stoking the flames of hate toward supporters of health care reform, immigration reform, teachers, women, LGBT rights, and on and on.

In a rare showing of backbone, Tennessee Gov. "Waffle House" Bill Haslam immediately condemned the frivolous petitions. The Tennessean:

Gov. Bill Haslam said Tuesday he’d heard about Tennessee’s petition. He’s not a fan. “I don’t think that’s a valid option for Tennessee,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll be seceding.”

So Haslam feels his input is important on meaningless Internet petitions, but unnecessary on serious questions of ethics and integrity. When confronted with the question of whether it's ever appropriate for a doctor to have sex with his patients, how did the governor respond?

"I don’t know that there’s a whole lot that I can add."

Weak.

A Wiseacre in The Tennessee Journal

Ed Cromer at The Tennessee Journal found someone who summed up a shift in the General Assembly quite nicely. No pun intended.

From The Journal: 

According to a wiseacre representative who’ll remain nameless, the move of Republicans (Frank) Niceley and Joey Hensley from the House to the Senate improves the legislature — by raising the average IQ in both houses.

Mitt was a bad investment

A lot of interesting takeaways from the billion dollar spending spree by America's corporate tycoons.

From Forbes:

"Karl Rove's American Crossroads spent $104 million this cycle with a 1.29% return on investment."

Tennessee GOPsters Declare War on Workers & Teachers

Several Tennessee GOPsters have declared war on

teachers and workers. Shocking, I know.

Not even 30 days into the new year and several Tennessee GOPsters have laid out their plans for invigorating the state economy (wink, wink) by declaring war on the extravagant* rights of teachers and workers.

So much for freedom of speech and the free market.

First up: State Rep. Debra Maggart (R-Hendersonville) filed a bill — written by lobbyists — that would end the collective bargaining rights of teachers. Teachers often use their collective clout to fight for curriculum improvements, academic freedom and to fight for fair salaries.

If collective bargaining is taken from teachers, no one stands more to lose than the citizens of rural counties in Tennessee. These places already struggle to find quality educators. The number one reason is educator pay. Ending collective bargaining would further complicate the problem by driving down starting salaries and doing nothing to improve rural working conditions.

Here's what the state teacher's organization had to say about the proposed legislation (from the AP):

Tennessee Education Association lobbyist Jerry Winters on Monday called the proposal to do away with collective bargaining "an insult to every teacher in the state." ... "It's not a good way to get this new Legislature to begin its relationship with the teachers of this state," he said. "I think there are few people up there who are really almost intent on declaring war with the TEA."

And that's not all! Elsewhere GOPsters are on the hunt for workers' freedom of speech. 


Rep. Glen Casada (R-63) and Sen. Bill Ketron (R-13) filed HB0160/SB0139 which would make it a Class C misdemeanor for labor organizations to contribute to candidates.

In a more blatant attack on the rights of everyday Tennesseans, Casada and Ketron are trying to criminalize the freedom of speech enjoyed by worker labor unions. They want to use big government to enforce overreaching regulation that limits the free speech of average workers.

It's so ridiculous, I barely have words to complain about it.

Let me just ask this question: If you're criminalizing the political contributions of worker groups, which is just an organization of people, should you not criminalize the political contributions of every politically active organization that could be considered a group of people.

How about the contributions of businesses and corporations that don't have our best interests in mind -- only their profit margins? Should we criminalize their campaign contributions? How about Tennessee Right to Life? How about Club for Growth? American Crossroads? The Tea Party Express?

The bottom line is: Unions are the only free-market solution for workers to collectively address grievances with public and private sector management.

For Republicans, who routinely espouse their faith in the "free markets" and "limited government," this legislation should be considered an affront on both issues.

But true colors are shining through, and between the lines it's easy to read what they're saying: "We don't care if our actions contradict their very principles we claim to stand for — we're hypocrites. We're Republican."

*Ha!