If true, this is too rich:
The Republicans — who had just finally won control of the State House for the first time in 40+ years – were suppose to elect their Speaker of the House today. And failed!
Anaxamander has the details in his/her diary. The Tennessee State House has 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats. Well, Rep. Kent Williams (R-TN) got the support of all 49 Democrats plus his own vote to put himself in the Speaker’s chair.
***In the last election, a bunch of belligerent right-wing radicals tried to bully Rep. Williams (a moderate) into taking far-right stands — going so far as to threaten boycotts on his family business, etc.
Well, Rep. Williams had had enough of bullies and blowhards destroying the Republican Party from within. And the Democrats knew it. So the Democrats approached Rep. Williams about being the new House Speaker.
Rep. Williams said, “yes,” and history was made, just minutes ago.
***The GOP was promising all sorts of abortion votes, 2nd amendment votes, anti-immigrant votes, anti-gay votes, etc. – your basic nightmare right-wing nutjobs run amuck scenario. Not so fast!!
If this is true, I nominate any one of those 49 Democrats to replace Harry Reid.
*** Update ***
Delicious tidbit via Wonkette:
The official Republican nominee, Jason Mumpower (a wingnut from Bristol in Sullivan County) was left speechless, clutching the family bible that he had brought in preparation for taking the Speaker’s oath of office.
I can’t stop laughing.
*** Update #2 ***
BTW- It is important to remember exactly what kind of wingnut makes up the Tennessee GOP:
The Tennessee Republican Party issued this press release today, in the wake of Barack Obama’s hesitance to denounce, or reject, anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan’s support in last night’s debate. Obama’s Muslim heritage poses so great a threat that the press release felt it was proper to use his full name: “The Tennessee Republican Party today joins a growing chorus of Americans concerned about the future of the nation of Israel, the only stable democracy in the Middle East, if Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of the United States.” [Update below!] And guess which photo they used to illustrate this point?America’s favorite Matt Drudge photo, that’s the one!:
Of course, the Tennessee GOP only used this photo because it so aptly illustrates their important points:
Obama, (pictured dressed in Muslim attire in a 2006 visit to Africa) has on the campaign trail pledged to rapidly remove American soldiers from Iraq regardless of the resulting instability and the creation of opening that would be filled by Islamic extremists, like Al Qaeda, in Iraq’s government and military.
Also, this:
In a preview of the political onslaught Michelle Obama may face in the fall, the Tennessee Republican Party unveiled a Web video Thursday highlighting her comment that she was proud of America “for the first time in my adult life.”
Michelle Obama is the target of a video by the Tennessee Republican Party ahead of her visit there.
The four-minute video coincides with a visit to the state by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s wife for a Democratic Party event Thursday evening.
It features several Tennesseans saying why they are proud of America while repeatedly cutting to Michelle Obama’s comments.
“The Tennessee Republican Party has always been proud of America. To further honor the occasion of Mrs. Obama’s visit, the Tennessee Republican Party has requested the playing of patriotic music by radio stations across the state,” said a statement on the party’s Web site that accompanied the video.
They are truly a class act, which makes this even better.
Sister Machine Gun of Mild Harmony
That is sooo awesome!
Carlo
Win!
The Populist
Rep Williams is solid proof that if the GOP were smart, they’d dump those loons on the far right and re-embrace the idea of fiscal conservatism (reasonable that is), compassion for others, respect of dissent as well as respect of one’s views and personal responsibility.
The Populist
Can we inform the far right that fascism is so 1930s?
Tim F.
pwnt.
srv
This also just happened in TX, Dems and less crazy Reps ganged up to throw Craddick out on his ass. He was the Speaker who said he had supreme authority a couple years ago.
JGabriel
Jeepers. The whole imbroglio starts with one of the Republicans, Terry Lynn Weaver, voting against her own party on a procedural recess. Weaver is a new member, and managed to fuck it up on her very first vote.
Tennesee is gonna have the funnest legislature of all the 50 states for the next 2 years. I envy their local statehouse reporters, who will probably have "Molly Ivins / Texas Leg" worthy material to work with – lucky bastards.
.
Notorious P.A.T.
Seconded.
Mark-NC
Apparently Jason Mumpower needs a new Bible. The one he was holding didn’t work!
Comrade Stuck
The Lord works in mysterious ways, sometimes with subtlety, and other times, HE gives us a Threepenny Opera..
The Populist
This also just happened in TX, Dems and less crazy Reps ganged up to throw Craddick out on his ass. He was the Speaker who said he had supreme authority a couple years ago.
Do I smell a wonderful trend to shut down extremist whack jobs! Wow…maybe there is hope after all.
blogenfreude
@The Populist:
But we’ll never know, will we?
Tsulagi
Especially the one who thought of it first.
That is good. What, none of his fellow wingnuts thought to call the rapid reaction element of the RSSF during the vote to save the day?
srv
And to top it off, the new Speaker in TX is Jewish!
Tsulagi
Sounds like it couldn’t have happened to a finer group of wingnuts and their Decider mini-me wannabe.
Aww, all dressed up with his Bible in hand now with no big office place to go to. Will the victimization never stop?
Zifnab
@The Populist:
Sadly, no. I’m almost afraid to think what will happen to the Tennessee legislature in 2010 when the GOoPers have managed to gerrymander themselves a few extra seats.
The Texas State Government has been running deficits hot and heavy for what must have been nearly a decade now. They’ve made cuts to everything from education to public works to government staffing and its gotten to the point where I honestly don’t know what my tax dollars are paying for anymore – seriously, corrupt or otherwise, I’ve got no clue.
It’s a fucking trainwreck down here and we’re still so red it hurts. I honestly have no idea what will wake this state up short of half the countryside catching fire and burning down. And even then, I wouldn’t give better than even odds the state goes blue.
JasonF
My thoughts on this occurrence are best summed up by the great philosopher, Nelson Muntz.
Brian J
That’s all types of awesome.
Zuzu's Petals
It was a brave move on Rep. Williams’ part.
He probably knows he can count on a GOP-backed opponent in the next primary, and no support (at the least) should he make it to the general election.
When a Republican became Speaker of the California Assembly by making a deal with the Dems (well, Willie Brown), she was promptly recalled.
Doris Allen
Objective Scrutator
As a Tennessee resident myself, this is a mournful event. However, we are more sad about the burning of the house of one of the wealthiest car dealers in the country.
Still, at least we won’t have a state income tax. That’s all that matters, since Williams is opposed to it. (If we could get rid of the anti-smoking laws, since about 27% of Tennesseans smoke, we’d be all set…)
I will be personally donating money to kick Williams out of office. That is a promise.
JL
@Zifnab:
Sales tax receipts will probably be lower because consumers are not spending as much. You will probably see more cuts.
Left Coast Tom
@19 Zuzu’s Petals
As I recall, Doris Allen was the second such GOP Assemblymember to cut a deal with Willie Brown. The first one was recalled, then Doris Allen became speaker, then she was recalled. By that time most of 1995 was gone, Willie Brown was elected mayor of San Francisco, and Jim Brulte got one year as Speaker before the voters threw out the GOP in 1996.
Again, IIRC, Brulte wasn’t the CA GOP’s original choice, that was meant to be Curt Pringle (who, during the 1980s, had to settle out of court a suit under the voting rights act).
The GOP seems to have general problems with the idea of counting votes.
Wisdom
Ah, Obama’s idea for a good Secretary of Treasury seems to have forgotten about the IRS. For several years.
Simply Magical. You can’t make this stuff up.
JGabriel
Left Coast Tom:
You’re just learning this?
.
Xenos
@Objective Scrutator:
I hate it when that happens.
Bubblegum Tate
This is easily the best thing I’ve read all day.
jnfr
Post on the Nashville paper’s politics blog said the new Speaker left the House under armed guard. I hope this doesn’t turn bad.
Objective Scrutator
Disregard my last post, that was a lack of reading comprehension on my part. This man actually wants people that voted for the state income tax to be speaker pro tem. He’s a RINO, plain and simple.
I do, too. I hope the fire department reimburses him for any damages they may have caused to his property.
r€nato
That is just so frickin’ awesome. I can never get enough of GOP humiliation.
Also, Philadelphia Eagles delenda est.
Garrigus Carraig
@r€nato: It’s delendi sunt. And you can pray to Cato all you like. He will not help you.
Keith Patrick
Best part was the bit about the GOP freshman miscasting her vote on the matter due to a misunderstanding but was unable to take it back, thus sealing the deal.
Comrade Stuck
@Objective Scrutator:
LOL
rob
Awesome- I live in TN and still mad that the majority of this state did not vote for Gore in 2000.
@objective scrutator: dude probably lit the match and conveniently took his wife to dinner, who the hell is buying that many cars for him to live in a mansion like that?
Joe Max
"Objective Scrutator" links to "calvinists4conservatism".
Isn’t that a tautology?
Money quotes: "Michelle Malkin is probably THE leading journalist of the day. After all, who else could be able to so fervently document the inherent liberal bias in New Year’s Eve coverage?"
And: "Day By Day is the funniest comic strip, other than Mallard Fillmore and B.C."
This stuff just writes itself.
PS: Sully is kicking Unhinged Harpy’s ass, O.S. It must suck to be you.
PaulW
Dear Republicans:
this is what happens when you piss on the moderates, label them RINOs, and run roughshod all over them. They leave you in the dust and go off and do things the right way.
The facial expression you see on a bully the first time he gets his nose bloodied is always a priceless thing to watch.
Schadenfreude. The most delicious emotion of them all.
demimondian
@Garrigus Carraig: No, it’s got to be _delendae sunt_ — real men don’t play for Philadelphia.
demimondian
@rob: Now, now, now. Just because the house had been on the market for a long time doesn’t *prove* that the owner set it ablaze for the insurance money. You’re assuming he’s a Republican.
Bootlegger
Yep, I hate it when my security causes someone else to not save my property. Stoopid fire department. Next thing you know they’ll send in an arson investigator and he’ll step on Granny’s ‘ol picture frame.
JL
According to a promo, the biggest GOP failure is going to be on Larry King. He touts his own horn by saying he tried to regulate Fannie and Freddie and indicates that they were responsible for the financial crisis. Does he live in a bubble? Freddie and Fannie failure accounted for 14 per cent of the sub prime. Why does he still surprise me? Yesterday he praised the governments response during Katrina.
latts
[delurking]
Oh, it’s true– my boss told me about it right before we left work today. Should be interesting up at Legislative Plaza for the next couple of years, although I’m not up there very often.
…and that was pretty much what I said when she told me, lol.
GottaLaff
Obama backed same-sex marriage in 1996
I hope he shows the GOP that "The Gay" is not something you choose, although I don’t Tennessee would going for that any time soon, sadly.
GottaLaff
That should have said, "I don’t SEE" Tennessee…. etc.
GottaLaff
Okay, one more time, and I’m so sorry. That whole sentence got messed up, because I’m watching Rachel and posting simultaneously. Trying again:
…although I don’t see Tenn. going for that any time soon…
Bygones?
Zuzu's Petals
@Left Coast Tom:
Well just the before the Doris Allen thing, Paul Horcher switched from GOP to Independent and supported Willie Brown in his bid to keep the speakership, and was recalled.
It was actually Brian Setencich ( R ), another Brown supporter, who succeeded Allen as Speaker at the very end of the session – he was defeated in the next primary. Then Curt Pringle succeeded him. Brulte was the majority leader at the time.
List of Speakers
Oh that Willie Brown…what a twisty story.
Clutch414
Wow. That’s deserving of Colbert’s Big Brass Balls award.
I stand in awe.
low-tech cyclist
Good Lord, I know Jason Mumpower. Or knew him, anyway – he was a student of mine at King. He was your typical Republican ideologue, about as deep as a coat of paint, one of these kids who’s heard some theories and thinks he knows Truth about the world.
If I’m remembering correctly, he was one of the prime movers on campus of an organization called "Students In Free Enterprise," and the ‘in’ was a total lie, since the only actual free-enterprise activity they did was the usual student-organization fundraisers. They were really Students for Bullshit Rightwing Propaganda.
I couldn’t believe it when I heard he’d gotten elected to the state legislature. I really can’t believe that he came within a whisker of being elected Speaker of the House in Tennessee. And I’m delighted that he was left at the altar, clutching his Bible with no place to go.
The Grand Panjandrum
Can we call this what it really is: political viagra.
binzinerator
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Or a common sense one.
If the GOP is the Titanic, the iceberg has already been struck, all the water-tight compartments are flooded, the ship’s ass-end is high in the air and it’s not long before it begins its final shrieking death-plunge to the sea floor.
The dude knows it’s time to abandon ship and is simply trying to get clear of the suction.
Objective Scrutator
Of course it will. The Tennessee Democrat Party has been one of the biggest gerrymandering forces of all time, and they aren’t happy that a Republican won, even though it is a RINO. Since the Republican is a RINO, the Republicans won’t be happy at all, either.
If Elizabethton doesn’t kick this lactose puker out of office, may our United States military bomb them.
@Stuck: I forgot to state that it was just the second paragraph you should ignore.
You can never be too careful.
Read the article, and don’t be a paranoid gobstopper. There was substantial eyewitness accounts that it was lightning that hit the house.
Arson investigators are elitists that try to take from the rich so that they can give to the poor. Those bastards are VERY intent on forcing Real Americans to clear their floorspace of electronics, and they also hate original designs.
Mentis Fugit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Mumpower:
Worst. Chicken-Counting. Ever.
binzinerator
A sign from God, obviously.
r€nato
I actually looked up the correct version, Mr. Pedant, but decided to go with the less-than-correct-but-commonly-known version.
Also, Philadelphia Aquilae delendae est.
low-tech cyclist
Oh yeah: Mumpower will almost surely be Speaker in a couple of years, but he’ll be exactly the sort of know-nothing GOP wingnut that will help the GOP nail down the Bible Belt while losing the rest of the country.
He’s smarter than Sarah Palin or Joe the Plumber, but that ain’t saying much.
r€nato
The GOP caucus really ought to be nicer to Speaker Williams, he is going to be handing out committee chairmanships after all.
Keep up the temper tantrum and he might just give them all to Democrats, rather than just half of them.
r€nato
check this out from The Tennessean‘s article on the Democratic power play:
ha. ha. ha.
Comrade Stuck
@Objective Scrutator:
Well then, that makes all the difference OS. Glad to see your somewhat back on your game. And remember, Spoofin’ Nuttbagerry is an art, not a science.
Objective Scrutator
Maybe Steve Grindstaff is the new Job.
I’m not a spoof, and I don’t have a college degree in either an art or a science. As a right-brained person, however, I try to be right brained when I spoof Leftists.
Bootlegger
@Objective Scrutator:
Shit, I know what you mean. Our damned local arson investigator was just ’round here the other day giving money he stole from Daddy Warbucks to all the kids with no shoes, commie puke.
Yep, I must be a real American then, cuz that arson dude would be pissed off at all the stolen electronics I got all over my floor.
Bootlegger
You sure you don’t mean "spoon leftists", cuz thats what I like to do.
Wiil
Grindstaff’s castle burnt down? And it was an act of god?
I guess God does have pity on some people, the insurance money will allow Grindstaff to continue fueling his coke problem.
Thank god I got out of that shit hole, Washington/Carter/Unicoi counties are just a cesspool for retards.
Ash Can
Karma’s a bitch.
ricky
Tennessee never should have accepted the Oilers. Bud Adams is upon them like a curse.
r€nato
If a Tennessean divorces his wife, is she still his cousin?
pbfishtaco
We are all Tennesseans now.
JGabriel
Oh gawd, this just keeps getting better:
The Republicans keep kicking their own out of the party, then they wonder why they can’t get enough votes to win anymore.
Geniuses. Fucking geniuses.
.
hal
" left speechless, clutching the family bible that he had brought in preparation for taking the Speaker’s oath of office."
I feel bad that this sentence makes me so giddy. Maybe it was a hollowed out bible with a flask in it to ease the pain.
binzinerator
@O. scrotum
You’re being coy here. Either you don’t have a degree or you do have a degree.
You should have finished college. I know deep down you regret this.
TR
The video of the news reports on this hilarity is worth watching.
John PM
I loved the video, but I am confused – is Mumpower the fat white bald guy or the fat white brown-haired guy?
gex
I must give high praise for Rep. Williams’ actions, not just revel in the glory of Dems playing to win rather than lose/tie (in that order usually). Without him taking a stand, the Dems would not have been able to use this ploy. And it is good to see a Republican finally stand on principle when pushed and still in power.
tam1MI
Word has it that the Tennessee Republicans, in a fine display of "cutting off your nose to spite your face" is as we speak moving to throw Williams out of the party, thus causing them to lose their 1 seat majority in the House.
The only thing that would make their debacle more complete is if Williams then switches to the Democratic party, thus giving them the majority and shutting the Republicans completely out of the committee chairmanships.
Jon H
@hal: "I feel bad that this sentence makes me so giddy. Maybe it was a hollowed out bible with a flask in it to ease the pain."
Maybe it was a Bible cover on a copy of Essential Spider-Man vol 1.