TN TAX BATTLE: Budget thriller takes new twists

Sounds like time for another walk over to Legislative Plaza! ... and for some drivers to honk their horns, which I plan to do on Saturday, June 29.

The Tennessee Tax Revolt organization will be there, too.

In Memphis, Tennessee Democrats are converging on the Peabody Hotel for a statwewide meeting and convention. It'd be a swell opportunity to a few Memphis-area FReepers to have at 'em as well.

Lessee, pitchforks, torches, a rope- yep, I figure we've got all we need. Oh yeah, tar, and some feathers- a fine old Southern custom that unfortunately needs to be revived.

-archy-/-

In Memphis, Tennessee Democrats are converging on the Peabody Hotel for a statwewide meeting and convention. It'd be a swell opportunity to a few Memphis-area FReepers to have at 'em as well.

Lessee, pitchforks, torches, a rope- yep, I figure we've got all we need. Oh yeah, tar, and some feathers- a fine old Southern custom that unfortunately needs to be revived.

-archy-/-

In Nashville, both Democrats and Republicans are causing problems. Notorious Democrats: Naifeh and Rochelle. Notorious Republicans: Sundquist and Atchley.

These repeat offenders need further counseling.

Al Gore was also nosing around the Memphis meeting Saturday, whether actively backing the tax hikers or just trolling for future political support or very possibly both. But there he was:

Not just blues and barbecue luring Gore

June 24, 2002

WASHINGTON -

Al Gore, who once helped Bill Clinton maintain campaign donors with coffee at the White House, is stroking about 60 top fund-raisers with barbecue and blues and home-state cheers in Memphis this weekend.

The donor retreat at The Peabody is the clearest signal yet Gore is plotting a return to the White House. Officially, Gore is soliciting advice on how to help Democrats win in the fall, but that's said with a wink and a nod.

"He's bringing them in from all over the country," Rep. Bob Clement (D-Tenn.) said. "This is all about his plans to run for president again."

Gore and his wife, Tipper, are treating donors at the Rendezvous Friday night and at B.B. King's Blues Club Saturday night after the Shelby County Democratic Party's Kennedy Day fund-raiser.

Earlier Saturday, veteran Gore aides Elaine Kamarck and Leon Fuerth, Reps. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Washington Gov. Gary Locke are scheduled to lead policy discussions about the 2002 elections.

But the meat will come in the sessions among the Gores and the donors.

Mitchell Berger, a top Florida fund-raiser, said: "They're going to talk about what's going to happen in 2002 and 2004. I think these people view Al Gore as somebody who throughout his professional life has been a leader both for the Democratic Party and the nation, and they want to share this time with him."

The meetings will be closed, but Gore's aides have assured reporters there will be plenty of "break time" to interview donors and file stories.

Why Memphis, hardly a donor-rich territory for Democrats?

It's a test of loyalty to see who will give up golf for a weekend of political talk.

It shows Gore's commitment to win back the state that cost him the presidency. "He clearly wants to re-establish Tennessee as his home state," University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said. "If this had been in Washington it would not draw as much interest and would reinforce the damning stereotype that Gore is a Washington politician."

As Ford said: "Memphis is as fun a place as anywhere and this is his base." Donors can expect to see Gore receive a warm reception in the county that he carried by 48,648 votes in the 2000 presidential election - a bigger margin than the Clinton-Gore ticket achieved in either 1992 or 1996.

But Gore lost the state by 80,229 votes.

"His intentions to run are crystal clear," Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said. "I think it's smart of him to try to re-establish his Tennessee credentials. From a political standpoint, I think it's going to be an uphill battle for him."

Gore has not spent much time in rural West Tennessee, where he is going to have to clarify his environmental views for farmers and gun control position for hunters, Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) said.

"They were saying he was going to take away their squirrel rifles," Tanner said.

Shelby County Democratic Party chairman Gale Jones Carson argues Gore needs to focus on turning out more Democrats.

They're both right and both wrong.

Gore received 2,964 fewer votes in Tanner's district in 2000 than Clinton-Gore did in 1996. Gore received 78,401 more votes than Clinton-Gore in '96 in the even more conservative West Tennessee district of Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.). But Gore received 60,579 fewer votes in the congressional districts around Nashville and Knoxville.

Gore lost Tennessee because George W. Bush got Republican voters out and because, unlike 1992 and 1996, Ross Perot was not on the ballot to draw away 100,000-plus votes from the major-party nominees.

If Gore wants to carry Tennessee again, he'll have to match the Republican turnout and give Perot voters as much reason to be unhappy with the Bush administration as they were with the Clinton-Gore White House.

FRIST DISCOUNTS talk that Bush might name him secretary of Homeland Security if Congress creates the department.

"Nobody's approached me directly about it," Frist said. "At the end of the day it's not going to be in the cards."

Frist is an expert on bio-terrorism, but not the Coast Guard or Border Patrol. And if he left office now it would give Ford a shot at running in 2004 to complete the last two years of Frist's Senate term. Bush would not want Ford churning up a huge turnout in Memphis in a presidential election year, whether Gore is the opponent or not.

James W. Brosnan is Washington bureau reporter for The Commercial Appeal. You can call him at (202) 408-2701, write him at Suite 1000, 1090 Vermont Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005, or contact him by E-mail at: BrosnanJ@shns.com

So much FReeping to do and so little time!

IMO every attempt by Gore to reach into the Democrat's pocketbooks reduces his party's ability to reach into ours. He is distracting them from funding more marketable candidates.