Posted on 03/08/2002 6:42:47 AM PST by ElRushbo
"Tenn. Sen . Thompson won't seek re-election
Furthermore my family, as well as many others I know in Shelby County outside of metro Memphis, will literally crawl to the polls to vote for anyone who runs against Harold Ford, Jr. His family's brand of politics does not sit well with many of the Tennesseans I know. Memphis is not the hometown I fondly remember--and the Ford family is a major cause of my current disillusionment. Sensible folks in Tennessee feel the same way.
hillary and bill tell Moyahan to retire in order for hillary to get his seat in the Senate.
They tell jeffords to switch.
They play lott like a fish on a line
They tell Thompson not to run for re-election.
Results, gore runs for Senate seat, hillary runs for President.
Since you're not from the southeast, you wouldn't know that what I said originally is often said (verbatim) humorously to visitors here. I think it was a line from a movie, but I'm not sure. So, it was meant in complete jest and not at all as a slight toward you personally.
In any case, peace.
This is true. At one time, Don Sundquist was a model Republican. His popularity couldn't have been higher. That all changed in 1999. That's when Don went psychotic (and I'm saying that half joking and half seriously - with his bizarre behavior lately, I sincerely believe he may be having mental health issues). Overnight, he became public enemy number one, as documented by my protest photos from the July 12th storming of the capitol.
I think a lot of the intricacies of Tennessee politics and how things have been shifting and changing over the last 3 years specifically and 10 years in general are lost on people outside the state.
This is some of the kinder stuff too. Protests at the capitol were nearly an every day occurance during last year's legislative session. I've seen people dressed up like a Nazi wearing a picture of Sundquist on their face and a name badge of "Adolf Sundquist" if that gives you some idea how people here hate this guy.
If Sundquist were to announce he's stepping down from office, Tennessee would look something like Berlin in the fall of 1989 when the wall came down. People would be crying tears of joy, cheering in the streets, and partying like their team just won the Super Bowl (which it almost did in 2000, BTW, go Titans!).
I have to diagree with you. I live just blocks from the capitol and work very closely with Tennessee politics on levels ranging from neighborhoods all the way to Washington. Tennessee has been trending more conservative and Republican over the last 10 years. No Democrat has won a statewide office since 1992.
Bush recess appointments to the judiciary are the obvious way to foil this little plan. I wonder when the Bush administration will decide that is the way to go.
My big problem with Bryant is that he is an H-1B visa supporter -- hardly a conservative position.
To be fair though that does seem to be the only immigration issue on which he is weak. (See his Report Card)
The point I am making, however, is that, positively and without a doubt, Ed Bryant would be a better senator than either Al Gore or Harold Ford, Jr. And, if Bryant turns out to be the Republican candidate running against a typical liberal Tennessee Democrat, then I and my family will use whatever influence we have to support Bryant's efforts.
On the Democratic side, Gore's already stated he's not running. Harold Ford Jr is not a liberal in the sense of his father or even Al Gore. Ford is actually a pretty centrist politician (one of the Blue Dogs, like Tanner) -- economically moderate/conservative and socially liberal/libertarian. It's unfortunate that his last name is Ford, because he's actually nothing like his family in terms of politics and character.
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