Free Republic

After more than a quarter-century of public service to his home state of Tennessee, U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon announced his plans to retire from Congress when his current term ends in 2010. “I feel honored that the people of Middle Tennessee have allowed me to serve them for the past 25 years,” said Gordon. “Every decision I have made in Congress has been with their best interests in mind. I hope the people here at home feel that I have served them as well as their good advice and views have served me. “When I was elected, I was the...

Tennessee Rep. John Tanner’s decision to step down at the end of his term has Democrats worried that a trickle of retirements will turn into a flood. Democrats won their majority in 2006 — and built on it in 2008 — in large part by running conservative Democrats in Republican-leaning districts. But with Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) and Tanner now heading for the exits, there’s growing concern that the party’s strategy may be unraveling just in time for 2010. “It’s the beginning of an avalanche on our side,” one Democratic strategist said. “Morale is bad, and we’re seeing guys in...

Junk Science: The oracle of climate disaster has a new book out on global warming that should be on the fiction list. He asks us to commit economic suicide while he rakes in millions from his green investments. 'Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis," Al Gore's sequel to his 2006 tome "An Inconvenient Truth," came out Tuesday. Printed on recycled paper using low-VOC (volatile organic compound) ink, it will undoubtedly be a best-seller and on the desk of every attendee at next month's climate change conference in Copenhagen. In a press release announcing the book, the Oscar-...

NASHVILLE — Republican congressional hopeful Robin Smith says that, when she was state GOP chairman last year, then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama labeled her as “everything from racist to terrorist to extremist” after the state party posted a video criticizing Michelle Obama. Mrs. Smith, who is running in the 3rd Congressional District primary, made the assertion in a recently videotaped interview with Helen Smith, a commentator for the conservative Internet Web site Pajamas TV. Dr. Smith, no relation to the candidate, asked why more women do not run for office. “From personal experience I can tell you ... I was...

According to MSNBC's Chris Matthews, if Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford loses Tuesday, you can blame it on white conservatives. On Sunday morning, as he appeared in a segment hosted by Alex Witt, Matthews chided whites for an unwillingness to vote for black politicians, contending that "blacks vote for whites," but "whites don't vote for blacks." Matthews added that in states with large black populations, fear leads whites to become conservative Republicans. Matthews: "The larger the black population, where the whites are afraid historically, and in Deep South states, they tend to become very conservative Republican out of fear, whatever,...

MEMPHIS — A Congressional race in Tennessee has become freighted with racial overtones almost a year before the election, with a prominent black politician saying the white incumbent cannot properly represent black voters. The black candidate, former Mayor Willie W. Herenton of Memphis, has argued that Tennessee needs a black voice in its currently all-white delegation. He is running a blistering campaign against Representative Steve Cohen, a fellow Democrat with a precarious hold on the majority black district. “To know Steve Cohen is to know that he really does not think very much of African-Americans,” Mr. Herenton said in a...

Bill Haslam is a lifelong Republican and, as of a few months ago, a card-carrying NRA member, too. After announcing his bid for governor in January, the Knoxville mayor was criticized by gun-rights advocates over his membership in Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which has considered suing weapons manufacturers for gun crimes. Haslam's response was to quit the group in March and join the National Rifle Association, explaining it as an attempt to clarify his support for the Second Amendment and saying that the mayoral group had strayed far beyond its original mission with a number of proposed policies. Candidates often...

Democrats say Bredesen mostly got his way on budget. NASHVILLE -- Republicans may have only "semi-control" of the General Assembly, but they say they nonetheless made major strides this year in areas such as gun rights, social issues such as abortion and charter school expansion. "There were lots of things we accomplished this year that I'm very very proud of, things we'd been working on for years," Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, the Senate speaker, said as lawmakers ended their annual session last week. "We were able to advance those whether it's pro-life issues, Second Amendment issues." He and other...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Steve Cohen, a two-term white congressman from a mostly black House district, faces a bruising Democratic primary next year and race again will likely be at the center of the campaign. Willie Herenton, the first elected black mayor of Memphis, recently filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for Cohen's 9th District House seat. Cohen has shrugged off black challengers before, but none with the political savvy and combative style of the 6-foot-6 mayor—a former Golden Gloves boxer who doesn't shrink easily from a fight. -snip-

Rep. Zach Wamp told members of the Chattanooga Pachyderm Club on Monday that Sen. Bob Corker is gaining clout around the country as a potential presidential candidate. He noted that Sen. Corker was chosen to deliver Friday night's Silver Elephant Banquet speech at the convention of the South Carolina Republican Party. Rep. Wamp said, "They could have had Palin, but they chose Corker. That is a big, big deal. It is a landmark beginning into the national political environment for our senator." He said the choice of Sen. Corker for the speech "was a high compliment and shows the stature...

Rep. Zach Wamp (R) announced Monday that he will seek the governorship of Tennessee in 2010, abandoning the seat in the House he has held since 1995. “I believe the time is at hand for me to expand my service to help even more people in our great state by pursuing the office of governor,” Wamp said in a statement. “I will file the paperwork necessary to begin raising money as a candidate for governor of the great state of Tennessee,” he added. The decision comes shortly after former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R) demurred from pursuing the governorship,...