Phil in '06?

According to some rumors on my local country radio station this morning, my governor, Phil Bredesen, is being wooed as a potential Democratic candidate for 2006. We've been hearing this since he was featured as a mover and shaker earlier this year.

I like Phil. He's the first Democrat that I voted for on a statewide level. He was VASTLY superior to the weasel Van Hilleary that was his opponent. *shudder*. I would like to see him up against Bill Frist. Both would certainly do wonders to shred the Tennessee hillbilly image (as if either of them are actually FROM Tennessee, but that's neither here nor there) and they would certainly make us important on a national level, which is a good thing. He would also show the world that everyone in Tennessee doesn't have that horrible plastic hair, fake smile and "Damn, y'all are so stupid" drawl. Oh, and some of us even vote before we decide to run for election, too.

I'm not so naive as to think that this is a done deal or anything, but the Democrats could certainly do worse. Bredesen is a Yankee transplant, so he appeals to two different groups. He's a Southern Yankee Democrat governor who managed to beat a Republican in one of the reddest states around these days. He is a businessman with lots of his own money. His wife is smart and does her own thing (and has her own last name, which is sure to send some conservative yahoos into a tizzy). He's taken on the state's liberal sacred cow, TennCare and done what no one thought ANYONE ever would--tried to clean the damn thing up. That alone will get him my vote for LIFE for whatever office he tries to run for.

I shall be watching and waiting to see what happens. Needless to say, if there's a Tennessean in the running, I'd VASTLY prefer him to be it...although the idea of voting against Frist is delicious.

Oh, spare me!

I keep getting the Bible spouted off to me on our local newspaper board and it makes me want to SCREAM! What in the WORLD does the Bible have to do with politics?!?! Why! Why! WHY?!?! When did this happen? I don't understand. It's as if I'm Rip Van Winkle and I fell asleep for too long and now I'm awake in some bizzarro right wing freako world. Every day, it seems to get worse instead of better.

I'm so effing tired of hearing about values and principles I could just vomit. Profusely and projectilely. I mean, the same people who are off screwing God only knows who and taking money for God only knows what have the audacity to try and tell me that they should be the moral leaders of our nation? I don't elect moral to vote on moral matters. I elect people to vote on how to best spend my tax money and to best represent my interests. If I want morals, I go to church or I read books and think for myself. I sure as HELL don't turn to people who get their ideas from the latest poll or think tank.

Somebody pinch me. Please. Surely this is a nightmare.

Someone Missed Kindergarten

Obviously, my esteemed Senator, Billy Boy, missed out on the important lessons in kindergarten where we were taught to share and try to get along with others? Instead of trying to be diplomatic and compromise, he's decided that it makes more sense to stand firm and refuse to compromise on the judiciary nomintaions.

Now, normally, I'm all about standing firm on principle, but when you're just doing it to be an ass? Well, that's sort of annoying. Or when you're just doing it to whip the extremist voters into a frenzy, it's stupid. When you're doing it just to be in some sort of pissing match because you can, it's just the living end of arrogance. Obviously Bill was too busy transplanting hearts and not voting to remember what happened when the Democrats were all about the power and it came back to bite them. Hate that for him.

Polls show that there isn't exactly an overwhelming support for this plan, so I'm still not sure why he insists on putting all his eggs in this rickety basket. It's as if the great Republican minds in Washington have a great think tank meeting each week and deliberately think up ways to alienate the moderates within the party. As if they take some sort of masochistic delight in slicing off great hunks of their support by embracing utterly repugnant causes...just because they can?? I can't even begin to imagine why they do it.

And Tennessee's other Senator is evidently mute on the point. I've not heard one word from Lamar! on the topic. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but it would be nice to know if he's gone totally off the deep end, too.

Give 'Em Hell, Harry!

Ah, I love it!!
from Yahoo on the stupid move to ban filibusters on judiciary nominations:

Reid on Monday also repeated his assertion that President Bush promised him that the White House would stay out of the Senate's fight over the filibuster rule. "He either misspoke or was not being honest with me a week ago last Wednesday when he said they would not be getting involved," Reid said.

Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday he would vote to ban the judicial filibuster if the Senate deadlocks, and called the Democrats' filibuster threats "inexcusable."

Senate Judiciary chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on CNN Sunday that it was "really not helpful — and that's a very mild word — for Senator Reid to say that the president was not honest."

But Reid said there was no doubt what Bush meant when he said he would not get involved in the Senate fight. "It's not hard to understand when someone tells you: 'I'm not getting involved. That's a Senate problem, I'm not getting involved,'" Reid said. It's "a little hard to interpret that any other way."

Good for him. Don't let goofy W. weasel his way out of this one. Make him stand by his word or, God only knows where we'll end up. With W.'s penchant for doublespeak, backtracking and embellishing, "not getting involved" might actually mean walking in and pushing the voting buttons for the Senators if we're not careful.

Tennessee's Shame

I can thank Bill Frist for turning me into a political blogger. I'm so angry with him that I am damn near physically ill.

I have to come clean. I voted for the ninny. Not once, but twice. The first time, I was naive and young and swayed by the fact that I met him in person and he is actually a very charming person. He still had the very dorky haircut and wore the goofy American flag tie. I was working for the local paper and I was the one chosen to interview him. Now I realize it was because I was the only Republican in the newsroom. At the time, I thought it was because of my hard-hitting newswriting. But anyway. I liked him. I bought into the whole "doctor-turns-politico" deal. We were in the midst of sweeping change in Tennessee. Fred Thompson was busy driving his way around the state in a red pickup truck (and I admit, I still like ol' Fred) and the old guard was on shaky ground. "Native" son Al Gore wasn't looking so golden and politics was a hot topic around town. I dutifully took my Frist buttons and bumper stickers (for some reason, I have none for Thompson) and went about my Republican duty and voted for him. I was jubilant when he defeated Jim Sasser. I'd been raised to hate Sasser. I felt I'd done my duty.

Six years later, I hate to say it, but I wasn't much brighter. I voted for him again. Honestly, I wasn't really paying much attention to the Senate. I'd just had my third child, I was in the throes of post partum depression and I, gulp, actually thought George Bush was charming. I was among one of the more rabid Al Gore haters in Tennessee, so I was happy to vote for anyone who would make him and the Democrats look bad. Plus, Frist hadn't really done anything terribly obnoxious at that point. He was still very junior. The only Senator we ever really heard about was Fred. Frist only got mention when he did CPR on someone.

Now I realize the error of my ways. The man is a power-hungry freak with some sort of radical right-wing love affair that I somehow completely missed out on. Contrary to popular belief, everyone in the state of Tennessee does NOT go to church three times a week and we don't wait for our preacher to tell us what to think and how to vote. The idea that a SENATOR, much less the senate majority leader would align himself with a group as repugnant as the Family Resource Center and be a party to this "Justice Sunday" bullshit is just mind boggling. I cannot believe that anyone can stand up with a straight face and try to argue that it is even remotely "fair" to try and change the rules when the game isn't going your way. I can only imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth that would have taken place had this happened when the Democrats were in power. And to think that it is because he is trying to do the bidding of the smarmy evangelical groups who are demanding payback? I feel ill. I apologize to the American public for my vote back in 2000.

Bill Frist isn't the reason I'm Republican No More. I'll go into that later, but he is most definitely why I'm about to be VOCALLY RNM. He? must be stopped.