feed icon

Just Call Him Lurleen: Kent Williams And The Creation Of The Office Of Speaker Emeritus

By Kleinheider Posted on January 14, 2009 at 5:31 pm

A new plan may be in the works to put the power to run the state House of Representatives back in the hands of Rep. Jimmy Naifeh:

On Thursday morning, Democrats are expected to introduce a resolution creating a new position called Speaker Emeritus.

The plan is to put former Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, a Democrat, in that newly created job.

“He’s got a wealth of knowledge. There’s nothing sinister it. Nobody’s reading anything into it. It’s an honor to him,” said Rep. Mike Turner, a Democrat from Old Hickory.

While many Democrats said this is a symbolic gesture of support for a longtime public servant, many Republicans are suspicious.

“It almost looks like they’re trying to give power back to Representative Jimmy Naifeh who once was speaker and take that back from Kent Williams. There are so many unanswered questions,” said Rep. Glen Casada, a Republican from Franklin.

While the wording is still being decided, Naifeh could in theory be given the power to run the House once again.

“That is my concern. We could de-facto be letting Jimmy Naifeh be Speaker of the House again,” said Casada.

There’s also the question of votes, and the ability to get work accomplished in the future. Will Democrats be able to get republican support? Will lawmakers break ranks from their party?

It appears that Naifeh has yet to move his belongings from his Speaker of the House office.

SEE ALSO: Kay Brooks

permalink

Tags: , , ,  

Comments

7 Responses to “Just Call Him Lurleen: Kent Williams And The Creation Of The Office Of Speaker Emeritus”

  1. LeftWingCracker writes
    January 14th, 2009 6:03 pm

    “Besides, who could be a better consigliere than my father?”

  2. LeftWingCracker writes
    January 14th, 2009 6:05 pm

    Hell, if we’d only know, Ramsey could have arranged this for Wilder.

    Or not.

  3. Donna Locke writes
    January 14th, 2009 6:19 pm

    Lefty, I was just about to say, why not set up Jurassic Emeritus and bring back Wilder.

  4. LeftWingCracker writes
    January 14th, 2009 6:37 pm

    Heh, I like that.

    All goofiness aside, unless they plan to give Rep. Naifeh extra pay for being Speaker Emeritus, all it is is an honorary title. They could do the same for Ed Murray or Ned Ray McWherter, even though he’s an ex-governor.

    The fact that Casada and Channel 4 are shaking in their boots about it says that Naifeh has really gotten under their skin, which only makes me smile.

    In all seriousness, if Mumpower and Casada really had any clue about the workings of government, they would focus on the committee assignments. THAT’S where the rubber will meet the road.

  5. Donna Locke writes
    January 14th, 2009 6:54 pm

    Lefty, with Naifeh and friends still calling the shots, the more important committees, for purposes of certain legislation, will be stacked as well as the Democrats can still stack them, just as the committees have been for years. The chairmanships are window dressing.

  6. memory writes
    January 14th, 2009 8:09 pm

    Alright, apparantly you do not realize that they did make Wilder speaker emeritus after he lost the speakership. It is simply an honorary title meant to honor him for his service. In fact, I think it was a republican who sponsored the resolution.. if it wasn’t a republican who sponsored it, I do remember that all the senate members voted for it.

  7. vibinc writes
    January 14th, 2009 9:19 pm

    ACK, nice relatively obscure reference.

    LWC, if the Republicans were smart they’d shut the heck up and be happy they have a marginally Republican speaker. They would promise not to primary him and work to patch up any hurt feelings to maintain their “majority”. Thankfully they aren’t smart. They’re dumb as a box of hammers. So now they’re gonna kick Williams out, making him a defacto Democrat (which he may have been anyway), and ensuring they get NOTHING out of their efforts to take the House.

    That’s what I call “smart football”, when it’s the other team doing it.

Leave a Reply




Partly Cloudy

The Collective

The Latest from NashvillePost.com

Archives