Feel The Burn

11 Responses to “Feel The Burn”

1. LeftWingCracker writes
   January 17th, 2009 3:57 pm

   Well, if he’s going to toss up a softball, why not belt it out of the park?

   First, no Democrat was going to be elected Speaker. If Naifeh COULD have pried someone loose, he WOULD have.

   So, if there HAS to be a Republican Speaker, would it not be in the best interest of the Democratic Caucus to vote for a Republican far more likely to work with you, or vote for someone who wants to reverse everything you stand for as a party?

   This is ideological; why shouldn’t the Democrats try to stop Mumpower? If the Republicans could have done this to Naifeh in the past, I find it difficult to believe that they would not have done so.

   Or is Ramsey just a helluva lot smarter than Mumpower and Casada?

   What part of this puzzles Mick?

2. LeftWingCracker writes
   January 17th, 2009 4:10 pm

   One last thing: The House elections were a perfect storm situation for the Democrats, which led to a ONE-VOTE MAJORITY for the House Republicans.

   As Mumpower and Casada have learned, a one-vote majority does not a mandate make. Had they not tried to oust Williams in the primary last year, or went to him as soon as the primary ended to make up, they might not have found themselves in the position they currently occupy.

   Small majorities are delicate and fragile to maintain. Acting like you have been anointed by your Maker to rule the House of Representatives with only a ONE-VOTE MAJORITY will often lead to such problems.

   Gentlemen, you are NOT leading a holy war, you are there to make laws in the best interests of the majority of Tennesseans.

   You have two years to get it right, or lose even what you have now.

3. Matthew Hurtt writes
   January 17th, 2009 5:02 pm

   An excellent idiom to use in describing the Democrats quest for power at all costs to vote for a Republican Speaker of the House would be they “cut off their nose to spite their face.”

   - Matthew

4. TennDemocrat writes
   January 17th, 2009 5:28 pm

   Well, Matthew, I guess that makes sense to you. I doubt that it does to anyone else.

   “Power at all costs.” How stupid a phrase. You talk as if voting for a speaker who would be more friendly to your interests rather than allowing the election of someone who opposes virtually all of your agenda is somehow dishonorable. Do you even understand what politics is all about? Maybe when you are grown, you will get it. “The Democrats,” Matthew, when all is said and done, just executed a good political maneuver, in a political forum, while electing a political leader, that made more sense for them politically.

   Maybe the Republicans will do the same some day. Oh, wait. They did do the same, when they voted in John Wilder (not the Democratic caucus nominee) several years ago.

   Or maybe the Republicans will benefit from one single Democrat who bolts the party nominee someday. Oh, wait. They did that, when Kurita made Ron Ramsey speaker just two years ago.

   Were they after “power at all costs?” Maybe it’s how you look at it. They just did what was best for their agenda, their idea about where Tennessee ought to go. Matthew, Republicans are not always virtuous while Democrats are always nefarious. Nor is it the other way around. In all three cases, the parties did what parties should be expected to do. I don’t find anything dishonorable about it at all. You’ve either got the votes to win or you don’t.

   I actually think Kurita did the right thing, dumping the befuddled and incoherent Wilder. I am sorry the Democrats didn’t take advantage of the opening to redefine our message and focus on a new majority. They made no effort to reconcile with her. Instead, our leaders focused on beating her to the detriment of our other candidates.

   I also think Williams and the House Democrats did the right thing, not electing a thirtysomething ideologue as Speaker. Now the GOP can use this opportunity to reassert i itself and build a new majority, or it can focus on punishment and retribution — probably to its detriment. It looks like they will make no effort to reconcile with Williams. Likewise, the Democrats can get their act together or not; if not, minority status is only two years away.

   We care about this inside baseball; but believe me, the average Tennessean doesn’t give much of a damn. They want jobs, good schools, safe streets. And they will support and vote for candidate who provide that and defeat candidates who do not. If either party wants to win in 2010, they had better remember that.

5. reality of it writes
   January 17th, 2009 8:02 pm

   The reality is that if Kurita could have been able to get the republicans to vote for her as speaker she would have. But unlike Williams, even the Republicans knew she was a power hungry joke, willing to cheat anyone for her own cause. The Democrats were willing to vote for Williams, because unlike Kurita, they knew he could be a fair speaker who was more worried about doing a good job for his constiuents than helping himself run for some future office.

6. LeftWingCracker writes
   January 17th, 2009 9:22 pm

   Simply put, if the House GOP Caucus continues to whine, this could blow up on them the way the Kurita situation did my party.

   Matthew doesn’t seem to get it, but I’m betting there are those in the GOP who so.

7. LeftWingCracker writes
   January 17th, 2009 9:41 pm

   who do, oops.

8. M. Wright writes
   January 18th, 2009 8:56 am

   RE: “softball” and “puzzles.”

   Cracker, have you ever heard of a rhetorical question?

9. Caleb writes
   January 18th, 2009 8:00 pm

   Will someone please explain, once and for all, why people continue to assert that Kurita getting her assk kicked off the ballot for her ILLEGAL actions at a polling place affected ANYthing else?

   Why do people like LeftWingCracker continue to say the Kurita thing “blew up”…it didn’t blow up anything. No went on Nov. 4th and voted Republican because of Kurita’s predicament. They went and voted Republican by and large because they thought Barack was a muslim.

10. TennDemocrat writes
    January 18th, 2009 11:03 pm

    OK, Caleb, how about this? Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent trying to defeat Kurita (they didn’t, at least not at the ballot box), to elect her opponent, to defend the lawsuits, and three Democratic state senate candidates lose by a total of 4,000 or so votes? Ya think that money might have been better spent?

11. LeftWingCracker writes
    January 19th, 2009 12:22 am

    Or, Caleb, if the State Party had just denied her the right to run in the Democratic Primary? THEN, it would never have looked like we were taking away an election.

    I’m not saying she didn’t do the Party wrong, they just handled it in the worst possible way in the eyes of the average voter, who didn’t care about the internal politics one way or the other.