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Governor Concedes He Wasn’t Likely To Help TNDP While Freeman Was Treasurer

Posted on March 30, 2009 at 7:27 am

The Governor expresses his distaste for former Democratic Party Treasurer Bill Freeman:

Gov. Bredesen acknowledged that inclined him not to help the party with fundraising.

“The person they chose to be the treasurer worked very hard against me,” Gov. Bredesen said. “So he’s not somebody that immediately when he calls up and says, ‘I now want your help raising money,’ that you say, ‘Oh, OK.’”

Gov. Bredesen’s comments to the Times Free Press were made Thursday and have not been previously published.

By Friday afternoon, with news out that state Democratic fundraising took a tumble in February, Mr. Freeman called it quits and acknowledged in a news release that his resignation stemmed in part from “opposition” to his appointment by “some of the Democratic establishment.”

“As I’ve made fundraising calls in the last month, several longtime donors have expressed their concern to me that Governor Bredesen was not as supportive of me as I had hoped,” Mr. Freeman said in a statement.

Comments

11 Responses to “Governor Concedes He Wasn’t Likely To Help TNDP While Freeman Was Treasurer”

  1. Heatseeker writes
    March 30th, 2009 8:19 am

    How is Cap’n Queeg Forrester gonna take this news? It’s not just blog commentors. The most powerful Democrat in the state has now publicly called Chipper’s competence into question.

    I predict that the Chipinista trolls - primarily benintotaldenial, LeftHandWanker, and Devin McTuesday - will be dispatched to blogs later this morning to whine and cry that Bredesen is a DINO, that he doesn’t do anything for Democrats, yada, yada.

  2. TennRod writes
    March 30th, 2009 8:41 am

    There is not another state in the union with this kind of problem. Chip Forrester needs to resign, the Executive Committee needs to get its collective head out of its posterior, and the party needs to get someone in as chairman who is not an incompetent megalomaniac.

  3. Morpheus122 writes
    March 30th, 2009 8:45 am

    Way to go, Governor. Stand up against selling the soul of the party to fat cat real estate developers. Chip and Odom thought they could strong arm Governor Bredesen into dropping his move to close the FONCE tax loophole by hiring Freeman as TNDP treasurer. Didn’t work. Good for Bredesen.

    Bredesen has principles, unlike just about every other elected Democrat in this state it seems. Unlike those TNDP trolls that will now attack me. They’ve sold their souls because they think Chip has given them a piece of the action at TNDP. You are killing our party.

  4. Dr. Jellyfinger writes
    March 30th, 2009 10:34 am

    Of course, the question now arises as to whether Chip was unaware that Bredesen’s reaction would be so strong or if he knew and didn’t care.

    As someone that has known Chip for years, let me assure you it was the later. He ran for chair over the opposition of the party elders because he thought he would be the almighty chairman if he won and they would have to work with him.

    Wrong.

    Now he’s talking about recruiting primary opponents against our congressmen. How egomanical is that?

  5. TN4th writes
    March 31st, 2009 9:53 am

    Bredesen’s personal vendetta is unconscionable. Chip Forrester is doing a phenomenal job and is making all the right moves, and all Democrats need to get behind him, or in 2010 we will consign Tennessee to a fundamentalist dark ages for the foreseeable future. Bredesen can help, or he can sulk in the corner. It looks like he is choosing to sulk and to undermine his own party in a fit of pique. What a disappointment.

  6. TennRod writes
    March 31st, 2009 10:28 am

    Oh, please. Chip’s tenure has been on misstep after another. What “right move” can you possibly point to? There are no “right moves.” His incompetence is simply astounding.

  7. TN4th writes
    March 31st, 2009 12:56 pm

    Right moves? Let’s see. A website that is actually 21st century? Outreach to disparate parts of the party? Summit? Strategic focus on 2010? Accessibility? Espousal of (dare we say it?) actual Democratic principles????

    Why do you think he won with a 2-1 margin? The folks are fed up with the DINOsaurs like Bredesen. They (we) lost faith in 2008, when Bredesen, Davis, etc. hid in the closet while Barack Obama changed history. Or, hey, maybe you think 67% of the party leadership is too stupid to pick a leader?

  8. BluedogCatcher writes
    March 31st, 2009 1:21 pm

    Way to go, Governor. Stand up against selling the soul of the party to fat cat real estate developers.

    You mean the same Phil Bredesen that made no secret of the fact that he was more than willing to turn the state over to Ron Ramsey had Obama been stupid enough to offer him HHS secretary? He doesn’t have a problem with selling the soul of the party. He just wants his cut.

  9. TennRod writes
    March 31st, 2009 1:44 pm

    “Espousal of (dare we say it?) actual Democratic principles???? ”

    TN4th, are you insane, just stupid or a pathological liar. One of the problems with Forrester is that he has done absolutely nothingin this regard.

    You want issues. The republicans have dropped literally dozens of them in the lap of the Democratic Party since Chip has been chairman. And he has beenm AWOL on all of them.

    Like when the GOP in the legislature killed a minimum wage hike for restaurant workers and stopped a livable wag initiative for Tennessee workers in memphis and other places in our state.

    Like when the Governor stood up for closing a tax loophole of real estate tycoons (and a New York pornographer). Isn’t that the very platform President Obama ran on — to end special privileges for the rich?

    Like when Bob Corker defended big bonuses for AIG executives and objected to the President’s bold moves to get GM udner control.

    Like when Lamar Alexander turned hard-core obstructionist on the stimulus package.

    Like when Ron Ramsey came out for removing fund raising restrictions during the legislative session — and ethical nightmare.

    Like when a few looney tune GOP legislators joined in this crazy Obama birth certificate fiasco.

    But has Chip been out front, standing up for “actual democratic principle?” Hell, no. He is nowhere to be seen.

    We have gone from March 13 to today with nothing new on the TNDP “news” secion of the website, and that was about Chip calling for the firing of some low-level legislative staffer. Compare that issue to any of these.

    And do you eman the “secret summit” by invitation only, or the moonbeam summit scheduled for Monteagle?
    Doesn’t the term “summit” imply that someone at a high level will be there? Just who would that be?

    And BCatcher, I believe the new Secretary of Homeland Security turned her state over to the GOP when she accepted the President’s call to be in the cabinet. Do you not think the President was enough on the ball to know that? Do you think any Governor would be justified to turn down the President to satisfy… well, to satisfy an ignorant shit like you?

  10. Tn4th writes
    April 1st, 2009 12:13 pm

    tennrod
    It is unfortunate that you must resort to adolescent ad hominem attacks instead of reasoned dialogue. It discounts any inherent value your points might have.

    What’s your personal beef with Chip? my gosh — he just took office, and is moving forward on many fronts while battling Bredesen the Saboteur at the same time. Would you rather be back to the sasser days??

    Out where I live, we are excited to have Tndp moving in a progressive direction instead of cowering in the corner.

    Really, do you want the kind of tndp that sasser and bredesen represent?

  11. Tn4th writes
    April 1st, 2009 12:16 pm

    … And PS: the new tndp website, soon to be unveiled is excellent. The old one was unsalvageable.

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