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Lamar Is Asking For It

By Kleinheider Posted on May 13, 2009 at 11:44 am

John Danneskjöld thinks Lamar Alexander is seeking a challenge in the Republican primary by voting against allowing handgun permit holders to go heeled in national parks.

It’s funny how often this kind of statement comes up in regard to Lamar. I constantly hear conservatives blow hot gas every now and again about this vote or that vote that Lamar made.

“He’ll get primaried if he keeps that up,” they say. Except, he does keep it up. In fact, he has never not kept it up. Lamar can speak the language of conservatism when he has to and he and his people are experts at fashioning a nice populist image but Lamar has never been and will never be a conservative.

That’s not necessarily a criticism, it’s an observation. Lamar has not strayed from “the path,” this has always been his path. If Howard Baker had a political “son” it would be Lamar Alexander. What was previously the Baker political “family” is now the Alexander political “family.”

Lamar has betrayed no one. Lamar is Lamar. Always has been. If a conservative would like to challenge him, they can be his guest, I imagine. He made short work of Ed Bryant in ‘02 and he’ll do so again.

That said, I would imagine Lamar’s current term will be his last. There was a question whether he’d even run again in ‘08. Five years from now, I doubt that Alexander will have the stomach for a campaign. Especially against the man rumored to be interested in that Senate seat: our current governor.

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Comments

21 Responses to “Lamar Is Asking For It”

  1. Rob Huddleston writes
    May 13th, 2009 12:05 pm

    ACK -

    I strongly agree with nearly your entire post, except to say that Lamar “made short work of Ed Bryant in ‘02.” That is historically inaccurate.

    Cheers,

    Rob

  2. JaStep writes
    May 13th, 2009 12:07 pm

    When was the last time a right-wing nut won a statewide race in Tennessee?

    Lamar? Bredesen? Corker?

    First of all, I doubt Lamar! even runs for re-election in 2014. Second of all, I doubt he’s concerned about right wingers taking him on. They can’t win.

  3. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 4:38 am

    People know that the most of Tennessean are real stupids. (e.g. Fred Thompson, Al Gore, Phil Bredesen, Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker and Philip Fulmer)

  4. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 4:54 am

    Now Tennessee conservative is considered only Marsha Blackburn.

  5. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 4:58 am

    Phil Roe, Jimmy Duncan Zach Wamp and Ron Ramsey are moderate Republicans.

  6. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:00 am

    Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker, Kent Williams, Beth Harwell are liberal Republicans like Colin Powell and Jim Leach.

  7. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:09 am

    Al Gore, Phil Bredesen, Jim Cooper are liberal Democrats like Barbara Boxer and John Kerry.

  8. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:13 am

    Now conservative Tennessee Democrat is considered only John Tanner like Hillary Clinton and Kathleen Seberius.

  9. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:15 am

    Lincoln Davis and Bart Gordon are centrist Democrats

  10. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:17 am

    Steve Cohen is socialist like Barack Obama.

  11. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:30 am

    East Tennessee isn’t so conservative except David Davis.

  12. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:35 am

    If Howard Baker had a political “son” it would be Bill Haslam, not Lamar. What was previously the Bill Frist political “family” is now the Marsha Blackburn political “family.”

  13. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:50 am

    As a conservative Republican, I would like to see someone like Blackburn run against Lamar. If Republicans start acting like Democrats, they should leave the party as well as Arlen Specter and Lincoln Chafee. There are $750 billion reasons to vote against Bob Corker as well.

  14. soonpush writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:53 am

    Our senators in state are just like the Democrats. We need real Republicans, less government, lower taxes, lower spending, more freedom.

  15. Rob Huddleston writes
    May 14th, 2009 7:12 am

    ACK -

    Not sure if this is spam commenting or not, but it is comedy gold. :)

    Cheers,

    Rob

  16. DG writes
    May 14th, 2009 8:17 am

    Soonpush’s comments: more evidence of the worsening of Tennessee’s meth problem.

  17. pandabear writes
    May 14th, 2009 2:05 pm

    SoonPush is probably from California.

    Looks like he’s run out of drugs though…

  18. Patsy writes
    May 14th, 2009 2:16 pm

    The Republicans want smaller government, lower taxes, lower spending and more freedom. But they are first in line to get their freebies from the government. Where do you think all of these benefits come from? The government will get the money that they need, by taxing things that you have not thought of. Tenn Care is hollowing, where are my benefits? What will you tell them.? I know someone that does not want her money taxed, but she has spend millions in Media-Care, and I mean millions. She has everything in the book wrong with her. She brags that she did not have to pay anything out of pocket because Media-Care took care of it. So Republicans don’t tell me what you want because I know what you want and get.

  19. dontcallmemikey writes
    May 14th, 2009 2:26 pm

    Patsy -

    You’re right, of course. They scream ’socialism’ on their way to the bank to cash their social security checks, on socialist federal highways, travel on socialist interstates to socialist state parks with their guns holstered to protect them from what? Socialists? They listen to Rush and Sean on socialized, regulated radio and watch Glenn Beck rail about socialists on regulated television, eat snacks that go through a socialist inspection system, check their calorie counts on the side of the box put there for their illumination by a socialist program, they take medicines approved by a socialist drug department, enjoy their homes insulated with socialist-approved materials … and enjoy the freedom even in this socialist state to criticize their government and exercise their right to vote against all those socialists their afraid is going to ruin their country …

  20. Aequitas writes
    May 14th, 2009 5:37 pm

    Wow, collect social security that we were forced to pay? Collect medicare that we were forced to pay? I don’t think you betray a party because you collect money available to you that was forced on you to begin with. I will say not all government facilities are bad. Most conservative would like to see more invested in out military. That right there shows you we accept some for of formal governemnt. Roads and highways too, but to say we ignore this is simply ignorant. We know what we want more than you think you know what we want. Make sense? No government = Libertarianism, a small government kept in check = conservatism. You are merging the two to fit your agenda.

  21. govskeptic writes
    May 14th, 2009 8:48 pm

    The current governor replacing Lamar make sense for this reason. Having the fewest state wide elected offices of any state in the country means this: 1. You have to be able to virtually finance your campaign. 2. A true populalist cannot cover the state or get invited to the high dollar business clubs to make his case for office. 3. Since we only have 3 state wide offices, being elected to one and doing a half-assed job still gets you broad name recognition
    to move onto the next one. We’ve had a Vice-Pres. and a Senate Majority leader and now the minority whip that served their own interest and selected friends well, while I see no movement from those 3 that assisted this state in any way.

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