Carter County Commission Wants Kent Williams Back In The Party

22 Responses to “Carter County Commission Wants Kent Williams Back In The Party”

1. dontcallmemikey writes
   November 18th, 2009 11:36 am

   Hmmm … I guess all these fine folks are really either ignorant, don’t understand they’re being duped by a ‘liar,’ aren’t really loyal Rpublicans, or secretly Democrats who want to embarrass the GOP.

   Alternately, they could be logical, rational, honest people who think their rep has done a fine job - the job they sent him to do - and think that leadership in the GOP are arrogant idiots who can’t see the forest for the tree stump.

2. Elmer Gantry writes
   November 18th, 2009 3:37 pm

   I reside in Carter County - why do you suppose that our commissioners did not submit to a roll call vote on this issue - i.e.: of Kent Williams seeking to get re-bona fided by the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee - that is not really anything that the Carter County Comnission should be wasting valuable time on aiding the upcoming primary election of an incumbent state politican?

3. Mike writes
   November 18th, 2009 3:57 pm

   I think the vote was recorded as having only one dissent according to the story. So I suppose you tally that Tom Bowers no, everyone else a yes.

4. SouthernIndie writes
   November 19th, 2009 7:21 am

   A County Commission voting to decide who is in what
   party? A joke of great proportion! Do you suppose
   the Speaker actually thought that would be worth
   anything or acted to have this silly vote take place?

5. Jon Crisp writes
   November 19th, 2009 7:52 am

   Does Rep. Williams think that everyone in the world has no ehtical standards… simply because he does not? He’s obviously pressuring folks to support him in a desperate attempt to hang on to the Speakership. In Williams convoluted world one’s word is not their bond and one should be able to demand loyalty and forgiveness after they have personally demonstrated none toward their own comrades. The fact is… Williams can read the handwriting on the wall… A huge “Tidal Wave” of conservative office holders are on the way…and those he chose an alliance with are doomed to forced retirement…leaving him on the scrap heap of office former “Friends” of Naifeh. Williams fears that he’ll be less than a “Back Bencher”…the GOP my put his office into the furthest bowels of the Legislative Plaza in a converted bathroom…and he deserves it. Williams deception and disloyalty have earned him this day of reckoning. As we are all told “What we sow…shall we also reap”. If the folks of Carter County have any sense at all..they replace this slimeball whom “uses” everyone he comes in contact with. PS - I hope he doesn’t come to Nashville and run for Juvenile Court Clerk!

6. time for truth writes
   November 19th, 2009 9:01 am

   Keep on fighting and purging anyone who’s not a true teabagger, guys!

7. cmarcus45 writes
   November 19th, 2009 9:12 am

   Keep him out. His Party betrayal was of epic proportions, and the Party should not let him back in. He’s free to do what he so desires, but so it the Party.

8. idgaf writes
   November 19th, 2009 9:48 am

   Why would/should you want someone back in the party that cannot be trusted ?

   One has to wonder about their loyaltys.

9. TNVolunteer73 writes
   November 19th, 2009 9:52 am

   Party, I belong to no party… I like our founders belive that Political Parties would divide our nation.

   I think they were right.

   Too many put loyalty to party above loyalty to country.

10. Blue writes
    November 19th, 2009 10:01 am

    Boy, you have to walk the GOP line or you will be punished. Where has all the creative thinking and freedom gone in the republican party.

11. SouthernIndie writes
    November 19th, 2009 11:59 am

    Blue: I’d say it’s at the same place as
    the Democratic Party was with Sen. Kurita!

12. dontcallmemikey writes
    November 19th, 2009 12:07 pm

    There is no creative thinking in the GOP, it’s all ‘follow the leader.’ LOL

13. Cyco writes
    November 19th, 2009 2:16 pm

    To Mr. Elmer Gantry,

    Finally something we can agree on.

    Best regards,

    Cyco

14. Donna Locke writes
    November 19th, 2009 4:47 pm

    I have to question the character of a district that would send someone like Kent Williams to the legislature and then defend and extol his reprehensible, destructive actions. Actions that have negatively affected the rest of state, specifically the majority who voted and are voting for Republican control. What special attention does a district like this deserve? You’re hurting yourselves by supporting this guy.

    If my district had sent Williams to the legislature, I would feel the same way. Y’all should be apologizing.

15. Blue writes
    November 19th, 2009 4:56 pm

    Sen. Kurita needed to go. She with a bold face sided with the republicans to get her way. It back fired.

16. dontcallmemikey writes
    November 19th, 2009 5:19 pm

    Donna, what actions specifically did Williams as Speaker cause to happen that affected ‘the rest of the state’? Now, I mean the people of the state and NOT just the GOP elected house officials. I would like to know what bills *didn’t* pass that positively, absolutely would have passed with Mumpower in control v. Williams.

    As for Carter County apologizing - again, Donna, you don’t know these people. Williams does.

    And as for Kurita - eh … that’s past. who cares? As I posted in another place, in response to The Rep, I don’t think the Dems did the right thing any more than I think the GOP did here.

    BTW - I personally hope the GOP installs a ‘toe the line’ type as a candidate agains Williams - it will be fun to watch how Carter Co. reacts

17. Donna Locke writes
    November 19th, 2009 5:58 pm

    Dcmmikey,

    Actually, some of the stuff that was passed is stuff I don’t even agree with, and yes, it would have been passed under Mumpower as well. For me that is a trade-off in supporting Republicans. I think Williams is more inflexible (and ignorant) on some issues of interest to me than Mumpower is or would be. I do favor Mumpower for the speaker’s position.

    But the key element here is Williams cannot be trusted, and the Kingsport paper laid that out as well as anyone could.

    There are some Republican-sponsored bills that did not advance because of Democratic-controlled committees and subcomittees.

    You saw the letter I sent to two newspapers in Willims’s district. Here it is again. After running an online poll on Williams, the Johnson City Press told me my letter was too long to publish. I didn’t offer to cut it. I don’t know what the Elizabethton Star did with it.

    The Editor:

    As an immigration-control activist who has had a statewide e-mail list of folks interested in keeping up with related legislative action, I must tell you folks that Carter County Republican Kent Williams, current House speaker in the Tennessee Legislature, has been an assault on the interests of many in this state.

    After decades of Democratic control of Tennessee’s legislative committees, the objective of the new Republican majority gained in the state House last fall should have been, as voters voted, to change that balance of power and rebalance the extreme — meaning the Republicans should now have control of all or most committees and of the House as a whole.

    That is not what happened. Instead Williams lied to his fellow Republicans, joined a conspiracy cooked up by the Democrats and himself, got himself elected speaker (Williams was the only Republican who voted for him), and proceeded to stab his fellow Republicans in the back, with all indications pointing to former Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, a Democrat, as still pulling the strings throughout the legislative session.

    Williams put the legislative committees into deadlock on some important issues by dividing membership evenly between Republicans and Democrats, so that Republicans could not effectively control any committee, as the Democrats had controlled them all for years! The House Calendar and Rules Committee, which determines whether a bill reaches the floor, is evenly divided, with the untrustworthy Williams as a member to cast a deciding vote.

    The Republicans are not in control with Kent Williams calling the shots.

    In April, Williams showed up in the House Elections Subcommittee, to which he had appointed a Democratic chairman, and talked against a Republican-sponsored bill to require voters to present government-issued photo identification before voting, with provisional voting allowed. This is common-sense legislation to protect our elections process.

    The Democrats had killed such bills before, and they did it again, thanks to Williams and committee shenanigans reminiscent of the stuff that went on under Naifeh. That is just one example.

    Except for one bill he added his name to, Rep./Speaker Kent Williams has shown no interest in bills to assist immigration-law enforcement and to demagnetize Tennessee to illegal immigration.

    Republicans have led on immigration-enforcement issues, with some Democrats onboard, but, because of Democratic control, Tennessee lags behind other states in passing such laws to protect Americans, who suffer increasing inequity because of our unsecured borders and unenforced federal and state laws.

    It is presumptuous of me, a nonresident of Carter County, to ask you this, but I ask you not to return Kent Williams to the legislature. Surely there is a Republican who can do better by you and this state.

    Donna Locke

18. Mike writes
    November 19th, 2009 6:58 pm

    Ms Locke:

    “I have to question the character of a district that would send someone like Kent Williams to the legislature and then defend and extol his reprehensible, destructive actions.”

    Please excuse the people of Carter county for ignoring any critique on their character from Nashville, the second largest city in the state which, despite a near half billion dollar annual budget, managed to run it’s school system in the ditch to the point the state had to step in and take it over. Davidson County, which despite it’s central geographic location, couldn’t keep the State Fair afloat. Metropolitan Nashville has spent and leveraged billions of dollars for sports venues, opera houses and libraries, yet over a thousand homeless per night huddle to sleep in the streets and in the urban greenspaces of which you are so proud.

    The character of Carter Countians is uncomplicated and consistent. They take care of their own. Carter County Schools function and children are educated. Despite being in a remote section of the state, regional and community festivals thrive. There are no skyboxes in the local sports venues, neither are there families living along the streets in cardboard boxes. Historically, Carter Countians have elected Representatives chosen to best assist their stewardship. They are conservative, fiscally responsible and community minded. Kent Williams is such a man. And it is certainly not in Carter Countians’ character to turn their back on someone who serves them well.

    It seems to me the only thing Carter County owes an apology for is not being more forceful in their support for the State of Franklin. You have questioned their character and this is their answer.

19. Rick writes
    November 19th, 2009 10:37 pm

    Ms. Locke,
    I see that you agree with how the party system is working in Washington, DC. Let the Democrats get their way in everything because they have ‘control’. See where the United States of America stands after four years of Democratic Obama control. Speaker Williams will obviously never do enough to please you and that’s all right. Why would he or anyone want to please a person who thinks that 50 districts in the state of Tennessee should have total control over the other 49? You are talking civil war woman and I don’t mean Democrats against Republicans, I mean common sense Republicans against ‘I can’t see the forest for the trees’ Republicans of which you are obviously the chairman. Give the people of Carter County credit. They obviously know their representative and have taken the time to understand why he voted for himself for Speaker. Had he not voted for himself when he had the opportunity, then he would have had to worry about an opponent. However, if he thought he didn’t do what the people of Carter County wanted, I doubt he’d run again. But again, I don’t expect you to believe that either as you obviously have never even spoken with the Speaker or anyone from Carter County. Continue to talk to people within your own little circle that believes exactly as you do and you will never have to worry about your brain having to work again.

20. Donna Locke writes
    November 19th, 2009 11:21 pm

    Rick, one of my close friends is from Elizabethton. We were two unconventional girls from Tennessee who met in Atlanta and became immediate friends.

    It’s nice Williams has some people to come to his defense, but why would you believe anything he says?

    None of this is up to me, for which I know you are grateful. I know some of you have something you’re trying to protect in this situation, and I sympathize — I’m not just saying that; I do — but not enough to go along with what you’re selling.

    Kent Williams and I are in the same generation. Yeah, we were raised up to share and get along. Romper Room, all that stuff. I think the Tennessee Republicans should share as much control as the Democrats did, since the Republicans are having to deal with many of the same people who shut them out, stole their ideas, killed their bills, and pulled a major trick on them in January.

    When we were children we learned that sharing is a virtue. We also learned that turnabout is fair play. Especially when the majority has signaled that turnabout is what they want. It’s time for some turnabout.

    That said, I think Mike Turner is a guy the Republicans could work with. If there is any sharing to be done, Turner would be the best vehicle for the Democrats to work out something. For sure, I would like to see more bipartisanship on the immigration-related (demagnetization) bills, and we have seen some of that in the past here.

    I doubt this will happen, but the best thing for Williams’s district at this point — and I don’t know the rules on this — would be for Kent to step down as speaker and let the Republicans go on and take full control of the legislature and divide things or not according to the original intention or as things have now developed.

21. Rick writes
    November 22nd, 2009 11:01 am

    Donna,
    Thank you for your post. Your belief that Turner is a Democrat the Republicans can most work with assures me how much you don’t know about the legislature in Nashville. I am no longer concerned with your opinions.

22. Donna Locke writes
    November 22nd, 2009 9:43 pm

    I’m gonna have to get a Kleenex….