Naifeh To Go Heeled In Legislature If Permit Holder Ban Is Lifted
Posted on May 12, 2009 at 6:59 amLt. Governor Ron Ramsey and Speaker Kent Williams have the authority to allow lawful handgun permit holders to bring guns into Legislative Plaza. If they do lift the ban, Speaker Emeritus Naifeh will be strapped as well, just in case tax protesters start getting any ideas:
“According to the NRA, handgun permit holders are more responsible with their firearms than off-duty police officers,” [Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey] said. “I believe that.”
If the ban on guns in the Legislative Plaza is lifted, he said, 220,000 trained and responsible permit holders would have the right to bring their guns in, but 6 million other Tennesseans would still be banned.The two speakers would have to agree to overturn the ban imposed by Naifeh and Wilder. Naifeh said he hopes it will remain in place.
“I’d hate to think of people having guns up here in ‘02,” he said, referring to mass protests when the Legislature considered a state income tax in 2002.
“If they do (allow guns), I guess I’ll have to pack mine,” said Naifeh, one of 34 state legislators who are listed as holding handgun carry permits.
SEE ALSO: Andy Sher
No Surrender: Forrester Speaks On The Truce
Posted on April 30, 2009 at 8:16 amTNDP chair Chip Forrester issues a retort to those that say the accord he reached with his detractors in the party was less a truce and more unconditional surrender:
Mr. Baker was right when he noted in his article that things were moving in a positive direction at Speaker-emeritus Jimmy Naifeh’s annual Coon Supper. But to characterize this as “surrender” could not be further from the truth. The coming together of all the constituencies for party unity is something I hoped would happen and could not be more pleased with how this has taken place.
He also wrongly states that the “deal” requires that I hire an executive director picked by the governor and reporting directly to the governor. This is completely untrue. What we have decided to do is bring on a top-flight communications director (something that I, in fact, campaigned on while running for chair) to more aggressively combat the continued failings of the Tennessee Republican Party which has been hijacked by extremist right wing zealots like Rep. Jason Mumpower, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and the current TNGOP Chair Robin Smith.
Given his history as a successful entrepreneur, Governor Bredesen looks at operations from a business perspective and in discussions has suggested that the party develop a business plan to help guide its operating activities, which we are in the process of developing now. The kind of leadership that the governor has given the state in these turbulent economic times is just the kind of leadership he has demonstrated for the Party.
What we are really all doing is having the entire team play to its strengths—the governor’s fundraising prowess is key to our statewide financial success, an “all hands on deck” candidate recruitment process that seeks, identifies, recruits and trains the best candidates for 2010, empowers the 72 members of the state Democratic executive committee in a much more visible leadership role, re-engages our 95 county parties, brings the grassroots activists from across the state into the Party and new 21st century communication tools (like our brand new web site www.tndp.org) that creates a community of committed Democratic activists—to do the single most important job we all have—win in 2010. There has been no “surrender” — just the unification of our Party for the battle ahead.
Rep. Gary Odom Apologizes To Caucus For Talking To Reporters
Posted on March 3, 2009 at 1:45 pmOdom addresses the controversy which erupted after he was quoted by Jackson Baker taking credit for the Speaker Williams coup and blaming Jimmy Naifeh for Democratic losses ths past November:
“Gary Odom got up and apologized to the caucus and to the speaker, and that’s pretty much the gist of it,” says Rep. Charles Curtiss, who had been openly critical of Odom for his remarks. “Then Speaker Naifeh got up and said that, for the benefit of the caucus, he wanted to put the whole episode behind us and move forward. Everybody seemed to be in agreement, and we left out of there hopefully all going in the same direction.”
Curtiss says Odom claimed he was misquoted in the Flyer. “He apologized for talking to the press, and I’m sinning right now talking to you,” Curtiss says. “He said that things were added to what he had to say and it distorted exactly what he intended to say. I have no way of knowing one way or the other. He seemed sincere to me. Nobody said anything negative to be honest with you. He spoke and Speaker Naifeh spoke and that was pretty much the gist of it.”
SEE ALSO:
Jackson Baker reflects on the controversy.
Andy Sher weaves the whole contro together quite nicely.
Odom’s Role In Williams Speakermaking Questioned
Posted on February 25, 2009 at 2:33 pmBy his colleagues in the House:
Rep. Mike Turner, the House Democratic Caucus Chairman, and Rep. John Litz of Morristown sat down with reporters to give a new timeline, one that leaves Odom almost completely out of the picture. In this version, Litz begins asking around about a Republican candidate who could play the foil to Rep. Jason Mumpower. By the second week of December, Williams comes to Litz to see if the Democrats can deliver, but Litz only tells “Speaker Naifeh and one other individual that day,” according to a timeline he released.
Odom, who says Naifeh was out of the loop, is mentioned once in Litz’s timeline: The two speak during a caucus meeting, during which Odom “informed me that he had spoken to Rep. Williams and mentioned the Speakership to him around Thanksgiving.” Litz says at that point he and Naifeh decided to keep the Williams Plan quiet until the day of the vote.
Turner said in today’s interview that Litz’s timeline was not meant to contradict Odom, but it’s obvious that House Democrats are quickly coming to the defense of Naifeh, and at the expense of Odom.
Is this the first shot across the bow in that attempted coup we’ve heard about recently?
UPDATE: Much more from Woods.
One Shot, Two Kills: Odom Was The Mastermind Of The Speaker Williams Coup
Posted on February 20, 2009 at 8:16 amJackson Baker reveals that Speaker Jimmy Naifeh was not aware of the plan to get all 49 Democrats to collude in electing Rep. Williams Speaker until the last moment:
Longtime House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh was never a party to the arrangement and only came to know of it at 5 p.m. the day before the scheduled Speaker election. Naifeh had in fact consistently importuned Williams (along with other friendly Republicans) to vote for him as Speaker right up until the eve of the vote. “And I couldn’t vote for Speaker Naifeh. I just couldn’t,” says Williams, who bases that resolve on his having given a now famous public vow to vote “for a Republican.”
Again, Williams insists and Odom concurs that Naifeh was utterly ignorant of the plot and knew nothing of it until the last minute, as it were, and then, with his own dreams of retaining the Speakership expiring, merely acquiesced.
This directly contradicts a widespread suspicion among Republicans and, for that matter, some Democrats not now serving in the legislature that the wily Naifeh must have had a hand in the undertaking. (One such Democrat was former state representative Kim McMillan of Clarksville, who served as majority leader under Naifeh and is now a candidate for governor. While making a visit of her own to Memphis on Wednesday night, McMillan, a Naifeh loyalist, made it clear she thought the longtime Speaker had to have been a participant in the plot. “That just sounds like Speaker Naifeh!” she said with an admiring smile.
But not so. In point of fact, Odom – who had intended to challenge Naifeh for the Speakership had the Democrats maintained their majority – chose, when asked point-blank, not to dispute the interpretation that his involvement in the Williams affair had been aimed at both Naifeh and Mumpower.
SEE ALSO:
Jeff Woods
Mediaverse
Shock And Appall
Posted on February 18, 2009 at 8:56 pmTNGOP spokesman Bill Hobbs on the news that Speaker Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh will have the benefit of two assistants:
NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Republican Party is appalled to learn from news reports that former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh has been assigned two assistants at a time when the state is facing huge deficits and many lawmakers are having to share a single secretary.
“Jimmy Naifeh is no longer the speaker and there is no reason he should have two secretaries and assistants at a time many lawmakers are having to share just one assistant, and the state is facing a severe budget crunch,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party.
But Wouldn’t Naifeh Just Have Straight Flipped Him?
Posted on February 13, 2009 at 7:19 amNewscoma ain’t buying the conventional wisdom that it was Rep. Gary Odom who ultimately persuaded Rep. Kent Williams that he could be Speaker:
This is my opinion and my opinion only: Gary Odom was not the mastermind behind the Kent Williams Speaker grab last month. I’m just saying. He may have been a foot soldier, and I’m not saying he didn’t play a part in it, but come on, everyone with a brain knows that it was Jimmy Naifeh who came up with this.
Please, He’s Just A Minion
Posted on February 9, 2009 at 2:09 pmRobin Smith denies she called Speaker Kent Williams the devil:
“Her exact words were, ‘Congratulations speaker. It’s hard to kill the devil but in two years, you’re a dead man.’
“That’s a pretty harsh statement,” Williams told reporters after Smith expelled him from the party this morning. He said it made him “feel cheated” of his big moment in the sun.
To the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Smith denies she called Williams the devil. She says she was talking to Jimmy Naifeh at the time. “That is an absolute lie,” she says of Williams’ account of what happened. She didn’t approach the podium at all, she says, but looked Naifeh “straight in the eye” from the House floor. “I just mouthed the words, ‘It’s hard to kill the devil.’”
Tom Humphrey has more on the dispute from Jimmy Naifeh:
Naifeh, meanwhile, says he had never met Smith and didn’t recognize her, but recalls “some woman yelling at Kent Williams” that “We’re coming after you.”
“Kent said ‘Come on,’ or something like that,” said Naifeh.
But Naifeh said he doesn’t recall the word “devil” being used.
“If she said that, I didn’t hear it,” he said.
SEE ALSO: TNGOP Chief of Staff Mark Winslow:
This is just more victimization from Williams. I was standing with [Robin Smith] on the floor when she addressed [Williams]. She did not “approach” the podium as he has said. We were standing at Mumpower’s desk. Her specific comment was “Good luck, you’ll need it. You are a man without a party.” Then she looked at Nafieh and said “They say it’s tough to kill the devil, but we’ll get there.”
I think you heard today, Robin’s determination that this not get personal. Clearly from his release and now this silliness, Williams intends to keep trying to make it personal. He needs to follow his own advice when he said she has made her decision and so be it. It’s sad to see someone who portrays himself as a leader of this state acting in such a childish fashion.
SEE ALSO: Tiny Cat Pants
Speaker Williams Lunches Post-Boot At Tazza With Speaker Emeritus
Posted on at 12:08 pmA Post Politics informant reports spotting Speaker Kent Williams walking into downtown Italian eatery, Tazza, with Speaker Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh and two unidentified gentlemen.
The informant could not determine if the foursome were part of a larger party…
A Naifeh Retrospective
Posted on February 8, 2009 at 12:23 pmBy Theo Emery:
To outside eyes, Naifeh might appear indiscernible from other Tennessee politicians. In reality, he came from a very different background. His parents were Lebanese immigrants, and his father “didn’t speak a word of English” when he arrived in the United States, Naifeh said. In 1994, James Zogby, now the president of the Arab American Institute, listed Naifeh among prominent Arab-American elected officials around the country.
In addition to the family store, Naifeh’s father was deeply involved in the community and a member of the town board. He also founded a community institution that continues today: the Coon Supper, a seen-and-be-seen event for politicians who flock to Covington for a meal of raccoon or, for the faint of heart, chicken.
After attending the University of Tennessee and finishing a stint in the U.S. Army, Naifeh returned to Covington and decided to run for the House. He failed in his first try, in 1972, by only about a dozen votes. After that loss, he pledged to take nothing for granted again, and won in 1974 by about 1,500 votes.
From the beginning, Naifeh knew he didn’t want to be just another lawmaker, and set his sights on the House leadership.
“I made a decision then that I was either going to get involved or I was going to get out,” he said. “I wasn’t going to be someone who was just up here.”
SEE ALSO: Chris Sanders
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Rep. Kent Coleman On Keeping The Dems Together To Vote For Speaker Williams
Posted on January 25, 2009 at 9:24 pmThe Murfreesboro legislator contends the famous recess before the nomination for House Speaker was necessary to keep potential “Mumpower Democrats” on the reservation:
My first understanding that that was a possibility took place in the caucus meeting, which was scheduled for 11 o’clock on Tuesday morning and we go into session at noon. At that time, we were informed that the existing speaker (Rep. Jimmy Naifeh) could not get the votes necessary to elect a speaker, and somebody submitted the proposal that Kent Williams would vote for himself if he were going to get elected as speaker, and the only way he could get elected as speaker, in our mind, was for all the Democrats to vote for him. But at the time we first left our caucus meeting to go on to the floor, it was my impression that Kent Williams did not have the necessary votes to get elected speaker. Not until we recessed after the House members were sworn into office that we took a recess and received the commitments from some Democrats that might have in the past pledged their support to Jason Mumpower.
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The Buck Stops With Speaker Williams
Posted on January 21, 2009 at 7:09 amConcerns about who is really in charge of the state house assuaged by the House Democratic spokesman:
Addison Pate, a spokesman for House Democrats, said that the “emeritus” title carries no weight or benefits, and is intended only to recognize Naifeh’s 18 years as speaker, the longest term in Tennessee history.
“The title was simply to honor that service,” Pate said, saying that the resolution, unlike a bill, had no price tag connected to it, known as a fiscal note. “Speaker Williams is the speaker of the House. The buck stops with Speaker Williams.”
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New Speaker Confronted With Sexual Harassment Charges
Posted on January 20, 2009 at 2:43 pmAllegations of sexual harassment dating from 2007 reemerge. Go to the main site for more.
REACTS:
Say Uncle
Woods
Vandy Right
Silence
Sean Braisted
Hurtt
Humphrey
Sher
WPLN
Schrade
Arrowood
Locker
Sher II
When Did Naifeh Become Speaker Emeritus?
Posted on January 16, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Did I miss the vote on this resolution or did somebody go and jump the gun again?
For The Careerists
Posted on at 10:15 amGary Odom asserts that it was not a naked pursuit of power but a feeling of kinship with legislative employees who might be fired under a Speaker Mumpower which led Kent Williams to accept the deal that made him speaker:
Odom was also aware of another factor in Williams’ psyche that might cause him to risk his party’s rancor. Williams had told Odom that when he was 23 and newly married and starting a family he had found a good job with the Tennessee Department of Transportation. As a Republican, Williams was marked by then Gov. Ray Blanton for removal, not because of job performance but for political reasons.
“I knew as a result of that experience that he had a sick feeling in his stomach for all the career people, researchers and legal professionals, who would be losing their jobs when Jason Mumpower took over as speaker. Some of those people had been in those jobs for over 20 or 30 years.
“I think some of that played into his thinking,” Odom said.
(TFJ: Woodsie)
Two Other Republicans Were Offered The Williams Deal
Posted on at 9:55 amTNGOP chair Robin Smith reports that Democrats came to at least two other Republicans with the offer to be the Democratic nominee for Speaker:
In conversations with members of the Legislature, I have now spoken with at least two other Republican Members of the House who were contacted in addition to Kent Williams to be nominated as Speaker by the Democrats. So, of the three members approached to participate in this deal, only Kent Williams agreed to conspire with the Democrats. This speaks to the character of Williams, but more importantly, to the character of the 49 honorable men and women who serve us so well in the House. I am proud as Chairman to stand with them on principle and the values of the majority of Tennesseans.
Banking On Naifeh
Posted on January 15, 2009 at 5:02 pmLt. Gov, Ron Ramsey on former Speaker Jimmy Naifeh:
“[Former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh] and I had that trust. Did we agree on the issues? Absolutely not. But I can honestly say any time Jimmy Naifeh told me something, I could take it to the bank.”
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On Speaker Emeritus
Posted on at 10:29 amAs we know, plans are in the works to give now Rep. Jimmy Naifeh the title of Speaker Emeritus.
Being a new office, the position could be simply ceremonial as Senator John Wilder’s was or it could be something more. Let’s look at another state and their experience with the office.
In Pennsylvania:
In a move that demonstrates the ever-resilient nature of John Perzel, Republican leaders in the State House have voted to name him Speaker Emeritus, and give him extra staff and leadership office space.
This means that Perzel has, depending on his wishes, either a graceful position from which to exit the Pennsylvania House for a much more lucrative private sector career, or a platform from which to launch another bid for a third term as Speaker.
This should be an easy agreement to sell to rank and file Republican members, because it does not require any incumbent Republican leader to be bumped out of his position, nor does it require any Republican caucus committee chair to be removed.
Again from Pennsylvania:
Mr. Perzel’s new salary of $73,000 is the same as rank-and-file House members, Mr. Miskin said. But it is considerably less than the $112,000 he received last year as speaker. Mr. Perzel will have a slightly larger staff of three or four people, compared with the normal rank-and-file lawmaker’s staff of one or two, Mr. Miskin said.
But he insisted that’s fair because, as speaker emeritus, Mr. Perzel will be on a par with chairmen of standing House committees, such as appropriations, finance and others, who have staffs of up to four aides.
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