Rep. Blackburn Queries Al Gore On His Personal Stake In Cap And Trade Legislation
Posted on April 24, 2009 at 1:19 pmMarsha Blackburn questions Al Gore’s motivations behind supporting cap and trade legislation because of his investments in “green startups” and his position as a partner at Kleiner Perkins:
Rep. Blackburn: …You talked a little about [that] people have to have trust in what you’re doing and I think you know that this bill is going to fundamentally change the way America works and it’s going to effect families. We’ve all talked about how it affects individuals and what it’s going to do to their budgets and… ah… what it’s going to do to jobs in this country. And given the magnitude of those changes, I think it’s really important that no suspicion or shadow fall on the foremost advocates of climate change legislation. So I wanted to give you the opportunity to kind of clear the air about your motives and to set the record straight about your motives for some of your former constituents. And I’ve got an article from [the] October 8 [2008] New York Times Magazine about a firm called Kleiner Perkins… a capital firm called Kleiner Perkins. Are you aware of that company?
Al Gore: Well, yes. I’m a partner at Kleiner Perkins.
Rep. Blackburn: So you’re a partner in Kleiner Perkins. OK. Now they have invested about a billion dollars in 40 companies that are going to benefit from cap-and-trade legislation. So is the legislation that we are discussing here today, is that something that you are going to personally benefit from?
Al Gore: [Sigh]… I believe that the transition to a green economy is good for our economy and good for all of us. And I have invested in it. But every penny that I have made, I have put right into a nonprofit, the Alliance for Climate Protection, to spread awareness of why we have to take on this challenge. And, Congresswoman, if you’re… if you believe that the reason I have been working on this issue for 30 years is because of greed, you don’t know me.
Rep. Blackburn: No, sir, I’m not making accusations. I’m asking questions that have been asked of me. And individuals… constituents… that were seeking a point of clarity. So I am asking…
Al Gore: I understand exactly what you’re doing Congresswoman. Everybody here does.
Rep. Blackburn: Well, are you willing to divest yourself of any profit. Does all of it go to a not-for-profit. Is it an education not-for-profit?
Al Gore: Every penny that I have made has gone to it. Every penny from the movie, the book… uh… from any investments from renewable energy. I’ve been willing to put my money where my mouth is. Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?
Rep. Blackburn: I am simply asking for clarification on the relationship.
Al Gore: I’m proud of it. I’m proud of it.
SEE ALSO:
TNGOP
Politico
Tennessee Guerilla Women
Rep. Marsha Blackburn On The Goings-On In The Legislature She Left Behind
Posted on January 13, 2009 at 7:58 pmThe income tax fighting former state senator sends out her condolences to her conservative homeys on the election of Speaker Kent Williams:
“This is a bitter night for of my fellow Tennessee Republicans. I have been in Nashville during trying times and know how disappointing it is when the will of the voter is ignored. Many hoped that after November, the smoky back rooms of Nashville could be sealed off for good. It seems that the same politics as usual that threatened a back door income tax almost a decade ago has re-emerged to overturn the message of the ballot box. The voters put 50 Republicans in the House to change the way our state does business. Now it appears that 49 of them must work harder to ensure their will is carried out.”
Rep. Blackburn’s Home Listed As Foreclosure
Posted on January 9, 2009 at 7:34 amMindy Tate reports:
A foreclosure notice published Thursday on 7th District Congressman Marsha Blackburn’s Murray Lane home in Brentwood was the result of her bank’s failure to make automatic payments to Countrywide Home Loans, according to her staff.
The legal notice, titled “Substitute Trustee’s Sale,” said the Blackburns’ home would be sold on the steps of the Williamson County Judicial Building on Jan. 29, although her office said the entire issue is a paperwork error by the bank.
Blackburn’s spokesperson Claude Chafin late Thursday afternoon provided a letter from GreenBank’s Chief Information Officer Bill Adams which said, “It has come to my attention that several electronic payments authorized by (Chuck Blackburn) were not processed by Green Bank as requested, though sufficient funds were in the bank to cover those payments.
SEE ALSO: Jeff Woods
Geography Is Destiny
Posted on January 6, 2009 at 9:41 amTom Humphrey examines how the grand divisions of Tennessee might play a role in the GOP primary for Governor:
In a competitive primary this year, it would seem a credible candidate will need at least $3 million, and that could mean an advantage for the person best able to self-finance. That has often been true for candidates besides Corker, including Frist and sitting (and term-limited) Gov. Phil Bredesen.
On the other hand, geography could play a bigger role in the 2010 campaign. If Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey enters the race later - as many expect - the Republican primary would have three East Tennesseans to split the regional vote.
That, in theory, could help Gibbons of West Tennessee or U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Middle Tennessee, should she decide to join the fray. Blackburn’s district stretches into the Memphis suburbs.
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Looks Like She’s In The Front Row
Posted on December 16, 2008 at 7:39 amRep. Marsha Blackburn finally gets an office in DC constituents can find:
Despite the fact she’s part of an even smaller Republican minority come January, Republican Congressman Marsha Blackburn is beginning to see the benefit of growing seniority: She’s finally out of the almost-inaccessible fifth floor of the House Cannon Office Building. Her spokesman, Claude Chafin, was delighted to report that she’s moving down to the second floor — which all the elevators reach, unlike the fifth floor.
“The biggest inconvenience of our current space is that it can be difficult for constituents to find,” Chafin said. “Moving to the second floor will make Congressman Blackburn more accessible to our constituents. The move will also give us faster access to the House floor.”
Marsha Blackburn Says Southerners Know What Time It Is
Posted on December 13, 2008 at 11:21 pmThe Congressman praises Southerners “internal clocks” in her address to graduates at Mississippi State:
Rep. Marsha W. Blackburn, R-Tenn., addressed graduates at both the Friday night and Saturday morning programs.
The Laurel, Miss., native praised Southerners finely tuned internal clocks, explaining, We know the rhythms of life are to be enjoyed and not to be sped past.
“Anything worth doing is worth doing well and poor decisions are almost always made in a rush. When you rush to the finish line, you are speeding past opportunities.
“As you travel in life, listen to your internal clock and go at your own pace, a pace that reflects the studied contemplation of the front porch,” Blackburn said.
Is There A Problem Here?
Posted on November 17, 2008 at 7:43 amRep. Marsha Blackburn has a beef with the proposed bailout of the auto-industry:
“What the auto industry is now doing is asking the American taxpayer to cover their legacy cost-their pension, their retirement, their health care benefits, those items. And they are now asking the American taxpayer to write a check and pay for those, and I’ve got a problem with that.”
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WMBs Right Here
Posted on October 28, 2008 at 11:01 amAnne Schroeder Mullins compares and contrasts the infamous new McCarthyite Michelle Bachmann to her Tennessee initial sister, Marsha Blackburn.
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The Gubernatorial Destabilization Act Of 2008
Posted on October 4, 2008 at 9:21 pmEvans Donnell assumes that Lincoln Davis’ no vote on the bailout means he running for Governor. Maybe. Then again, he’s a pretty populist conservative Democrat, always has been. He might have voted that way regardless of his intentions.
The vote that interests me the most among the Tennessee delegation was that of another possible Gubernatorial candidates, this one on the GOP side. Rep. Zach Wamp, while voting with the GOP and Davis against the bailout on Monday switched course Friday and voted with bipartisan elite consensus for the bailout.
Now, Wamp has said if Bill Frist does not run for Governor, he likely will. Likely puts it mildly. In many ways, Wamp already is running. Wamp, despite no serious opposition in his Congressional race, has been buying up billboards, some very much outside his district. Wamp is a candidate.
The question is: why break ranks with the populist conservatism amongst the grassroots of Tennessee if you intend to run for Governor? Why let Lincoln Davis and Marsha Blackburn get to your Right on what was a very visible, important vote?
Was it to curry favor with some of the high roller types that he may need to fund his campaign coffers? Or is it something different? Was Zach Wamp sending a message to the moderate Republican powers-that-be in Tennessee that he is not a bomb-thrower, that he can be counted on to compromise and make the hard choices needed to govern.
If Bill Frist does not run for Governor on the Republican side, Mayor Bill Haslam of Knoxville, like Zach Wamp, is another candidate looking hard at the race. Haslam is a man very much of the Lamar Alexander/Howard Baker school of almost non-ideological, pragmatic GOP governance.
In a way, the fact that in a Fristless Governor’s race Wamp’s chief rival would likely be Haslam makes Wamp’s vote even more intriguing. One might think that Wamp positioning himself in a potential race against Haslam would want to place himself as the conservative alternative to the Knoxville Mayor, even at the cost of painting himself a bombthrower.
This is exactly where Marsha Blackburn is positioned. While the congresswoman gave some indication she was on the fence, she ultimately elected to vote with the conservative grassroots and against the bailout. Blackburn is also talked up as a possible Gubernatorial candidate. If the question of who the “true conservative” would be in a Governor’s race that included Blackburn and Wamp, clearly, with this vote, Blackburn has further solidified her case.
But is the title of “true conservative” in a statewide GOP primary really something worth having? What Wamp might have been weighing in the politics of this vote was the history of statewide politics in Tennessee and his fellow class of 1994 revolutionaries’ role in it.
While there have been many Republican statewide victories in Tennessee, no one outside the moderate Howard Baker wing has ever been successful. Van Hilleary, in his run for Governor in 2002, and Ed Bryant, in his two runs for Senate, have been kept on the outside of higher elected office.
An ideological movement conservative candidate has rarely won a statewide GOP in this state. And when they do, like Van Hilleary, they lose.
This may be, in the end, what caused Wamp to eschew Blackburnism and vote the way successful statewide GOP politicians like Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander voted on one of the most crucial measures the Congress has taken up since the authorization of War in Iraq.
Could She Go And Do It Again
Posted on September 25, 2008 at 7:26 amOne of the big factors which benefited Marsha Blackburn back in 2002 allowing her to win her congressional seat was that she ran as a Middle Tennessean in a West Tennessee heavy primary.
Three major candidates from the Memphis area of her sprawling district split that vote giving the election to her.
Frank Cagle argues that in a 2010 GOP Gubernatorial primary containing any combination of two potential east Tennessee candidates could result in a Blackburn win. Assuming, of course, Bill Frist is not a candidate.
[Bill Haslam] and his brother Jimmy and their friends played a major role in electing U.S. Sen. Bob Corker. They learned statewide fund-raising for political races at their father’s knee.
The problem for Haslam and Wamp is that they will split the East Tennessee vote and could lose to Middle-West Tennessee Congressman Marsha Blackburn.
Blackburn’s congressional district runs from the heavily Republican “collar counties” in suburban Nashville all the way to Shelby County. There are more Republican votes there than can be achieved in a two-candidate field in Republican East Tennessee.
Blackburn made her name as a state senator from Brentwood who opposed the income tax and was a darling of talk radio. But her goal has always been the governor’s office and she has been working toward it for years. Her only handicap would be her inability to raise the kind of money Wamp or Haslam could accrue. The Republican establishment does not care for her at all.
Also complicating the picture is Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, from the Tri-Cities. Should he run, it would further split the East Tennessee vote and also help Blackburn.
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A Cancerous Tweet
Posted on September 24, 2008 at 1:02 pmChristian Grantham, after glancing at Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s teeth in a photo, wonders on Twitter whether the Congressman is smoker. The Representative’s spokesman, Claude Chaffin, had the following to say when reached for comment on whether Marsha Blackburn is, or ever has been, a smoker:
“In the midst of a Middle Tennessee fuel crisis, debate over a $700 billion dollar bailout to avert a possible Wall Street crisis, and a significant Republican victory on energy; you can understand why I won’t comment on every random tweet out there.”
Sizing Up The Seventh
Posted on September 22, 2008 at 6:18 amTom Guleff runs down the candidates for Marsha Blackburn’s Congressional seat were she to make an unlikely run for Governor or nab a job in a potential McCain Administration.
Born Again Feminist
Posted on September 19, 2008 at 6:58 amTennessee Democratic Party spokesman Wade Munday is quoted in a Jeff Woods piece on Marsha Blackburn’s new found embrace of gender issues:
“Marsha Blackburn,” says state Democratic Party spokesman Wade Munday, “is someone who has been silent on women’s issues until now, who refers to herself as ‘congressman’ and likely relishes her quotidian stance against women’s equal work for equal pay. She seems a tad bit disingenuous in her current defense of Sarah Palin. Just a tad.”
Rep. Blackburn Needs Money To Fight Token Democratic Opposition
Posted on September 16, 2008 at 7:16 amThat’s what she says in a fundraising letter to supporters:
After an aggressive primary, I will face a Democrat opponent this fall. Being a consistent conservative voice is a sure way to draw attacks from the Democrat attack machine. They will spend several hundred million dollars to make sure that the Democrats have control of the White House, the Senate and House. If I’m going to continue fighting for conservative values in Washington, I must be prepared to answer these attacks in a timely manner. As you know, this costs money.
During the next 45 days, I will continue to work day and night for the McCain-Palin ticket, work to be certain that Senator Alexander returns to the U.S. Senate, that we take the State House and that we hold a majority in the State Senate.
I need your help! I was forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the recent Primary. It was money that I was planning on spending this fall against my Democrat opponent.
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The Race For The 2010 Gubernatorial Nomination
Posted on September 6, 2008 at 12:45 pmThe beginnings of the race were evident at the major party national conventions these past two weeks:
“That’s clearly been the back story of this week,” Rep. Wamp said. “You see the race starting to take shape. There’s no question in 2010 there’s going to be a huge race for the governor’s seat, and it’s going to develop between Nov. 4 and January, when the president is sworn in. It’s going to be a two-year campaign.”
Another potential gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, hosted a similar event for the Tennessee delegation. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, both also reportedly considering a run at the governor’s seat, had prominent speaking roles at the convention.
“We have a very strong bench,” Rep. Wamp said. “It’s made for quite a few fun jokes this week.”
Marsha Blackburn: “Listen Up, Boys!”
Posted on September 4, 2008 at 8:14 pmMarsha Blackburn speaks to the delegates of Republican National Convention:
We are the gun totin’, God fearin,’ flag wavin’ Americans who are excited to see two crack shots on the ticket with the status quo in their sights. We don’t need to elect someone to install an ATM machine on Pennsylvania Avenue that debits your liberty to fund wasteful programs, and won’t do the one thing that can drive down gas prices.
Marsha Makes Her Presence Felt
Posted on at 7:24 amDespite being unceremonious dropped from a main podium speaking role, Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s voice is still being heard at the Republican National Convention:
Originally, she was scheduled to speak at the convention on Tuesday, but her slot was canceled because of adjustments to the convention schedule caused by Hurricane Gustav.
It is not clear whether she is going to speak today, the final day of the convention.
At the news conference with conservative Republican female leaders, including business executive Carly Fiorina, Blackburn joined in blasting the media for their portrayal of Palin.
“The media continues to attack conservative women to seek a way to diminish their records and to demonize their actions,” she said. “Let’s keep the focus on the issues.”
Gustav May Leave Blackburn On The Outside
Posted on September 3, 2008 at 6:14 amFrom Theobold:
Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s scheduled speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday was canceled as the party continued to adjust its schedule because of Hurricane Gustav. Spokesman Claude Chafin said it was not certain whether the Brentwood Republican would get a speaking spot during the convention, which ends Thursday.
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