Tennessee First Lady Andre Conte Slams “Partisan Hacks” In Uncovered Bunker Era Memorandum

By Kleinheider Posted on May 7, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Matt Pulle, with an assist from GQ Drew and Big T, uncovers some interesting correspondence from our First Lady during the height of the Bredesen Bunker era:

“I know Mr. Johnson has some interesting conspiracy theories, but I think this time he’s really grasping at straws,” says Bredesen spokeswoman Dana Coleman. “The reality is that his request was a fairly sweeping one that involved searching for files held in three different places.”

That may be true—the center is known for its rather cumbersome requests—but surely the administration wanted to keep at least one email under wraps for as long as possible. In December, Conte, who has been the public face of the project, sent a note to state architect Mike Fitts. Here Conte—who is referred to as “FL,” for first lady, in many administration emails—comes off as part Cruella de Vil, part Christian motivational speaker as she encourages Fitts to continue touting the project in the face of bitter criticism.

“You are doing a magnificent job of deflecting hits and correcting erroneous information regarding Conservation Hall,” the FL writes. “This is an innovative design and a long time coming—what a shame partisan political hacks have targeted the project out of meanness of spirit and selfishness.”

Conte concludes her note with a hearty dose of good cheer.

“Keep a song in your heart and a smile on your face” the FL assures Fitts. “We will prevail.”

SEE ALSO: Bill Hobbs

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Tags: Andre Conte, Bredesen Bunker, Drew Johnson, GQ Drew, Phil Bredsen, The Tennessee Center For Policy Research, Trent Seibert  

Why You Gotta Bring Up Old Stuff?

By Kleinheider Posted on April 18, 2008 at 11:25 am

By now this is old news, of course, but for the last few days I couldn’t help but think just which Tennessee superdelegate was it Governor Bredesen was talking about in the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this week? For a refresher, let us look at the words spoken by the Honorable Phil Governor:

Another worrisome sign: Bredesen said some Democrats running for local and statewide office in Tennessee are now distancing themselves from both Obama and Clinton.

“One of the superdelegates said to me, ‘I’m in a swing district and both of them are poison to me,’ ” Bredesen said.

Making educated guesses and looking at the list of delegates many astute political watchers made assumptions as to whom the culprit was. John Rodgers of the City Paper seemed to cement the conventional wisdom by putting the word “think” in quotes when introducing this denial by Rep. Lincoln Davis’s spokesman, Tom Hayden:

“I don’t think the governor was speaking about Lincoln Davis because he did not say this to the governor.”

But is the key word “think” here or is it the rest of this sentence? I mean the denial is in there stated rather plainly after all, is it not? Why say “think” at all then? Well, the Governor is the Governor and one doesn’t put words in the governor’s mouth. Tom Hayden can’t say who the Governor was referring to because Tom Hayden is not the Governor.

Now, of course, the Governor is never going to say whom he was referring to and whomever said it to the Governor is not likely to cop to it. But if one takes at face value the Davis denial, if one accepts the explicit denial that Lincoln Davis did not say this to the Governor, I thought it only fair to get some responses from other possible suspects.

When asked for a confirmation or a denial that his boss, Congressman John Tanner, was the superdelegate being referred to, spokesman Randy Ford said the following:

I’m not in a position to confirm or deny. As you know, Congressman Tanner isn’t yet decided in the primary race but looks forward to a successful election year for the Democratic Party. He talks regularly with Gov. Bredesen and others in the delegation on a variety of topics, but we don’t comment on those private conversations.

The other member of the Congressional delegation who would seem to fit the description would be Congressman Bart Gordon of the Sixth Congressional District:

Congressman Gordon doesn’t recall having any conversations with the governor regarding the election. I would suggest you ask Governor Bredesen who he was speaking about since he has been all over the country talking about the issue.

Of course, none of this proves anything but if one is going to parse statements there is certainly plenty to go around, is there not?

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Tags: Bart Gordon, John Tanner, Julie Eubank, Lincoln Davis, Phil Bredsen, Randy Ford, Tom Hayden