May 29, 2006

One Final Day of Naifeh's Corruption

State Rep. Chris Clem, R-Lookout Mountain, who is not seeking re-election to his House District 27 seat, reflects on his last day in the state legislature - a day that saw House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh violate chamber rules and use corrupt methods to ram through two bills, one greatly raising legislators' pensions and the other making it more difficult for challengers to unseat incumbents.

This "Incumbent Protection Bill" was the final bill. We debated it for hours. The Democrats did not have the votes to pass it in either chamber. Finally, around 8 p.m. they were able to pass this bill in the Senate. They moved it to the House. I attempted to call for "the Rule." "The Rule" simply requires all members to sit in their chair and not push the vote button for anyone else. In other words, only members sitting in their chair should vote while under "the Rule."

I realized that 10 members were not in the chamber. Six of them had gone home and were no longer in Nashville. Democrat Speaker Jimmy Naifeh refused to recognize me and allow me to call for "the Rule." Republicans then objected to calling for a vote. We raised the required five hands. Naifeh claimed he saw no hands. He then allowed the vote.

In order to pass there must be 50 votes. The bill received 58 votes. Ten of the members who voted for the Incumbent Protection Bill were not even in the chamber when someone voted for them. Six of the 10 were not even in Nashville. Ironically, if I had been allowed to call for "the Rule" then the Incumbent Protection Bill would have fallen two votes short of passage.

That is how the legislature spent most of the final day. We had passed the budget on Friday. We came back an extra day in order to give us more money and prevent write-in candidates from qualifying against us. I will miss fighting against such corruption.

Naifeh is a blight on the people of Tennessee.

Neither the legislator pension increase nor the incumbent protection bill become law if Gov. Bredesen were to veto them. Given they were passed improperly, he should veto them. I doubt he will.