April 23, 2008

"No Rep. Briley. Do You?"

State Rep. Rob Briley was a mean and pathetic drunk. Sober, it turns out, he can be quite the jerk. The Tennessean tells the story of how Briley verbally assaulted state Rep. Stacey Campfield with a series of inane, irrelevant questions before killing Campfield's entirely reasonable bill that would have relieved "fathers" of further legal obligations (including paying child support) for children who they initially believed to be their's but were later proven via DNA testing to be not their's.

Briley may be sober now, but it appears his heavy drinking killed off more than a few of his more important brain cells. Briley's series of questions were, to be charitable, stupid. Especially the question he asked Campfield if Campfield thought adultery was "appropriate," a question that is as devoid of connection to the issue raised by Campfield's bill as it is loaded with irony given the history of the man who asked it.

Briley, you'll recall, was the very married father of four who, according to press reports, cheated on his wife and had an affair with the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association lobbyist while she was shepherding legislation through the House Judiciary Committee that Briley chaired.

Campfield managed to hold fire and not blister Briley with the response Briley so richly deserved, but I'd have loved to have heard him respond, "No, Rep. Briley, I don't believe adultery is ever appropriate. Do you?"

Maybe that would have shamed Briley into shutting his mouth. Probably not.

I was willing to give Rep. Briley a pass after his graceful apology on the House floor a few months back for his drunken-driving crime spree that led to his YouTube-immortalized arrest, but not now, not after this. His performance was disgraceful and served no purpose other than to demonstrate vividly that Rep. Briley's retirement from the legislature at the end of this year will vastly improve the legislature.

Unfortunately from his remarks you get the sense that he's hoping to return to the legislature at some point in the future.

Update: Kay Brooks has some thoughts on the episode.