April 27, 2005

Dictator

Tennessee's only blogging legislator, State Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, blows the whistle on House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, who found a way to cheat the legislative system. Blake Wylie also has two must-read posts on Naifeh's shenanigans, here and a follow-up here.

What Naifeh did was this: He violated House rules in order to kill popular legislation he personally opposed. Some people think Naifeh is the epitome of corrupt good-ol-boy lobbyist-larded politics. I don't know about that. But I do know that what he did yesterday was pure political corruption of the most dangerous kind.

Naifeh showed himself yesterday as a proto-dictator who merely masquerades as a servant of democracy.

If you doubt the value of a legislator blogging or of blogging in general, just compare Campfield's post and the two from Wylie to the coverage this story gets (or, more likely, won't get) in tomorrow's newspapers across Tennessee.

Below is an email from TeamGOP.org, which includes also an email forwarded from John Harris, Executive Director of the Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA), regarding Naifeh's corrupt action yesterday. TeamGOP.org says:

House Bill HB0887 would allow those with a Tennessee carrying permit to bring their handgun into an establishment, like an Applebee’s, O’charleys or a TGI Fridays, licensed to sell alcohol for consumption on the premises provided that the person is not consuming alcohol. Something already allowed in many states.

The action taken by some in the House on Wednesday demonstrates two things. First, it is long overdue for important organizations like the National Rifle Association, to get their heads out of the sand in dealing with these State House and State Senate races, especially for those in 2006 when they choose their endorsed candidates. The TFA is the largest non-partisan firearms advocacy group in Tennessee that any interested citizen should join and support. They are working diligently to make a difference everyday.

Second, removing as many of these so-called Republican Representatives and State Senators who have prostituted themselves to the Democrats for power or position must be at the top of our goal’s list. These Republicans, like Chris Newton, do the bidding of their political masters like Naifeh, Wilder and Bredesen.

These so-called Republicans must pay a price if people are going to take the Republican Party seriously.

This bill by Rep. Curry Todd was in the House Judiciary Constitutional Protections Committee passed out of subcommittee today. This afternoon [Wednesday], about 15 minutes into the full House session, Rep. Chris Newton (R) stood and made a motion to have the bill sent back to subcommittee because of "some confusion" - Speaker Naifeh immediately struck the motion granted "without objection" notwithstanding the fact that hands were flying up all over the House.

I want to point out that Rep. Tre Hargett (R. Minority Leader) raised his hand and started to object for debate on the motion. Speaker Naifeh stated that Rep. Hargett was "out of order" and then, obviously upset, called Speaker Pro Temp to his station and went to the floor where he and Kim McMillan had a private discussion with Rep. Hargett. When Speaker Naifeh returned to his station, the proceedings moved forward without a vote of any type on HB0887.

I am not surprised the motion was made but am quite disappointed that it was made by Rep. Chris Newton (R.)

I am not surprised that Speaker Naifeh essentially and essentially single handedly refused any vote on the motion.

Could the abuse get any more blatant?

A couple observations:

Naifeh's actions may cause the NRA to work harder then ever to help replace Naifeh's dictatorship with a Republican majority in the state House. And Chris Newton is in big trouble come next year's election - and deservedly so.

UPDATE: Blake Wylie calls Naifeh's actions an "abuse of power." And, vid Doug Kenline in the comments below, we are reminded that House sessions are video taped for broadcast. You can watch it here, but only for three days. I don't know if it is downloadable.

Zero coverage of Naifeh's abuse of power in today's Tennessean or Nashville City Paper. A Google news search finds no mention of this in any newspaper in Tennessee today.

UPDATE: I am getting a VHS tape of the April 27 session, but probably not until tomorrow or Monday. Once I have it, I'll find a way to get the key part digitized and made available to the people of Tennessee forever.

UPDATE: The bill in question, HB 887, has 30 co-sponsors in the House. Newton is one of them. Why he collaborated with Naifeh to scuttle legislation he ostensibly supports is a mystery.

When you watch the video, you see Newton make a motion to return HB 887 to his committee, due to some unspecified "confusion" that he doesn't detail. Naifeh, staring straight down at his podium, says "You've heard the motion. Without objection, so ordered" - and bangs the gavel.

The problem is, according to witnesses, hands were flying up all over the House floor from representatives objecting to the motion. House rules say if at least five hands are raised, the motion must be discussed and voted on with a roll-call vote. Naifeh, however, perhaps knowing the motion would fail and the popular legislation would then be in front of the whole House to vote on, simply ignored the raised hands - and House rules - in order to send the bill back to the committee.