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« They Don't Let Nashvillians Run Peru, Do They? | Main | Bredesen's Approval Rating Under 50 Percent » September 21, 2005Lunch With EdFormer U.S. Rep. Ed Bryant, running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, was the guest at today's meeting of the Nashville citizens' editorial board, a/k/a, the monthly Nashville Area Political Bloggers lunch. Thanks to Randy Rayburn and Sunset Grill for allowing us the use of the private room for nothing other than the price of whatever we ordered from the menu. (Chicken Quesadillas for me - very good!) I'll have my thoughts later about the issues discussed. First, some links to the writings of other bloggers who where there: Michael Hickerson, a/k/a "Big Orange Michael," wrote mostly about the value of the event rather than the specific issues discussed: What I found the most fascinating is in the day and age of soundbytes and seeing candidates for maybe fifteen or twenty seconds on TV, that to get a chance to sit down, break bread with Mr. Bryant and watch him share his ideas with us in a reasonable, polite and intelligent discourse was a refreshing change. So many times we sit around and say--I'd like to vote for so-and-so, but I am not sure exactly where he or she stands on this issue or that. And I think that those of us who came out for the luncheon meeting got a chance to get beyond the plain rhetoric and the political soundbyte speech that we live in today and to hear the candidate talk frankly, candidly and honestly about the issues he sees as important to our state and nation. And he came out and did it to a crowd that wasn't necessarily all going to be ardent supporters of him or his campaign. He came out to where there were going to be critics and those who'd ask hard questions and not allow him to give easy answers and then move on.Bruce Barry of the Nashville Scene's blog PithInTheWind.com thinks Bryant is a "scary dude" because he believes that illegal immigrants ought to leave the country, unborn life should be protected, and the election process - a state and local matter since the founding of the country - shouldn't be federalized. Brittney Gilbert of WKRN's NashvilleIsTalking.com provides a pretty good summary from a liberal perspective, though it's strange to see her say Bryant doesn't differ much from the Republican agenda right after noting that his stance on illegal immigration is sharply at odds with that of President Bush. She also describes Bryant's pro-life stance on abortion as a "moral quandry" when juxtaposed with his support for the death penalty. I guess it doesn't occur to some folks that an unborn baby is both innocent and defenseless while a convicted murderer is neither innocent nor defenseless. Sharon Cobb promises a transcript. John Hutcheson doesn't see much of a difference between Bryant and rival candidate Van Hilleary (though A.C. Kleinheider spells it out pretty well in Hutcheson's comments). More to come... Comments
I consider it a growing bunch of cells up until 12 weeks or so. Not an unborn baby. So that makes it very different for me from the get go. Also, I am staunchly against the death penalty, for even the most heinous crimes. So it isn't that it didn't "occur to" me, it's just that fundamentally we have very different views on these issues. Also, Bush preaches strict border control, even if he doesn't practice it. In words, at least, he and Bryant differ very little. Posted by: brittney at September 22, 2005 09:58 AMBruce Barry of the Nashville Scene's blog PithInTheWind.com thinks Bryant is a "scary dude" because he believes that illegal immigrants ought to leave the country, unborn life should be protected, and the election process - a state and local matter since the founding of the country - shouldn't be federalized. Gee, Bill, could you possibly distort and misrepresent my comments any more than you already so? I wrote that Bryant is scary not because he thinks illegal immigrants should leave, but because he would have us forcibly evict 10-20 million of them. I wrote that he is scary not because he thinks unborn life should be protected, but because he fails to understand the hypocrisy between criminalizing any post-conception abortion and allowing birth control pills to remain legal. I wrote that he is scary not because he won't federalize elections, but because he sees nothing wrong with how elections are conducted in this country that state and local governments can't fix on their own. If you are going to make representations of my comments, try being at least mildly accurate and fair about it next time. Posted by: bb at September 22, 2005 10:24 AMPost a comment
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