Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Gee, anything happen today?

Holy moly, what a day. 

In case you've been in a cave, an East Tennessee Republican was elected Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives today.  Only, his name was NOT Jason Mumpower.

Meet Speaker of the House Kent Williams (R-Elizabethton), who fulfilled his oath to vote for a Republican for Speaker by voting for himself.  Coincidentally, all 49 Democrats voted for the more moderate Williams over the staunch right-winger Mumpower of neighboring Bristol, giving Williams a one-vote landslide victory.

Williams then allowed the outgoing Naifeh the chance to finish the day as the Speaker, nice touch, eh?  

Excuse me for a moment, I can't really keep this in any longer, I'm sorry... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! PWNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! W00T!

Ok, thanks for indulging me, at least I didn't go and uh, wait, oh hell, here it comes:




Ok, so that's rubbing it in, I'm sorry, I'll try to do better.

My understanding is that Williams initially got elected by beating one of Mumpower's folks in the 2006 primary, and that Mumpower tried to beat Williams with the same guy last year, but couldn't.  Now, it could be just me, but might Mumpower not have thought that maybe Williams might just be ready for a little payback, especially since they don't see eye-to-eye on the direction of the Republican Party?  I guess not, Mumpower thought he had a massive mandate for change, even with a ONE-VOTE MAJORITY.

Jeff Woods at the Nashville Scene has this account of how it went down:

The plot was hatched over coffee during the Thanksgiving weekend. House Democratic leader Gary Odom went to Elizabethton to meet Kent Williams at his restaurant, Dino's. Out of the blue, Odom asked Williams how he'd like to be the speaker of the House.

"I think his first reaction was he thought I was joking because he knew Speaker Naifeh was working diligently to find the 50th vote," Odom told reporters a few minutes ago. "We were looking for an alternative in case it became necessary, and it became necessary."

That didn't happen, though, until 5 o'clock last night when Naifeh finally gave up on his own hopes and went to Williams to seal their deal. When the session started today, many Democrats weren't even aware of what was about to happen, Naifeh said. That's why Democrats moved for a 30-minute recess, to give themselves time to brief the party's members. (The wily Odom told the House he wanted the recess to give everyone time to take pictures with families in attendance on opening day.) Freshman Republican Terri Lynn Weaver, a gospel singer and apparently not the sharpest knife, unwittingly played into Naifeh's hands when she pushed the wrong button and mistakenly voted with the Democrats to allow the recess.

"It was not widely known and it had to be explained to the members of the House Democratic Caucus," Naifeh told reporters. But if Weaver had voted as she intended, "We would have found another way," Naifeh said.
Wow. 

By and large, the best coverage of the day if you weren't watching it unfold online, was Adam Kleinheider, who has this covered from every angle possible.

Just sit back, read Post Politics and take it all in.  If you were a Democrat, it was awesome.  If not, well......

Other coverage:








1 comment:

captainkona said...

PWNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Attention.
Mumpower, party of zero. Your table is ready....