Speaker Crackles, Hisses

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March 31, 2005

Speaker Crackles, Hisses

I'm sure you've become aware of all the dust swirling about, from Nashville to Knoxville to other points in our great state, regarding the relatively simple fact that a member of the TN House of Representatives started a blog and started sharing an insider's view of the legislature with the rest of us. Big deal, right?

Apparently it is a big deal to House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and a few other permanent-incumbent-types on the Hill, and now the papers, the tv, and, of course, the blogosphere are all over this story like flies on fresh, erm, farm animal droppings. I don't even have the energy to link to everything; just keyword-search [Campfield blog] or something (or some can click here) and you'll get all the hits you'll need, since every post out there has links to everything else. I guess I'm feeling lazy today, and that's bad blogging. I'll work on my blog ethic.

I couldn't help but write an entry about this, though. It is shameful that not only are our legislative leaders so backward as to not recognize the value of blogs, but that they would go even further and apparently "punish" one of their own (by effectively and deliberately killing a piece of legislation he authored) for blogging. These are not the kind of representatives we need in state government. (I'm not going to be kind to Rep. Campfield and suggest that he's the kind of legislator we need, either, except in the sense that he's willing to provide this openness.)

I am not saying that "you'd better support blogging by fellow legislators or you don't get my vote," because that would be an oversimplification. But I have read and written elsewhere on the despicable situation under which our laws get made -- a situation wherein lobbyists and special interests use a majority of the legislators' time, and are the primary source of pre-fabricated and thus under-reviewed legislation -- and therefore I am saying that "you'd better not try to stifle attempts to allow 'sunshine' into General Assembly goings-on or I will devote the attributable remainder of my existence to un-seating you." It looks like Jimmy Naifeh and Jere Hargrove have stepped into the lineup to be the first two targets for de-throning. Enjoy your last terms in office, boys.

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