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August 31, 2005
Stories, Fresh and Stale
Much to his co-chair's surprise, State Senator Mike Williams (R-Maynardville), who shares the leadership of the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethics with House Majority Leader Kim McMillan (D-Clarksville), plans to introduce legislation this week aimed at much-needed ethics reforms in the General Assembly. I did not get a chance to meet Senator Williams at the recent meeting where I saw and heard him, but I came away impressed with his no-nonsense approach to lobbyists and ethics. He seemed very open to the yet-unfinalized reform ideas being gathered by the Citizen Advisory Group, and his active listening may have contributed to his moving forward on a proposal.
Bob Krumm asks why registered lobbyist and Chair of the Davidson County Election Commission, Eddie Bryan, is making political campaign endorsements. More from Bob: where does Ophelia Ford live? And, via Simply I, still more from Bob on the audacity displayed by indicted Tennessee Waltzer Kathryn Bowers to take a taxpayer-funded trip to Seattle while facing trial on Federal corruption charges. Just read Bob Krumm, all the time. It's easier than me having to do all these links.
Speaking of taxpayer-funded trips: Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield is headed for Korea, China and Japan, along with staffers and possibly others, on multiple upcoming occasions. I must say that I really don't get this. The purported reasons are 1) to attract manufacturing firms to the emptiness called Enterprise South (okay, we need "more better" jobs here. But do we want to bring in companies that will send the profits back over to China, or should we be fostering, where possible, local endeavors whereby the owners can re-invest in the community in more ways than two?) and 2) to consult with Asian municipal leaders on planning and design. Um, do we need to pay for them to go all the way to Asia to do this? I'm thinking that Louisville is a pretty cool town, or Indianapolis, and they're just right up I-65 via I-24. I'd even spring for Albuquerque, but Hitachi City seems a bit ambitious. Since Littlefield made mention of his past trips to China during his campaign, I don't know that this is not just a convenient excuse to go back, sister city Wuxi notwithstanding. (Note: according to the linked article, the trip to Hitachi City will be covered by the host, not by us. I still get the impression that the City's travel budget is now completely blown.)
The Pensieri blog dismisses all GOP Senate primary polls up to this point, and asks for an outsider to conduct one. I concur, except that I think that they should wait. Polls mean very little at any time, but especially at this stage.
TeamGOP's blog sounds exactly like liberal Democrat trial lawyer John Wolfe in their recent attempt to attack Bob Corker. I mean, exactly. Did they get their hands on that infamous "power structure" pamphlet that was circulated early this year during the Mayoral race? Why would they base a blog entry on this veritable gadfly's rather zany publication? Jeff Ward, watch out for those black helicopters.
Okay, I've probably ticked off enough people for now. More later.
Government , Political News | By joe lance | 11:40 AM