The good news is that Jimmy Naifeh is no longer the Speaker of the House. The bad news is that we’d be better off with Jimmy Naifeh as Speaker of the House.
You had to know this wasn’t going to be smooth. Within a nanosecond after winning a majority in the Tennessee House on Election Day, we Republicans wondered if we’d be able to corral all 50 members into voting for a Republican as Speaker.
The answer, for all intents, turned out to be “no.”
After all, having 50 members gave the GOP the slimmest of majorities. It would only take one defector to throw the gavel back to the Democrats. With a history of squandering political power by the inside work of turncoats, Tennessee Republicans were quietly wondering who the sellout would be this time. The answer turned out to be Kent Williams, a Republican-in-name-only from Elizabethtown.
Last Tuesday, the day the GOP handed away the reigns to power, the Democrats nominated Kent Williams as Speaker, as it had become obvious that Jimmy Naifeh was not going to get 50 votes. So they pulled what they called the “nuclear option” – the brainchild of Democrat Leader Gary Odom, who first proposed the idea to Speaker Williams over Thanksgiving. Knowing that Kent Williams would be friendly to Democrats, they would nominate him. They did a very good job keeping this a secret. Williams received all 49 Democrat votes, plus his own, leaving Jason Mumpower, the true GOP nominee, with the other 49 votes.
As the vote was taking place, the packed crowd in the House chamber erupted into bedlam, with spectators raining down boos and angry shouts.
After the vote, Speaker Williams gave the GOP one final thumb-of-the-nose by casting his vote for Speaker Pro Tempore for Democrat Lois DeBerry instead of the Republican nominee Beth Harwell.
After all, Speaker Williams explained, it’s only fair that if we have a Republican speaker, then the Pro Tem should be a Democrat. He also says he will split committee chairmanships between Democrats and Republicans. This is just great, because when Naifeh was speaker, Democrats held every single position of power in the House. No wonder the Democrats love this guy.
So there you have it. Just as the GOP was foiled in the Senate four years ago when former Senator Mike Williams cast the deciding vote for John Wilder for Speaker instead of the Republican nominee Ron Ramsey, we have been foiled once again by a Democrat masquerading as a Republican. What is it with Tennessee Republicans named “Williams?”
According to the Tennessee Republican Party in a press release last Tuesday evening, there was already a movement afoot to boot Williams from the party. Bill Hobbs of the Tennessee GOP explains, “Williams put personal ambition ahead of honor and lied his way into the Speaker’s chair. Elected by Republican voters in the historic 2008 elections that saw Republicans win a majority of House seats for the first time since 1868, Rep. Williams chose to betray his party and his constituents.”
Representative Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) wrote on his blog that “[Williams] swore an oath. He broke it. He signed pledges, he broke them. He lied. He lied to all of us. He lied to our faces over and over. He lied to my face. He even lied to us today right before the vote. I could have handled it better had he been straight up with us all along. But he wasn’t.”
“Dems are all giddy and trying every way they can to rub salt in. We are all incredibly let down. We know the Capitol will stay more or less the same [brothel] with just a different piano player. He will be a puppet for Naifeh and the Dems. He will offer some small meaningless scraps to give people the false impression he is being bipartisan but we all know the truth.”
Kent Williams sold every shred of honor he possessed in order to become Speaker of the House. What the honor-less Williams has done is an affront to every Republican voter in this state, and to every campaign worker and volunteer who has put in time all these years in order to win a majority at the polls.
In addition, he is single-handedly responsible for putting a pro-income tax, pro-gay, pro-abortion, anti-gun liberal Democrat, Lois DeBerry, in the number two position in the House. This is not what the voters voted for on Election Day.
To add further insult, the Democrats first order of business was to submit H.R. 1, which would establish a “Speaker Emeritus.” The qualifications set forth for that position would be “…a minimum service of 18 years as Speaker of the House of Representatives, a minimum service of 14 years in other leadership positions associated with the House, and receipt of the coveted William M. Bulger Excellence in State Legislative Leadership Award….” Of course, there’s only one member of the House who meets those qualifications: Jimmy Naifeh. But the real purpose of H.R. 1 can be found a little further down: “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Speaker Emeritus may perform such functions and duties as are assigned by the Speaker of the House.”
In other words, should H.R. 1 ever pass, Speaker Williams, a Naifeh stooge, could easily hand the gavel back to Speaker Emeritus Naifeh with no recourse whatsoever.
All frustration aside, you have to step back and admire the craftiness of the Democrats. Really. There are two things — and only two things — that I admire about Democrats: their ability to consolidate power, and their cohesiveness. Republicans, by contrast, not only don’t consolidate power when given the opportunity, they give it away even after winning elections. But at least Republicans who aren’t named “Williams” do tend to stick together.
Enjoy your speakership, Mr. Williams. Enjoy it, because it’s all you’ve got now. Enjoy it, because you’ve paid for it with your honor. Enjoy it, because you sold out the voters who put you in office. Enjoy it, because you lied to everyone who confronted you. Enjoy it, because you embody everything that gives politicians a sordid reputation. Enjoy it, because you have prevented the adults (Republicans) from assuming the responsibility of running state government.
There are real consequences to your actions, Speaker Williams, from taxing and spending, to gun rights, abortion rights, and many other serious matters. But you have placed your personal ambition above the good of everything else, so enjoy your seat of power, because every time the Democrats mess things up, which they frequently do, you can bear the blame.
