Poor Rep Campfield

I just noticed this.  Check it out on youtube.  This is Rep Campfield presenting three bills before a House Committee:

The three bills discussed were:

One to prevent state legislators from naming buildings and roads after themselves.

One to conserve energy by preventing excessive heating of the LP parking garage.

One to introduce term limits.

Only the first measure was actually discussed by the committee.  I’m not the biggest fan of Campfield (he was one of the house members who voted against the Gore resolution earlier this week), but this is a shameful way to treat a fellow legislator.  Notice the “legal” motion used to kill his first bill.

EDIT: I’m told the parking garage isn’t actually heated, so thats why they shot down that resolution.  ^_^

EDIT2: If Campfield really want to save energy here, they should cut down on air conditioning use in the building during the weekends.  On saturday I stopped by to use the wireless in LP12.  The air conditioning was running full tilt and I was downright cold.

Newt

Yesterday I saw New Gingrich give a speech at Vanderbilt University.  It was part of their long running Impact Symposium program. 

He was far more engaging than I thought.  When I think of Newt, I think dour and wonky.  But he was actually an engaging speaker.  I especially liked what he had to say about Barak Obama.  He said people project onto Obama whatever they want him to be. 

Newt also joked about Bill Clinton.  Apparently, Bill once compared himself to those toy punching bags children have.  The ones with sand in the bottom that always pop back up.  The idea of Bill Clinton saying this to Gingrich is something I find incredibly amusing.

Naturally, he refused to excplicitly state whether he would run for Prez or not.  But he had no problem lambasting the rediculously early primary fundraising/campaigning process we currently find ourselves in.

I think if Fred Thompson gets into the race, a lot of the rationale for a Gingrich candidacy will evaporate.  Newt’s negatives are so high, I have trouble seeing him convincing the Republican powerbrokers to support him.

In other news, I think I’ve figured out how to get video from the General Assembly site to youtube.  So hopefully I’ll have some things posted tomorrow. 

Dispatches from Crazytown!

Another post!

I wanted to mention a senate resolution authored by Senator Finney of Blount. This resolution asks that the commissioner of education investigate whether there is a god and report back to the senate. No joke, read it for yourself. It’s not long, just a couple pages double-spaced:

Click to access SR0017.pdf

If the commissioner concludes that the existence of god is unprovable, he is then supposed to address why it’s not taught in schools as an alternative theory to evolution. As if something had to be disproved to prevent it’s teaching in public schools. I may believe the flying spaghetti monster created the earth, and defy you to disprove that. Following Mr. Finney’s resolution, one would have to teach about the flying spaghetti monster in school.

Anyway, I know you are well aware how difficult it is to prove a negative. So I won’t harp on the silliness of this resolution any longer. It’s the epitome of useless showboating over something that should not be an issue.  Tax dollars hard at work, and all that.

Goings on

I know I know, I haven’t posted in a while.

The big news around  the capitol is Mik Williams’ party switch.  There is little tangible result from this, except that the Republicans curiously no longer have a majority.  With a 16-16-1 Senate, no party even has a plurality.  Committee assignments will remain unchanged and Ramsey is still speaker, but Norris should no longer be called Majority Leader.

I’ll take this opportunity to describe exactly what I’ve been doing around Senator Henry’s office.  I research bills pending before the Tax Subcommittee of Finance, compile all the relevant information into packets, then deliver those packets to Senators on the committee.  It’s fairly time consuming, and done jointly between myself and the other employees in the office.

I also run lots of errands and the like.  One day Lakeshia’s foot was hurt, so I had to do all the legwork for Senator Burk’s office as well.  I don’t mind though, as I find moving about the office buildings much more enjoyable than sitting at my desk.

I make it to a couple committee meetings every week, particularly Finance and General welfare.  Here is a recent clip from Finance, featuring a probing series of questions from Senator Kyle directed at the ethics committee chairman.  The ethics chair is named Bruce Androphy, and he hasn’t exactly made a lot of friends around Legislative Plaza:

I got to see this in person, and the tension was palpable.

I promise to be more diligent on this blog in the future.

Fun Bills!

Sorry this is a day late. 

Ok, at first I was keeping track of all the bills pending before the senate.  I’d read the abstract and the full text (if the abstract promised anything interesting).  But the number of bills pending skyrocketed this week, and we are currently approaching 1,000 items before the senate.  While this happened, the office work load increased substantially. 

So I only read the first couple hundred.  Here are a few you may find interesting.

SB52– This bill outlaws any sexual contact with an animal.  Currently such actions are prosecuted as misdemeanor cruelty to animals.  This would elevate the offense to a Class E felony, and would cost taxpayers $6,600 per year in additional incarceration costs.

HB136 – This bill touched off a lot of criticism among bloggers.  It would have required website owners to quickly remove defamatory statements.  Failure to comply would create a presumption of malice.  And anyone who is anyone knows that under American law, malice is an important component in bringing libel charges against someone.   Once malice is shown, it must be demonstrated that the text in question is also untrue.  Failure to comply with this law would essentially turn the case into something resembling the more plaintiff friendly libel protections found in other commonwealth countries without such strong speech protections.   It was withdrawn from consideration yesterday.  More here.

That’s all I have for now.  I’ll write more as I can.

Session Begins

The Senate formally resumed session this week with the Governor’s State of the State address yesterday. The speech was 100% about education; it revealed several new initiatives to be funded by the excess lottery money and an increase in the cigarette tax. Bredesen signaled direct opposition to using a cigarette tax hike (which seems inevitable now, the tobacco lobby notwithstanding) to finance a reduction in the sales tax on groceries. He likened such an effort to a quixotic bid to make Tennessee the 49th state in taxes rather than the 48th. Such an argument misses the point however. Any such measure would be revenue neutral, the aim being to discourage smoking and easing the burden on lower income folks. While I’d hesitate to call such a move “progressive”, it is more about where the burden is placed rather than generating more revenue for the state.

That said, Bredesen’s idea is a good one. I just hate to see the Governor paint such a caricature of the opposition’s position. I would have also liked to see more money for higher education.

I wish we had a better name for Bredesen’s speach. “State of the State” has an aweful ring to it, one that begs for better diction. If we were Virginia or Massachusetts, it could be “State of the Commonwealth”, which is a little better. I wouldn’t mind calling it the “State of Tennessee” or “State of the Republic” address.

Today was the first meeting of Finance, Ways and Means. Comptroller Morgan gave an overview of the state’s finances. Not much to report from that, except that the some Senators asked questioned obviously aimed at promoting their pet issues, despite the fact that Mr. Morgan was clearly not prepared to answer them yet.

I’ve been keeping close tabs on all the bills filed Senate side. Tomorrow I’ll post a rundown of some of the more interesting ones.

Supposodly a new grocery store opens on Church Street today.  It’s gonna have sushi even!  So I’m going there now.

Senate ongoeing

Things remain in flux in the Legislative Plaza bunker.  The hallways are packed with office supplies from Senator Wilder’s office.  Chairs, wall portraits, filing cabinets are all strewn about with little regard for order.  Apparently they are repainting the Lt. Governor’s office for Senator Ramsey.  I never saw the old color, but the City Paper described it as a bat cave.

They came and took my computer today.  Apparently interns that aren’t assigned to a chairman don’t get a comp.  I’ve been speaking to Nancy about fenangling something for me.

Senator Wilder poked his head in the office earlier.  He said he’s John Wilder, and he’s gonna go on being John Wilder.  Because no one can stop him from being John Wilder.

I really hope things will be settled here by the State of the State Address on Monday.  Everyone here is pensive, not knowing exactly what is going to happen.  This is the cold hard reality of a power transfer.  I had always read about such things in the pages of Roll Call, but it’s no longer an academic question for me.

The highlight of last week came Friday, when I had lunch with Senator Henry.  He’s an extremely intelligent man.  Very knowledgeable in history.  Not just American history either, but all kinds.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have a deep respect for historians.  He and I hit it off quite well I thought, talking about everything from the U.S.S. Constitution to the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Kurita, Ramsey, and Henry, oh my

    Today the last Senate interns finally got assigned to their respective offices.  I was assigned to Senator Douglas Henry.  He’s a Democrat who represents part of Davidson county.  An older gentleman, who has been here since the 87th General Assembly.  I have not yet gotten the chance to meet him, but Alan (thats the assistant Senate clerk) tells me that he’s an old school southern gentleman type that everyone loves.  Henry used to chair the Senate finance committee, but with the new regime in power, he’s been demoted to vice chairman and replaced by a Republican.  This should be an interesting committee to work in.  In any legislative assembly, to find where the power is one must follow the money.  And all the appropriations bills will come through the Finance committee.

He’s also on the General Welfare committee, whatever that is.  I dont think one could devise a vauger committee name.

I didn’t do any work today.  I wasnt assigned until about 4:20.  Henry had already gone home for the day.  So I met his staff before heading out.  On Monday I may have to help move his office if he has to move into the War Memorial building.  The Republicans are probably going to move into legislative plaza.  It’s funny, cause apparently a lot of them don’t want to leave War Memorial, because it’s less trafficked and many of them have windows.  But they appreciate the symbolic move down to legislative plaza (which is underground).  By moving into the newer offices closer to the committee rooms, they’ll signify that they’re in control now.  For the first time since reconstruction.

Kurita got speaker pro tem, like Williams before her.  The pro tem office is turning into the turncoat position for Tennessee government.

I uploaded a couple more youtube videos since my last blog post.  The first is another clip from the thick of it Christmas special.  In this clip, a nutter (thats thick of it slang for an ally of Chancellor Gordon Brown) and Jeremy Paxman (a famously aggressive British interviewer) slug it out on live television.

The second clip is from the Korean film Oldboy.  Oldboy is an interesting thriller with a shocking ending I don’t want to give away.  The film is about a man who is mysteriously locked up for 15 years in solitary confinement, then strangely released one day.  He spends the film trying find and avenge himself against those who imprisoned him.  Here you will see one of the few fight scenes in the movie.  This is all one shot, about 2.75 minutes work, filmed from a profile view.  It is how one would expect a live action Streets of Rage or Double Dragon  movie to look.  Watch it and you’ll see what I mean.

15-18

Today I watched the opening session of the Tennessee State Senate. I started working my way into the gallery about an our before it was slated to begin. It’s a good thing I did, because the tiny gallery was quite crowded. I managed to get a seat, but by the time things got underway at 12:00 noon there was standing room only. The crowds were on account of the election for Speaker and Lt. Governor. I’ll get to that election in a moment (which was really the big news item of the day), but first I must say a few words about the opening prayer that was read prior to conducting business.

I honestly would prefer no opening prayer prior to opening an American legislative house. But I’m appreciative of the fact that this is how it’s always been done and change in this area will doubtless be incremental. I still regard myself as a Christian, so while the prayer doesn’t bother me personally, I’d like to see our institutions take on a more secular character.

That said, we did not hear a prayer today. It was more of a sermon in the mold of Johnathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The militant language included imagery of arming oneself in the name of the lord, and heavenly fire to purify the state of evil. It was intense, shouted, and over the top. Far be it from me to criticize how someone prays, when it is a private matter, but when the prayer is the invocation of the Tennessee State Senate I believe some level of restraint and humility is in order. When you’re speaking to God, show some respect. Don’t yell.

Now for the real news, which was the election of Senator Ramsey (R) as Speaker and Lt. Governor. As I alluded to in my last post, Wilder (D) had previously managed to retain the speakership despite a one vote Republican majority in the chamber. The situation was very much in flux. While Williams (R) was widely expected to vote for Wilder, it was far from guaranteed that the entire Democratic caucus would support Wilder. What happened is Cooper (D) (he’s the guy people thought would defect to Ramsey) voted for Wilder, but Kurita (D) and Wiliams (R) voted for Ramsey. This gave Ramsey one vote more than he needed. Ramsey is the first Republican Speaker ever.

So the big question moving forward is simple: what will happen to the power structure now that Wilder is gone? Wilder presided over a unique power sharing environment since 1987, one which afforded the minority party control of several committees. Ramsey will now decide who controls each committee. This answer to this question will determine whom I work for starting next week.

I will be very interested to see what committee assignments Kurita and Williams receive.

Nashville ho!

Today was my first day of my internship with the Nashville legislature. While I still do not know my committee assignment, the “about me” section below notwithstanding, I did learn that I will be working on the Senate side. I’m hoping for the Judiciary committee, but we can’t always get what we want. Today was primarily orientation. The highlight was probably the Lt. Gov, who came to tell us what dire peril the union is in (I do not exaggerate), primarily due to our trade deficit, and that we needed to save it. I think I would enjoy working in the Lt. Gov’s office, if that is indeed my assignment. The Lt. Gov is the speaker of the Senate.

Amusingly enough, Mr. Wilder is not guaranteed to remain Lt. Gov and Senate speaker. He has held the post for over 30 years, and has continued to do so despite recent Republican control of that chamber. You see, to head off a challenge from a Democrat for the speaker position in 1987, Wilder cut a deal with the Republicans. With their help, he was re-elected speaker. In return for their support, Wilder gave the Republicans control of several committees (albeit the lesser important ones). Now with a 1 vote Republican majority, Wilder has remained speaker with the Democrats enjoying the same minority privileges that deal had extended to Republicans.

At the Speaker election tomorrow, one Republican is expected to vote for Wilder. This would be enough for the Democrat to remain Speaker, but one Democrat (Cooper) has stated he will not vote for Wilder. So it is all in flux. There could be several votes tomorrow before we have a speaker. I expect Wilder to prevail. He’ll pick up another vote from a Republican. Let’s see how my first prediction of the term goes!

I’ll leave you with a special treat. This is a video clip from the Christmas special of “The Thick of It.” If you haven’t gotten the chance to watch this show, you need to do yourself a favor and see it. While Josh Lyman was based on Rahm Emmanuel, I’m told that the real Rahm screams profanity not unlike the character Malcolm Tucker. Watch this show. It is hilariously wicked, and I think not too far off of the mark. The fact that it is a BBC 4 production is no excuse. The entire first episode is on youtube.