The New Minority Feb. 9, 2009
Republicans Choose New Minority Status
Reagan's Big Red Tent Shrinks
NASHVILLE -- The Tennessee Republican Party today chose to become a minority party of 49 in the House of Representatives to join the Democratic Party which also has 49 members.
TRP Chairman Robin Smith stripped bona fide Republican credentials from House Speaker Kent Williams (R-Elizabethton) who was duly elected by the people of his House district as a Republican.
Speaker Williams, now a party of one Carter County Republican in the House, still holds a big gavel. Now seen as being victimized by his own party, Williams could slam down the hammer on House Republicans. The consensus seems to be even some Republicans would not blame him for some well-timed retaliation -- as long as he doesn't take on the mantle of a Democrat.
Google hits ramped up immediately in what could quickly become national news. The Republican Party's timing is believed to have been a deliberate attempt to step on Governor Phil Bredesen's State of the State address scheduled for tonight (Monday evening, Feb. 9, 2009).
The Republican Party has been beset with an ongoing rift between its grassroots activists who tend to be somewhat anti-government, anti-tax, anti-public-education, anti-regulation and anti-abortion sometimes against their own interests and its moderate wing consisting of those who are more inclined to bipartisanship for the greater good of the state.
Thus spake TRP Chair Robin Smith
Everyone has an opinion to spin: Kleinheider at Nashville Post Politics
GOOGLE News on Kent Williams & Sorted by date order
Samples of on-scene reportage:
Andy Sher at Chattanooga Times Free Press
Rick Locker at The Commercial Appeal