Kim: Phil's BFF?
Kim McMillan, the former state House majority leader exploring a gubernatorial bid in 2010, showed her sycophantic side in an interview Monday with our friends at WRVU’s Liberadio.
After 12 years in the legislature, McMillan spent most of 2007 as a senior advisor in the Bredesen administration before taking her current gig as an Austin Peay State University administrator. So perhaps it’s no surprise that when Liberadio co-host Freddie O’Connell invited McMillan to say how she’d be different from Bredesen, she had nothing to offer. Phil, it seems, is the best. Governor. Ever.
Let’s jump to the transcript.
Q: What parts of the Bredesen legacy would you seek to extend and what would you do differently?McMillan: I think that Phil Bredesen has been a wonderful governor….extremely popular, has done a good job, and so you don’t necessarily have to distinguish yourself. I am very proud of the time that I spent working with him, and I think I learned a lot. I think his common sense focus on budgeting is something we all can try to emulate and move forward with, and that’s something that I certainly would want to move forward with. I think after 12 years in the General Assembly and the time that I spent working in his cabinet, that’s the one thing I’ve learned. That’s what the people of Tennessee expect.
Q: And speaking of that budgetary process, we just finished up a month that set a record low for sales tax collections, and we’re currently watching the end of a painful budgetary process that results from low revenue collections. You’re not formally advising Gov. Bredesen right now, but if you were what would you tell him?
McMillan: Well I think he’s doing the right thing. Part of the problem that we have in Tennessee is not necessarily Tennessee, it’s the national economy—that is, it’s not doing very well, and I think that affects Tennessee just like it affects every other state. I think every other state is facing the same type of shortfalls in their budgetary process. So I think he’s doing the right thing by looking at ways that you have to cut back. It’s very difficult when you’re in either the General Assembly or in the governor’s office to start talking about layoffs, to talk about cutting particular budgets, but it’s something that has to be done and you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and make those hard decisions when the time is right, and right now I think he’s doing a good job at trying to look at ways that you can cut the budget in order to get to a point where we can balance.
That’s quite a surplus of servility and deficit of nuance from McMillan, who neglected to explore how different approaches to revenue—like an excessive reliance on sales taxes--create various forms of volitility in a state’s economy. She backed an income tax back in the early oughts when horns honked at the Capitol, but now she’s running in the other direction as a gubernatorial candidate. Holy flip-flopper Batman! On Liberadio McMillan previewed her counterinsurgency:
Q: As soon as you announced your exploratory committee, the Tennessee GOP began making hay about your vote in favor of an income tax during your tenure as a state rep. You have said that you don’t see the need for an income tax now. Did the horn honkers get to you, or is the issue more complicated than extremists to whom taxes are almost as dangerous as terrorists would like us to believe?McMillan: Well, the horn honkers didn’t get to me….I think that the vote that I took in 2002 was one that really represented what I thought was the best thing for the constituents that I represented at the time, which was the 67th district, a border community that borders the state of Kentucky. I felt like that was the best vote at the time, and I’m the kind of person that says I’m going to get out there and I’m going to do what’s right. I’m not going to hold my finger in the air and try to figure out sometimes the most politically popular decision as far as who’s yelling at me the loudest. I think it’s incumbent upon any leader to look at the facts, examine the facts, understand the issues, and then make the decision that you think is important for all of the people that you represent. At the time I just represented the 67th district. I think as governor you represent all of the people of Tennessee and so sometimes your decisions are different that you make when you are representing everyone as opposed to just a collected group of individuals.
It’s commendable that she’s not one to hold a finger in the wind to figure out what’s politically popular. I’m not sure, though, how it squares with this subsequent exchange:
Q: As you look to 2010, is there a signature issue that you hope to work hard on?McMillan: People have asked me what is your agenda, and I think it’s a little soon right now to say right now this is the specific things that I’m going to do. I’m not a one-issue candidate; never have been. Whenever I’ve run for office in the past, what I’m trying to do is get out there and talk to people and let what I hear from people really shape the agenda that I think is important. There are certain issues that everybody thinks are important, that you always have to focus on in state government. Education, health care, good jobs that are right here in the state of Tennessee, which requires you thinking about ways to entice other employers to come to Tennessee so that our children and grandchildren don’t have to leave the state and go somewhere else to get a good job. So those are the kind of things that I think affect everyone that will always be issues that you have to focus on. Particular things are things that I think you have to listen to peole and learn from people as you kind of travel around and talk to people as you shape your agenda for the future.
There’s much to like about the prospect of a McMillan bid for statewide office, but it will be an underwhelming one if she can’t move beyond vapid generalities about specific issues that motivate her candidacy. It will also be disappointing if she lets a yearning for Bredesen’s endorsement turn her into a Bredesen clone—a competent but lifeless technocrat with few original ideas who has shown little interest in spending political capital to do much more than take health insurance away from poor people. After 16 years of Republicrat rule it would be refreshing to have an actual Democrat in the governor’s office who wants to lead with ideas and principles rather than just cronies and spreadsheets. To judge by Monday’s radio interview, Kim McMillan has yet to decide if she wants to be that Democrat.
Comments
Okay, I couldn't let this one pass.
This is Bruce Barry at his absolute worst in political analysis. His commentary reeks of Vanderbilt-faculty-cocktail-party chatter and sorely lacks any sense of political understanding.
Bruce, you may not like the fact that McMillan thinks Bredesen has done a good job, but she's not alone. He has strong approval ratings and even people like Lamar Alexander have given Phil props. Maybe you pine for the good ol' days of the Sundquist Administration?
Also, what lame-brain suggested you begin a run for governor two years out with a list of specific, detailed proposals? A candidate might as well just hang a sign around her neck saying "pick me apart before the campaign begins!"
Besides, what's Bill Frist been gallivanting around the state suggesting? State sponsored health savings accounts?
I've set a low bar for your commentaries and this one proves you're doing your level best to meet it.
Posted 05/20/2008 at 10:52:14 AM...even people like Lamar Alexander have given Phil props.
And why wouldn't he after Phil did Lamar the kind favor of warning off Democrats contemplating a challenge to Lamar's re-election bid?
Posted 05/20/2008 at 11:38:29 AM