Nashville News Blog

It's got to be galling for Eric Crafton to be local politics second-biggest story right now. Here he is doing his best to spread the English Only gospel on national TV and radio, and all anyone seems to want to talk about are the after-effects of the Jimmy Naifeh hijacking. Damn you Jeff Woods and your insanely entertaining updates!

Anyway, it seems Crafton has finally decided once and for all that he will not be debating David Briley Friday night on WNPT. Nor will he send a substitute in his stead. The reason: He needs to focus on get-out-the-vote measures (I'll let you figure out for yourself why that cop-out is so head-slappingly ironic). That leaves Briley, moderator John Seigenthaler and one empty chair for what will now be a 30-minute, rather than an hour, non-debate debate. Should be fun.

As to WHY Crafton decided to back out, I think we can all draw our own conclusions. As one commentor noted the other day, Crafton seems to be the grandstander who's afraid of the grandstands. But it's even simpler than that. We'll leave it to Mike Jameson to explain.

"When you sit down in front of a well-informed moderator and a capable opponent that are clearly going to discuss the minutiae of your argument, it's only natural for your blood pressure to spike," he says. "I mean, why does meat fear the meatgrinder?"

Bingo.

(Image manipulation credit goes to D. Ricky Rodriguez. Thanks D. Ricky!)