Nashville News Blog

Laughably, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research still is billing itself as a nonpartisan, free-market think tank, even as its director, Drew Johnson, goes on right-wing radio and says this:

"I want to make this very clear. Kent Williams is the dumbest member of the state House. He's the Ophelia Ford of the House. This is a guy who is known for being tacky and ignorant. He's been accused of making female colleagues and state workers uncomfortable and saying inappropriate things to them. He just totally lacks decorum. He lacks respect for other members. This guy is so stupid. He's almost underqualified just to be a House member. And as I say the House members aren't known for being brilliant guys. Brian Kelsey and folks like that are the exceptions. But this is a guy who was an embarrassment to begin with. And now he's a guy who has no idea what he's doing."

"This is a guy who's caucusing with Republicans yesterday morning and never says a word. This is a guy who went to a prayer meeting with Jason Mumpower yesterday morning. Talk about a Judas. Here are these guys praying for Republicans to have wisdom in their choices and then he goes and prevents Jason from being speaker. It's just unbelievable the way it went down."

"They went to Kent Williams and said, 'Listen, you'll make three times more money, you'll have a driver from Carter County' ...so that's what it was all about; Kent has no principles, no nothing, now he makes $70,000 and has a driver."

Update: Oh yes, I almost forgot to point this out. It's interesting that while Johnson accuses the speaker of making women feel uncomfortable, women have reported the same thing about Johnson.