Nashville News Blog

Is the Tennessee Democrat Party now going to join Bredesen and Ramsey is calling for the end to the fat tax giveaway to wealthy real estate developers?

I don't know, what do you guys think? I wonder if anyone cares enough at this point to talk the executive committee into telling Chip he has to go. Everyone seems to have washed their hands of it all. I still think Democrats kinda need a party operation.

If you ask me, Chip should follow Freeman out the door. And all of the executive committee members that voted for Chip should follow him out the door because we are going to find people to run against you.

And Jennifer Buck Wallace should find a new career. You ran a horrible presidential campaign. Then you got Chip elected chairman by having your people threaten executive committee members. Then you presided over the death of TNDP by a thousand cuts. You should never work in politics again. Ever. Anywhere.

And Chip wants to hire this utterly incomptent woman as executive director. Run them both out of town before it's too late. They have no clue what they are doing.

Why is the Bredesen so quiet about all of this? I've read nothing from him in regards to the TNDP.
As far as I'm concerned having his little trolls Heatseeker and Morpheus whine on blogs does the party no good. These two obviously have it out for Chip.
All this bs just adds to the lead the GOP know has in TN.
Is this Chips fault or Bredesens?

Best way to deal with the Executive Committee is to amend Tennessee Code Annotated. The Executive Committees of both parties actually are creatures of state law -- 66 members in each committee, or two from each state Senate district.

Imagine a corporate or nonprofit board that large. It would be unwieldy, ineffective and inept -- much like the TNDP committee. (I'm always amazed that the Republicans don't have the same problem as the Democrats. But for some reason, their committee doesn't seem to be comprised of as many lunatics. Or it's a different kind of lunacy.)

Ironically, the chief obstacle to shrinking or restructuring the Democratic Executive Committee would be the Republicans. Why would they agree to a change in state law when having Democrats in a state of disarray is so helpful and amusing to them? They're laughing out loud.

So the only remaining option is to begin actively working to unseat Democratic Executive Committee members around the state. As this Forrester wound keeps getting bigger, I predict you'll see people not only calling for his resignation but also the resignation of certain committee members who led us to this dismal place.

I suggest that we start with Fred Hobbs, who called Obama a terrorist much to Democrats' dismay and much to the delight of national media like Slate that love to point to Tennessee as still backward. Democrats should lean on him to quit, or replace him by running someone against him at the earliest opportunity. And don't stop there. Go west and east and beat a few more.

Some targeted spankings would send a strong signal to this panel of misfits. Straighten up or get out of the way.

If Chip goes, who will replace him? I am no fan of his, but as I said in the above posting, it may be too late. Who would be willing to walk into this mess? Won't that person get the same treatment that Chip has gotten? Of course, no one would be as incompetent as Chip, but you certainly could expect sniping from his supporters. I have heard a lot of names suggested, but I'm not sure any one of them would be willing to be Charman of the TNDP at this point.

Jellyfinger, what about my ideas about just ignoring Chip and setting up some alternative vehicle to get the job done for Democrats?

I don't know whether or not Bone would be interested, but this should not devolve into a Chip v. Bone fight. The issue all along has been that Chip is too untrustworthy and incompetent to be party chair. He has proven that. Let's replace him with someone capable of doing the job.

TennRod, I feel that forming a new organiztion is reinventing the wheel. Chip is crippled beyond recovery. He should be offered a graceful exit and replaced with a capable chair.

I agree with TennDemocrat. Let Chip suffer in silence and live off food stamps for a while. TNDP is irrelevant at the moment. However, I strongly agree with the Reformer in that we need to blow up the Executive Committee and start over. Over at Post Politics, I've begun advocating a concerted effort to fund and recruit committee candidates who can unseat the morons who led us to this point. Let's start with one of Chip's leading sponsors, Fred Hobbs, who believes our President is "terrorist-connected."

TennDemocrat: I agree with where you're going but I think your list includes a number of people who are nice but carry varying degrees of baggage. I think the defining principles in a new party chair (other than consensus support) should be: A. Someone with "senior statesman" status; AND B. Someone with a proven ability to raise money. Operative word being "proven." (As much as Chip is trying to blame his fudraising failures on Freeman, we all know it's the chairman who brings in the dough.) Of the names on your list, the only ones who would meet both criteria would be Brunson, Cooley, Hall and Jones. (The Bones, of course, would be great, but they probably feel as burned by this whole ordeal as Bredesen and the congressionals. With good reason.) Separately, but equally important, is the executive director role. We've got lots of talented political operatives in this state -- people like Hester, Brown, Fraiser, Sasser-Hayden, Pinkston, Talley, and many others. But as much as I hate to say it, I don't think any of them are suited for this role at this moment in time. All of them have their own baggage and none of them have experience in what's really needed in this situation -- a total rebuild of the TNDP. We're not just talking about reinforcing the joists and slapping on a fresh coat of paint. We're talking about blowing up the mother fucker and starting over from scratch. I'd do a national search, pay whatever it takes (within reason) and develop a core strategy that is focused and attainable. Most of all, it needs to be someone who can sell as well in Paris, TN, as East Nashville. That means no Jennifer Buck Wallace, who led Obama to one of his worst statewide defeats in '08.

And to Buck Wallace and the others who are talking big about wanting to "primary" the Blue Dogs -- you better strap it on. You'll learn what it really means to get a full-on, down-home Tennessee ass kicking.

I'd like to see those NCO idiots try to primary Jim Cooper. Talk about hellfire raining down. You'd see just about every elected official and operative take a 45-day vacation from whatever else they're doing to circle the wagons around Cooper and proceed to enjoy a total and complete recretional ass kicking -- financial and otherwise -- of anybody who has the temerity to take on one of the most honorable members of the U.S. House.

I think we're all talking about the same thing. It comes down to one word: How do we "professionalize" the TNDP in unprecedented manner.

Unity can only begin with Chip's total capitulation and resignation. It's clear now that anything short of his disappearance will make that impossible.

You guys are big talkers. I nominate Heatseeker/Harrison for party chair. And Monkey Butt can serve as treasurer with Stumpy as his No. 1 assistant. We'll make KnoxRebel chair of the finance committee.

LOL, TN Democrat, Jim Hall supported Lamar! in 2008. He was a candidate in 2006 for State Senate until he decided to withdraw two days after the filing date so no other Dem could get in the open race for Tn-10. Great way to hand over a freaking favor to the Republicans.

Hall is the best thing Repubs could hope for which makes me wonder about you, so called "Tenn Dem".

Serious action should be taken as soon as possible. I've been told that Chip openly talks in the party office about recruiting primary opponents to run against our sitting congressmen.

Chip has a serious Napolean complex. At this point, he needs to be removed as much for the sake of his own mental and emotional recovery as he does for the recovery of TNDP.

SuthernLib, I didn't endorse Jim Hall. I just mentioned him in a long list of people I have heard suggested for chairman. If you bother to read that post, you will see that I specifically said that I didn't know if any of those people were interested or if they would be any good at it. Please make some attempt to know what the hell you are talking about.

I do know that no one on that list could possibly be worse than what we have now. If Hall is not the right person, and I certainly will not argue otherwise, considering what you said, then surely someone else is.

Okay, Harrison, let's get our panties in a wad and have an Allen-Alda-style carefest because Chipper is losing his shit. What? You want to bake him a casserole? Take him a book of daily affirmations?

Chipper is an incompetent putz. He gets what he deserves from me. I'm not going to stop criticizing him because he's going Captain Queege on us.

Didn't his tai chi lessons teach him how to handle pressure?

"Ah, but the strawberries . . ."

Captain Queeg Forrester and his crew of underfed undergrads with overgrown toenails continues to obsess about blog commentors while the S.S. TNDP capsizes.

I'm officially putting the Chipinista reign at TNDP on death watch. This insanity will soon end.

Now granted we in Shelby County largely are ignored and ignore goings on in the rest of the State. However, Forrester encouraged a recent ruling in the SCDP Bylaws that accentuated a split already in TN's largest and most Demcratic County. He gave the impression of favoring current State Exec Comm member Jay Bailey who was running for Shelby Democratic Chairman. So what did the Shelby Democrats do? We overwhelmingly elected Bailey's opponent, Van Turner.

Chip is really looking ineffective to many of us and should resign.

Oh, the dee-licious irony. Cap'n Queeg Forrester runs for chair despite the opposition of his party leaders. Now the imperial chairman, he orders Shelby County Democrats to elect his candidate county chair - and they refuse him.

Does Cap'n Queeg have any scruples about him?

When ye be reading curses on the Sabbath, then ye know the truth:
There be voices of Evil on this site.

The words of Helen Keller still ring wise today:

“It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.”

So, uh ... Am I the devil and Heatseeker is Helen Keller? Or is TennDemocrat supposed to be Helen Keller? Or is Chip playing Helen Keller and the Chipinista the "fellow men?" And who are the Shelby Dems supposed to be? I'm really confused. Let us pray.

Would there be any use in trying to put forward a petition, to be signed by people giving their REAL names and voting addresses (to be matched against Dem Primary voter lists) formally ASKING the Executive Committee to choose another chairman who could unify the party for the sake of the state??? I realize it would not force anyone to do anything, but it would be very difficult for the Executive Committee to ignore. Perhaps the Congressional Delegation could start it.....just a thought.