Love-Hate Mail
A Democratic response
Recently, the Nashville Scene
took editorial aim at the Democratic leadership of the General
Assembly, accusing us of turning a blind eye toward situations that
have arisen in the recent past involving some of our members (“Culture
of Sleaze,” Dec. 20). As leaders of Democrats in the Tennessee House
and Senate, we are well aware that a few of our members have been
involved in embarrassing, improper and troubling activity. We do not
approve of this activity, nor do we allow it to continue. It is
extremely misleading for anyone to imply that appropriate action has
not been taken.
Some partisans have attempted to spin these unfortunate circumstances to their political advantage simply because we have not publicly chastised anyone or attempted to short circuit Tennessee’s justice system. It goes without saying that neither political party has a monopoly on morality. A key point to note is that four Democratic members of the state Senate have resigned due to the activities in question. In each case, the people of their districts have emphatically chosen Democrats to replace them. This tells us without a shred of doubt that Tennesseans believe in Democratic leadership in the General Assembly.
Tennesseans want their legislators to match their actions to their words. They want democracy in action—not hypocrisy in action. Tennesseans want legislators who have the courage to fight for increased education funding, as Democrats did last session. Tennesseans reject the hollow actions of the Republicans in the General Assembly, who chose to side with Big Tobacco and vote against the good of our hard-working Tennessee students. Tennesseans are disgusted when these Republicans run back to their districts and loudly proclaim that they support public education.
Tennesseans respect the fact that Democrats fought to institute a state lottery that has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for college scholarships. In the coming weeks, there will be efforts to micromanage the lottery by many of the same Republican legislators who voted against giving Tennesseans the ability to vote on creating the lottery in the first place. These Republicans will lead an effort to raid lottery scholarship funds in pork-barrel fashion and attempt to block Democratic efforts to make more scholarships available to more Tennesseans. The primary proponent of this action voted against creating the lottery even after over 70 percent of Tennesseans voted in favor of it.
Democrats will not stand for this. In the coming year, Democrats will continue to demonstrate the leadership that Tennesseans have come to expect from us. Again, we have had some unfortunate incidents in the recent past. We reiterate that appropriate action has been taken. Some members have given up their committee chairmanships. Other members have left the General Assembly.
We
have the utmost faith in the new Democrats serving with us. We are
moving forward for the betterment of Tennessee—because that is what
Tennesseans have come to expect from Democrats in the General Assembly.
That, after all, is what we do.
SEN. JOE HAYNES AND
REP. GARY ODOM
5 Legislative Plaza (Nashville)
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