Thursday, January 15, 2009
Politics / Woods Lawmakers May Vote Today (Finally) on Constitutional Officers
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 8:34 AM
Channel 5's Phil Williams seems to have developed an Ahab-like obsession with Justin Wilson. In his umpteenth report on the state comptroller candidate last night, he caught Wilson in the Capitol and backed him up against a doorway to sling yet more pointed questions at him. From the report:
Update: The House and Senate are meeting at 10 a.m. to vote on the constitutional officers.
Wilson tried to duck our questions outside the comptroller's office, but had nowhere to go.
"Yes?" he asked Williams as he left the office.
"Can you tell me why taxpayers should not hear from you exactly what you knew about contracts being rigged during the Sundquist administration?" Williams asked.
"What contract are you talking about?" Wilson wanted to know.
In one case, a Sundquist administration appointee was convicted for helping to rig a $2 million contract for a close friend of the governor.
That friend later pleaded guilty to fraud charges, but refused to talk about what the governor knew -- all of that while Wilson was deputy governor.
Wilson: "I had no participation in it, whatsoever, Mr. Williams."
Williams: "That wasn't my question."
Wilson: "None whatsoever."
Williams: "Do taxpayers have a right to know what you were told afterwards?"
Wilson: "Anything that might involve any sort of confidential information that may have come to me from anyone -- and I don't mean Gov. Sundquist -- if I'm obligated as a lawyer, I'm obligated under my legal obligations. I don't even want to imply that Gov. Sundquist ever told me that he even knew anything about it."
Williams: "But you're not saying whether he did or did not?"
I'm beginning to feel sorry for Wilson. All he wants is this little comptroller job in return for a lifetime of Republican campaign contributions from his fat inheritance. He doesn't deserve what Williams is doing to him.Wilson: "I can't, as a lawyer, say anything period."
I saw Wilson scurrying down a Legislative Plaza hallway yesterday and cornered him against the water cooler. He tried to duck my questions but he had no where to go. I wanted to know whether Kent Williams' deal with the devil changed Wilson's prospects for winning the comptroller job. Wilson said he didn't know, so I let him off the hook this time.
The legislature may or may not vote today on the constitutional officers. Williams says lawmakers will vote but others aren't so sure. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports at least one Republican, Rep. Vince Dean of East Ridge, was offered a committee chairmanship in exchange for a pledge to vote for a Democratic constitutional officer by a person claiming to be an "emissary" from Williams, according to House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada.
But Williams says, "No deals have been made. I don't make any deals of any kind - not with legislators, not with constitutional officers, not with senators and not with lobbyists."
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