Thursday, February 19, 2009
Legislature / Politics / Woods Kelsey Strikes Again, Demands that State Reject Stimulus Cash
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 10:47 AM
House Democratic leader Gary Odom said the governor should accommodate Kelsey by denying stimulus cash to Kelsey's ritzy Germantown district. "We're going to communicate that to our governor," Odom said, struggling to keep a straight face. "We have many areas of this state, rural and urban, that are facing very difficult times. We certainly should not spend any money in any legislator's district when that legislator stands up and says they don't need it."
Rep. Larry Miller said, "He's really an embarrassment. He's almost like a renegade rogue. It never ceases to amaze me. It never stops. ... You can't take this individually seriously. I'm reluctant to even respond to it." Miller then rattled on for another couple of minutes.
A reporter mentioned that even Rep. Beth Harwell, a moderate Republican from Green Hills, raised questions yesterday about whether the state should accept all the stimulus money. That sparked a lot of Democratic outrage about rich people and gated communities and Starbucks shops.
"If folks in Germantown and Belle Meade don't want to accept this stimulus money, the folks in rural areas are hurting," said Rep. Mark Maddox, who's from Dresden.
"I don't have any gated communities in my district," snorted Rep. Mike Turner, a beefy firefighter from Old Hickory. "The Starbucks in their districts are doing good. The ones in my district are about to go out of business. There's a big difference when you start comparing those districts to some other ones in the state of Tennessee."
Meanwhile, Democrats said they haven't yet managed to draw up their long-awaited action agenda for this session. "We're still filing bills so that hopefully will help us determine what our agenda is," Turner explained. "We hope to have something ready next week."
Comments (3)
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I am so proud of our lower deliberative body for the maturity and sober thought they bring to the weighty issues before them.
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Speaking of sober, at least they stopped discussing any more beer related laws. For this week.
Does Kelsey not understand that this stimulus IS taking OUR money. It's official. We can't do anything about it anymore. If WE are going to be handing over OUR wallets to the government to be drained, then AT LEAST our state and counties should be taking back every dime we can get of it so WE can decide how to spend it and the improvements needed. I think Kelsey and Campfield are in a contest to find out which one is the biggest idiot! Wait, they'll have to "out-idiot" Reps. Mumpower and Maggart, and her BFF, Robin Smith to come in first place!
