Thursday, February 26, 2009
Politics / Woods Forrester Tries Again to Calm Storm Over Freeman
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Comments (17)
Showing 1-17 of 17
TennRod has made a very interesting observation. Previously, Chipper claimed Freeman "raised" $250,000 for Obama. In this video, Chipper says Freeman "helped raise" $250,000 for Obama.
That, my friends, is called backing away from the precipice.
No one has ever proven that Freeman actually raised this money for Obama. In fact, at least two commenters ("Simple Question" at Post Politics and Charlie O'Brien at KnoxViews) say that Freeman does not appear on the list of Obama bundlers and that if he raised that much money without registering as a bundler, he broke the law.
Chipper knows he is about to be caught in another lie or that Freeman broke the law. His change in language tells us that.
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Where are the Chipinista? Why aren't they rushing to Chipper's defense?
There are two options here:
1. Chipper is a liar.
2. Chipper is as competent as a drunk chimp on Xanax.
Come on, Chipinista, tell us which it is.
Chip reminds me of the Kevin Bacon character in Animal House. "All is well! All is well!" Then he gets trampled. Poor little fella.
Heetseeker.......maybe one day when your balls drop you can be a man stop trash talking this man nameless.
You are a coward, lame and most likely got picked on as a kid and didn't have much luck with the ladies? I bet you get all excited and when you really make a 'funny' post! Do you really think Chip reads this or cares what you have to say?
Harrison, same to you!!
Heetseeker = Bored fearful loser
Oh my. I'm trembling. Chip's smelly grad students with overgrown toenails keep pounding their little fists. Heatseeker, whatever will we do?
I just shit myself, Harrison --
Laughing at Chipper's inept communication strategy: let the gimp undergrads out of the closet to stamp their smelly feet and cry, "Chip is such a big man. Too big to answer the questions being asked of him by people from Memphis to Mountain City. Don't you know how big Chip is?"
I ask again, Chipinista, is Chipper dishonest or incompetent? Your pathetic wailing will not make that question go away.
You had better believe they are reading every single post as it appears over at the TNDP.
These are legitimate questions. even if you don't want them to be:
Did Forrester know about Freeman's record as a GOP voter and as a GOP contributor and not share that information with the Executive Committee? If so, he was not being "transparent" at all, much less honest, was he?
Did Forrester not know about Freeman's record, something that could be easily found out with a simple check of the FEC sites and the voter file? If so, he was negigent and basically incompetent, wasn't he?
And what about Freeman himself? Did he have the decency to give a "head's up" to Forrester or the Executive Committee about his record of voting in Republican primaries and giving to Republican candidates, the TNRP and the RNC? If not, isn't that unethical and dishonest?
How about some answers? Jeff, you seem to be able to ask pertinent questions and get real answers. What about it. Or better yet, Chip and company, you are watching this closely over there at the TNDP headquarters. Why don't you provide an answer for us?
Where are the other executive committee members on this? There's a resolution. One has gone public and called for Freeman's resignation. Where are the others? Have they called Chip? Is a meeting scheduled?
Heatseeker/Harrison,
I assume you are the same person? How do you make a living?
Please answer you can be general!
Are you an arse kissing lobbyist?
Are you a teet sucking governement hack?
Please do tell?
Or did Chip just steal your lady and you are on a life long campaign against the man?
For someone who calls him/herself Anonymous, you sure are nosy about other people's information.
Here's an actually pertinent question for you:
You saw the questions I posed above? Was Chip dishonest with the Executive Committee or was he just incompetent?
Obama had only 1 bundler in Tennessee, and that was Jerry Martin. Freeman and his wife are listed as "mega-donors" for Obama. I did notice that Freeman co-hosted an Obama fundraiser at Loews with Forrester, among others. They are listed as "co-hosts," while Charles Robert Bone's name appeared above theirs as "Co-Chair" with Martin and Bob Tuke.
Hey, knoxrebel, welcome to Nashville. You have been doing a great job of question asking at KnoxViews. Wjhat do you think? Dishonest or incompetent?
Pleasure to be here, guys. I'll start out with a long one. You know, you can come over to knoxviews and pitch in . . . .
Anyway, this entire affair is about one thing more than any other: piss poor judgment. Forrester was elected amidst a fairly public feud with Bredesen, the Congressional delegation, former Chairs, and big donors. The idea he pressed was that once he became chair, he would do whatever was necessary to "unite the Party," whatever that means nowadays, including mending fences with Bredesen, the Congressional delegation, and big donors. Face it, these guys are Dems who got elected in a red state. By choosing a Treasurer who admittedly has had a long-running feud with Bredesen, has given tend of thousands to Bush through the RNC, to Corker, against Bredesen in '02 and '06, to Alexander, and to Frist, etc., the message Forrester sent was not "I want to unify Democrats," it was "Gotcha, Phil" and "Gotcha Junior."
Now, is he an idiot or a liar? Occam's razor: when multiplying competing hypothesis are equal in other respects, the hypothesis which introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities is usually the correct one. The hypothesis that Forrester didn't know about Freeman's GOP-giving means he's an idiot, given the ease within which he could have discovered all of it. My 6 year old granddaughter could look it up in 15 minutes. So, he might be stupid but he's not an idiot. The hypothesis that he just didn't want to let those Ex-Com folks know because they wouldn''t go his way is dead on and requires very little further explanation.
It's just like the idea of trying to "broaden the Democratic base" by selecting Freeman as Treasurer necessarily ignores how risky such a choice was in view of everything else that has happened (as demonstrated by the firestorm that is raging as we speak about the appointment of Freeman). But the hypothesis that Forrester is just in a pissing contest with Bredesen, the Congressional delegation, and other notable Dems who supported his opponent in January, explains this entire scenario. It's just not that hard to figure out. Occam's razor.
Well done, Knoxrebel. But I'd revise your take just a bit. "Pissing contest" suggests the two camps (Forester vs. Bredesen/congressional/donors/others) are actively going after one another. Not really the case. The anti-Chip crowd (virtually everyone of significance in TN political life) has and will continue to essentially ignore Chip. Yes, they told him not to run. Yes they said they wanted CRB. Yes, Chip has a long history of manifestly bad judgment. But, honestly, no one cares all that much now. The party has been a marginal player for a long time. Many of us had hoped to change that-- given the now critical need to revitalize Democratic poliltics in this state-- and, yes, his election represents a a lost opportunity in that sense; but it's not like we're all bitter and obsessed with it. (Not sure who heatseeker and some of those clowns are.) TNDP won't raise much money and wont' be the force it could have been, but there will be a decent operation. Chip has his strenghts and will do some good things. But in the end, we're all looking elsewhere for the path to electoral success. And we'll get there.
Knoxrebel, I've been reading you at KnoxViews, too. Good work. You can also join us at Post Politics (politics.nashvillepost.com). We usually comment about Chipper over there, too.
I also agree that Chipper was being dishonest. The fundraiser he hosted along with Freeman is a particularly damning piece of evidence. Good catch, KnoxRebel. He knew Freeman and knew he hated Bredesen. This was another shot in Chipper's ongoing war with the people that didn't support his campaign for treasurer.
Then there's also Gerry Odum. Freeman is Odum's campaign treasurer. Odum has also hated Bredesen for years. Don't think that didn't play a role in Freeman getting hired as TNDP treasurer, and don't think Odum didn't intend it as a slap at Bredesen.
KnoxRebel, I also saw at KnoxViews that several commentors are questioning the claim that Freeman raised $250,000 for Obama. Did he raise that much money? If he did, why isn't he listed as a bundler?
