Friday, March 13, 2009
Politics / Woods Casada to Forrester: You Worry About Your Drunk Drivers and We'll Worry About Our Dirty Tricksters
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 12:48 PM
"I don't get the state Democratic Party. For years they've tolerated felonious acts by members of Tennessee General Assembly--DUI in particular--and they never say boo. Then somebody publishes the truth about a member of the General Assembly and they demand that he be fired. So no, I'm not going to fire Scott Gilmer, and I wish the Democrats would be more concerned about DUI than they are about publishing the truth about somebody."
Comments (19)
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Notice - Casada didn't respond to the issue of Gilmer's guilt. He just twisted the truth and counteraccused.
This is addict behavior. Casada = dry drunk.
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Nice try, Glen. Some people within your own Republican Caucus say at least one of your current members is an alcoholic. He's a nice guy, but he still has a problem. Fortunately, he hasn't been caught driving -- yet. Maybe you're escorting him to and fro?
I'm not a fan of Mr. Forrester, nor do I agree with his grandstanding today, but I do remember the Democrats doing you a favor a time or two. Mr. Naifeh (to his credit) went all out to keep former Rep. H.E. Bittle out of the news for at least a month after that 2004 incident at the karaoke bar. Remember -- the media was very suspicious of all those days of Session he missed. Granted, you guys did force Jim Vincent not to run again and Mr. Bittle retired on his own, but you didn't have a meeting to kick either one out of the caucus during Session.
The Tennessee Democratic Party also remained conspicuously silent when the late Rep. Keith Westmoreland was charged with exposing himself. You may use his income tax vote for an excuse, but not many politicians would forgo the chance to jump on a charge like that. It was the request to resign by the Tennessee Republican Party that pushed him over the edge.
So remember, every time you point a finger at someone, four fingers are pointing back at you.
Oh, lordy, lordy, Chipper gets bitch slapped again.
Pot, I don’t understand your comments. You say a Democrat, Jimmy Naifeh, tried to keep Vincent’s drunken shenanigans out of the news. Then Republicans told Vincent not to run again. You then say Democrats looked the other way when Westmoreland exposed himself to teenagers.
The Republicans asked him to resign. Those are condemnations of Democrats.
benintotaldenial, your juvenile attempts at spin are . . . well, juvenile.
The Tennessee Democrat Party, your party, would not call on four Democrat members of the state legislature to resign after they were charged with bribery by the federal government
The Tennessee Democrat Party fought to allow those members to serve during the special legislative session on ethics, which was brought about by the bribery charges against these members.
The Tennessee Democrat Party refused to ask a state House member to resign after his drunken rampage through Middle Tennessee and his abusive treatment of the law enforcement officers that rightfully arrested him.
The Tennessee Democrat Party refused to ask a state senator to resign after he rolled his SUV down a public interstate after a night of drunken carousing.
The Tennessee Democrat Party covered for a drunken state senator that fell off a bar stool and later attacked a cab driver.
Shall I continue?
On what moral grounds, Chip Forrester, can your political party call on the Republicans to fire a staffer that pled no contest to charges and paid his fine?
How come Casada's not responding to the question of Gilmer's guilt?
Bait and switch? Denial? Covering his ass?
C'mon, Mr. Heat, the Democratic Party can't even muster the will to fight get-out-of-taxes-free cards for wealthy developers, protect abused grandmas in nursing homes, or do battle against guns in bars. I don't know if you realize this, but you're requested some vague semblance of courage here. Isn't that a little much to ask?
You're right, Pete. I just find it loathsome that Forrester, as a member of the Tennessee Democrat Party executive committee, stood by four state legislators that used their public offices for personal financial gain, but now he takes shots at some punk kid that committed a misdemeanor. Forrester, as a member of the Tennessee Democrat Party executive committee, raised not a peep of protest when his four dirty legislators took their seats during the special legislative session on ethics (for chrissakes), but he shoots out a press release about a moronic kid that put up some websites.
The audacity is galling.
I'm not sure Gilmer's a punk kid. Judging by his picture, he looks to be 30-40 something. And reasonable people could conclude the campaign against Vaughn was some pretty overt race-baiting, so this guy probably shouldn't get a pass. But it is kind of pathetic watching the parrots squeal. One party merely grandstands for the far right with bills that suggest clinical instability, while the other party doesn't seem to stand for anything at all. When I worked in Ohio, you could usually count on government to produce an indictment a month. I never thought I'd see worse. But the Tennessee Legislature makes Ohio politicians look like the Oxford faculty. I'm not sure anybody should be getting a pass here.
Okay, Pete, you're right: no one should get a pass. A pox on both their houses. But Chipper is a spineless, hypocritical shitbird - the kind that really annoys me.
Also, I assumed Gilmer is a kid since he's a legislative staffer. I'm probably wrong.
I hear you, Heat. I'd give Gilmer a pass if he was a kid too. But there's a link to a story with his picture on the post. He's no babe in the woods. And aside from the politics of the deal, what he did to Vaughn was a little unmanly, don't you think?
I know you have a beef with Chip. But in the grand scheme of this fight, I think he ranks pretty far down on the villain list. If you're looking for Democratic shamelessness, you should probably start with Odom. He has the power to actually do something good for the state, but he's been a no-show on a series of moral fights that are the staple of Democratic beliefs. Maybe you don't believe in those fights, but a guy has to stand for something other than himself, doesn't he?
Anonymous,
The point is that the Democratic Party had an opportunity to jump on these issues in the past, but they didn't. This is just posturing by Forrester, who is a joke as a chairman. Casada knows this, but he's trying to make into an attack by the whole party.
At the end the TNDP release, they bring up the racist Republican campaign tactics. I cannot believe that Chip Forrester has the nerve to even mention this since his treasurer, Bill Freeman, funded racist Republican attack ads in 2006. What a joke.
I know you have a beef with Chip. But in the grand scheme of this fight, I think he ranks pretty far down on the villain list. If you're looking for Democratic shamelessness, you should probably start with Odom. He has the power to actually do something good for the state, but he's been a no-show on a series of moral fights that are the staple of Democratic beliefs. Maybe you don't believe in those fights, but a guy has to stand for something other than himself, doesn't he?
I agree with you completely, Pete. I'm lighting into Chipper (again) on this one because he put out the statement.
You'll get no defense of Odum from me. He's the new poster child for Democrat sleeze. Take the FONCE. I'm no fan of taxes, but I do believe they should be fair. This tax giveaway isn't. But Odum thinks it's more important to protect his fat cat buddy than bring some equity to our tax system.
They don't want to admit it, but this is the sort of thing that's killing the Democrats. It's not just the drunk driving and the bribery. It's the constant backroom dealing and looking out for their own that disgusts voters.
But, hey, it's their funeral. If this is the best the Tennessee Democrat Party can offer us, it deserves to die. Maybe Chipper and Odum are just putting it out of its misery.
"They don't want to admit it, but this is the sort of thing that's killing the Democrats."
You're absolutely right, Heat. For Democrats not to be with the governor on FONCE is pure skankery. And the assumption seems to be that we're too dumb to notice.
I agree that Chip has picked a ridiculous subject for attacking the Republicans. So far, he as written a column going after Rush Limbaugh and a presser going after some low-level GOP legislative staffer. Otherwise, nothing. What an inept, incompetent, ineffective twit we have as TNDP Chairman.
Come on, Chip. How about attacking the Republicans for supporting a tax break for the wealthy -- including a New York pornographer -- and supporting your Democratic Governor for his attempts to end that tax break? Isn't that the same platform Obama ran on?
Or how about attacking the GOP for its war on minimum wage workers?
As for you Heatseeker, there is no such thing as the "Democrat Party." Why do you guys insist on this second-grade level designation of the Democratic Party. It hurts your own credibility, and it's stupid.
Finally, as for Casada, remember that he was basically "sent" to the General Assembly because Williamson County Republicans thought this idiot could do less damage there than on the County Commission. And he had better hope that no one starts tallying up his lecherous hitting on female lobbyists and interns. He is one of the most disgusting sexual harassers on Capitol Hill.
Dead on, Pete. Dead on. Tennessee Democrats think Tennesseans are too stupid and inattentive to notice their hypocrisy and dirty dealing. Seems like the results from the last election would disabuse them of that notion.
Sorry, TennRod, I don't see a whole lot democratic about TNDP.
