Friday, March 27, 2009
Politics / Woods Freeman Resigns as Democratic Party Treasurer; Is Forrester Next?
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 4:31 PM
"I think what Bill encountered was, because of past contributions or other issues, an active effort to make fundraising difficult," Forrester said. "He did encounter people that said, 'I need to kind of lay low for a while,' and that kind of resistance made it difficult."
Comments (43)
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Is the Tennessee Democrat Party now going to join Bredesen and Ramsey is calling for the end to the fat tax giveaway to wealthy real estate developers?
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I don't know, what do you guys think? I wonder if anyone cares enough at this point to talk the executive committee into telling Chip he has to go. Everyone seems to have washed their hands of it all. I still think Democrats kinda need a party operation.
Jeff, you may be right. I have stayed out of this for quite a while now, but having read all the comments I can find and spoken to everyone I know who can be considered any sort if insider, I am thinking it may be just too late. I can't believe less than two months could produce this kind of meltdown.
My idea for saving the TNDP would be to just let Chip alone, let him play chairman, and perhaps he could even do some good in some small way, for instance, recruiting some feet on the ground for 2010. But it's clear that as a spokesperson for the Democratic Party, as a player, as anyone with an ounce of credibility, he is just not there.
Then as far as the party is concerned, use some other vehicle -- the legislative caucuses, one of the national organizations, a coordinated campaign organization established by the candidates for Congress and Governor outside the TNDP, perhaps even a county organization (Davidson or Shelby County parties). Maybe there are obstacles to some or all of these, but there is no reason that the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates cannot be successful next year without Forrester's TNDP.
Just ignoring him from now on and building an alternative approach/organization/network, formal or informal -- that may be the best road.
If you ask me, Chip should follow Freeman out the door. And all of the executive committee members that voted for Chip should follow him out the door because we are going to find people to run against you.
And Jennifer Buck Wallace should find a new career. You ran a horrible presidential campaign. Then you got Chip elected chairman by having your people threaten executive committee members. Then you presided over the death of TNDP by a thousand cuts. You should never work in politics again. Ever. Anywhere.
And Chip wants to hire this utterly incomptent woman as executive director. Run them both out of town before it's too late. They have no clue what they are doing.
Morpheus, you are a bitter person. But you are right about the executive committee. They're the ones who elected Forrester. They are the root of the problem. What do you do about an executive committee that thumbs its nose at the party's senior elected leaders? By and large, we're talking about a gang of grouchy old people who aren't likely to embrace change or admit it when they are wrong.
Why is the Bredesen so quiet about all of this? I've read nothing from him in regards to the TNDP.
As far as I'm concerned having his little trolls Heatseeker and Morpheus whine on blogs does the party no good. These two obviously have it out for Chip.
All this bs just adds to the lead the GOP know has in TN.
Is this Chips fault or Bredesens?
Bredesen told the executive committee not to elect Forrester. Remember? The executive committee told him to take a hike. That's what he's done.
Best way to deal with the Executive Committee is to amend Tennessee Code Annotated. The Executive Committees of both parties actually are creatures of state law -- 66 members in each committee, or two from each state Senate district.
Imagine a corporate or nonprofit board that large. It would be unwieldy, ineffective and inept -- much like the TNDP committee. (I'm always amazed that the Republicans don't have the same problem as the Democrats. But for some reason, their committee doesn't seem to be comprised of as many lunatics. Or it's a different kind of lunacy.)
Ironically, the chief obstacle to shrinking or restructuring the Democratic Executive Committee would be the Republicans. Why would they agree to a change in state law when having Democrats in a state of disarray is so helpful and amusing to them? They're laughing out loud.
So the only remaining option is to begin actively working to unseat Democratic Executive Committee members around the state. As this Forrester wound keeps getting bigger, I predict you'll see people not only calling for his resignation but also the resignation of certain committee members who led us to this dismal place.
I suggest that we start with Fred Hobbs, who called Obama a terrorist much to Democrats' dismay and much to the delight of national media like Slate that love to point to Tennessee as still backward. Democrats should lean on him to quit, or replace him by running someone against him at the earliest opportunity. And don't stop there. Go west and east and beat a few more.
Some targeted spankings would send a strong signal to this panel of misfits. Straighten up or get out of the way.
"Reform TNDP" has the right idea; however, I'm not willing to say the Republicans wouldn't go along with reforming the laws on the executive committees. They've had their share of EC problems. Someone should begin that conversation.
If not, then we should definitely take out the executive committee members that defied our elected leadership and supported Chip. Hobbs is one. Harold and Sylvia Woods are two more. Brenda Ables, Seannalynn Brandmeir. We know how they voted.
Secondly, Morpheus is right. The staffers that worked behind the scenes to elect Chip in defiance our elected leadership should go, the primary one being Jennifer Buck Wallace. How much is Chip paying her to be executive director over this disaster?
If Chip goes, who will replace him? I am no fan of his, but as I said in the above posting, it may be too late. Who would be willing to walk into this mess? Won't that person get the same treatment that Chip has gotten? Of course, no one would be as incompetent as Chip, but you certainly could expect sniping from his supporters. I have heard a lot of names suggested, but I'm not sure any one of them would be willing to be Charman of the TNDP at this point.
Jellyfinger, what about my ideas about just ignoring Chip and setting up some alternative vehicle to get the job done for Democrats?
I don't know whether or not Bone would be interested, but this should not devolve into a Chip v. Bone fight. The issue all along has been that Chip is too untrustworthy and incompetent to be party chair. He has proven that. Let's replace him with someone capable of doing the job.
TennRod, I feel that forming a new organiztion is reinventing the wheel. Chip is crippled beyond recovery. He should be offered a graceful exit and replaced with a capable chair.
I'm TennDemocrat, not TennRod but that's OK.
OK, if that is the case, then the search should be on for someone to replace him as soon as Forrester either resigns or gets fired. Of course, it's up to the Executive Committee to elect someone, but hopefully this time they will do so with a consensus or at least acceptance of the ED members, the major donors, the office holders, and even the MoveOn types who have backed Forrester.
The names I have heard mentioned, but with no idea whatsoever if any of them are interested, would want to give up what they already are doing, could get a consensus, or even would be a good choice (in alphabetical order): Dennis Alpert, Calvin Anderson, Charles Robert Bone, Charles W. Bone, Mark Brown, Stuart Brunson, Carol Chumney, Dave Cooley, Billy Fields, Howard Gentry, Jim Hall, Jim Hester, Adam Hill, Clark Jones, Don Majors, Bill Mason, Kim McMillan, George Phillips, Bruce Shine, Patric Smith, Mike Terry or Matt Wiltshire.
My choice of all of these would be Jim Hester. He did a hell of a job on that English Only amendment at Metro, he has worked for the TND before, and as far as I kow has stayed out of the current dust-up.
I agree with TennDemocrat. Let Chip suffer in silence and live off food stamps for a while. TNDP is irrelevant at the moment. However, I strongly agree with the Reformer in that we need to blow up the Executive Committee and start over. Over at Post Politics, I've begun advocating a concerted effort to fund and recruit committee candidates who can unseat the morons who led us to this point. Let's start with one of Chip's leading sponsors, Fred Hobbs, who believes our President is "terrorist-connected."
Yes, well, Harrison, I am still of a mind to just ignore Chip and work around him. But if Dr. Jellyfinger is right, then we need to be looking for who is next. And even I must acknowledge that finding alternatives to the TNDP can only be a temporary fix, for the coming election cycle.
Finding a new chairman, new members of the EC, perhaps revamping the structure altogether as you suggest -- that's the long-range goal under any circumstances.
TennDemocrat: I agree with where you're going but I think your list includes a number of people who are nice but carry varying degrees of baggage. I think the defining principles in a new party chair (other than consensus support) should be: A. Someone with "senior statesman" status; AND B. Someone with a proven ability to raise money. Operative word being "proven." (As much as Chip is trying to blame his fudraising failures on Freeman, we all know it's the chairman who brings in the dough.) Of the names on your list, the only ones who would meet both criteria would be Brunson, Cooley, Hall and Jones. (The Bones, of course, would be great, but they probably feel as burned by this whole ordeal as Bredesen and the congressionals. With good reason.) Separately, but equally important, is the executive director role. We've got lots of talented political operatives in this state -- people like Hester, Brown, Fraiser, Sasser-Hayden, Pinkston, Talley, and many others. But as much as I hate to say it, I don't think any of them are suited for this role at this moment in time. All of them have their own baggage and none of them have experience in what's really needed in this situation -- a total rebuild of the TNDP. We're not just talking about reinforcing the joists and slapping on a fresh coat of paint. We're talking about blowing up the mother fucker and starting over from scratch. I'd do a national search, pay whatever it takes (within reason) and develop a core strategy that is focused and attainable. Most of all, it needs to be someone who can sell as well in Paris, TN, as East Nashville. That means no Jennifer Buck Wallace, who led Obama to one of his worst statewide defeats in '08.
And to Buck Wallace and the others who are talking big about wanting to "primary" the Blue Dogs -- you better strap it on. You'll learn what it really means to get a full-on, down-home Tennessee ass kicking.
Good points.
That's not really "my" list, that's just all the names I have heard bandied about at one time or another. I do think some of them would be a better Executive Director than Chairman, and some of them I don't really know much about.
The only primary challenge I have heard much about is that Chip's supporters are looking for someone to run against Jim Cooper, because they think a more left-wing candidate could win in Nashville. I think they're nuts, too.
I'd like to see those NCO idiots try to primary Jim Cooper. Talk about hellfire raining down. You'd see just about every elected official and operative take a 45-day vacation from whatever else they're doing to circle the wagons around Cooper and proceed to enjoy a total and complete recretional ass kicking -- financial and otherwise -- of anybody who has the temerity to take on one of the most honorable members of the U.S. House.
I think we're all talking about the same thing. It comes down to one word: How do we "professionalize" the TNDP in unprecedented manner.
Possibly it's time to look at some real unity for Democrats. All these people seem to be part of the same old system or at least know the same old rules. How do you really start something new and vibrant that's in the middle, futuristic and not exclusive? Interesting discussion though. Thanks.
Unity can only begin with Chip's total capitulation and resignation. It's clear now that anything short of his disappearance will make that impossible.
You know, Harrison, I have been thinking about it, and even if you're right about completely blowing up the TNDP and starting from scratch, that can't be accomplished overnight. I am worrying about the 2010 election cycle, and it seems to me that we must either get Chip to resign or be fired and bring in a new chair, working with the exiting structure; OR we do what I suggested to begin with, and that is to cobble together an alternative structure that can get the job done for 2010, basically ignoring Chip, who is irrelevant now anyway.
Either way, your idea of "blowing up" the Executive Committee might proceed. But, as someone mentioned, this might require action by the General Assembly as well...and you know what that means.
Also, either way, achair for the TNDP or a leader (whatever you might call the position) for the alternative coordinated campaign must be recruited. You said four of those from that list would be suitable and I suggested one other. Isn't now the time to start talking to them and maybe some of the others suggested?
You guys are big talkers. I nominate Heatseeker/Harrison for party chair. And Monkey Butt can serve as treasurer with Stumpy as his No. 1 assistant. We'll make KnoxRebel chair of the finance committee.
Agreed! Call the State Convention to order! Bring the Flintstones' water buffalo hats. Heater and I are taking over. Chip ... Bite down on this red gimp ball. Don't mind the leather straps. Onward!
LOL, TN Democrat, Jim Hall supported Lamar! in 2008. He was a candidate in 2006 for State Senate until he decided to withdraw two days after the filing date so no other Dem could get in the open race for Tn-10. Great way to hand over a freaking favor to the Republicans.
Hall is the best thing Repubs could hope for which makes me wonder about you, so called "Tenn Dem".
Serious action should be taken as soon as possible. I've been told that Chip openly talks in the party office about recruiting primary opponents to run against our sitting congressmen.
Chip has a serious Napolean complex. At this point, he needs to be removed as much for the sake of his own mental and emotional recovery as he does for the recovery of TNDP.
Hey, 2010Dem, I'm more than happy to engage you pussy-ass Chipinista whenever, wherever, but my involvement in this firefight has been minimal.
Sounds like you better quit worrying about me. Sounds like your lord and master, Chipper, is coming unhinged. You better call him an analyist. Or maybe a therapist. Or maybe just call him an analrapist.
SuthernLib, I didn't endorse Jim Hall. I just mentioned him in a long list of people I have heard suggested for chairman. If you bother to read that post, you will see that I specifically said that I didn't know if any of those people were interested or if they would be any good at it. Please make some attempt to know what the hell you are talking about.
I do know that no one on that list could possibly be worse than what we have now. If Hall is not the right person, and I certainly will not argue otherwise, considering what you said, then surely someone else is.
2010: I object to being associated with Heater. S/he is a crude, foul-mouthed, unforgiving lout. And a Republican, to boot. I am a thoughtful, kind, compassionate and moderate Democrat who cares. Really, I do.
Okay, Harrison, let's get our panties in a wad and have an Allen-Alda-style carefest because Chipper is losing his shit. What? You want to bake him a casserole? Take him a book of daily affirmations?
Chipper is an incompetent putz. He gets what he deserves from me. I'm not going to stop criticizing him because he's going Captain Queege on us.
Didn't his tai chi lessons teach him how to handle pressure?
Harrison wrote:
"I object to being associated with Heater. S/he is a crude, foul-mouthed, unforgiving lout. And a Republican, to boot. I am a thoughtful, kind, compassionate and moderate Democrat who cares."
Right, Harrison. Sure, you're thoughtful. Kind. NOT "foul-mouthed." You just keep telling yourself that.
But the TRUTH is, you posted that back-patting self-praise at 8:01 p.m. -- but seven minutes earlier, at 7:54 p.m. on the Post Politics website, you posted:
"Policy? Policy? Are you fucking kidding me? You’re an idiot. ...."
We who watch, and who read what you write, KNOW what kind of singular person you are.
Or, better stated, what kind of PLURAL person you are.
"Ah, but the strawberries . . ."
Captain Queeg Forrester and his crew of underfed undergrads with overgrown toenails continues to obsess about blog commentors while the S.S. TNDP capsizes.
I'm officially putting the Chipinista reign at TNDP on death watch. This insanity will soon end.
Oh Sure You Are: Holy shit! You caught me. I threw the fucking F-bomb over at PP. Perhaps I was just being sarcastic earlier, you dumb ass. I suppose all this means that Heater is the Chris Rock to my George Carlin. Happy fucking Sunday.
Now granted we in Shelby County largely are ignored and ignore goings on in the rest of the State. However, Forrester encouraged a recent ruling in the SCDP Bylaws that accentuated a split already in TN's largest and most Demcratic County. He gave the impression of favoring current State Exec Comm member Jay Bailey who was running for Shelby Democratic Chairman. So what did the Shelby Democrats do? We overwhelmingly elected Bailey's opponent, Van Turner.
Chip is really looking ineffective to many of us and should resign.
Come on, Chipinista, say it with me:
"Ah, but the strawberries . . . they laughed at me . . . the strawberries . . ."
Oh, the dee-licious irony. Cap'n Queeg Forrester runs for chair despite the opposition of his party leaders. Now the imperial chairman, he orders Shelby County Democrats to elect his candidate county chair - and they refuse him.
Does Cap'n Queeg have any scruples about him?
Perfect. Chip alienates the biggest concentration of Democrats in the state. This smacks of Jennifer Buck Wallace (aka La Femme Chip) trying to extend her fat little fingers outside the Nashville Community Organizer crowd and dabble in Bluff City politics, which as we all know is ill-advised for even the most experienced hands. Rule #1: Stick a finger in Memphis and you're liable to lose an arm. They're unmerciful, unforgiving ... and I admire them for it.
When ye be reading curses on the Sabbath, then ye know the truth:
There be voices of Evil on this site.
The words of Helen Keller still ring wise today:
“It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.”
The attempt to take over the Shelby County Democratic Party definitely has the fingerprints of Jennifer Buck Wallace all over it. The woman is so delusional that she believes she actually did something to elect a president - even though her fumbling, anemic attempt at a statewide campaign suffered the most serious spanking of any presidential campaign in Tennessee for at least a quarter century.
In fact, Buck Wallace may be pulling TNDP's strings. With reports coming out of TNDP of Chip locking himself in his office and spending his time plotting primary wars with Democratic congressmen, someone else must be running the show, even as poorly as it is presently being run.
How much is Chip paying Buck Wallace as his executive director?
So, uh ... Am I the devil and Heatseeker is Helen Keller? Or is TennDemocrat supposed to be Helen Keller? Or is Chip playing Helen Keller and the Chipinista the "fellow men?" And who are the Shelby Dems supposed to be? I'm really confused. Let us pray.
Uh . . . the TNDP creepiness factor has gone way up over the last couple of days. Cap'n Queeg Forrester is locked in his office, wondering why TennRod, Harrison, Dr. J., Morpheus, and I are so mean to him, and his minions are now quoting Bible verses at us . . . and Helen fucking Keller. I don't even know what to say about that last one . . .
Maybe Cap'n Queeg himself wrote that comment. Hey, RevelaTenn, that you, Chipper? If so, get some help. Soon. Seriously.
Would there be any use in trying to put forward a petition, to be signed by people giving their REAL names and voting addresses (to be matched against Dem Primary voter lists) formally ASKING the Executive Committee to choose another chairman who could unify the party for the sake of the state??? I realize it would not force anyone to do anything, but it would be very difficult for the Executive Committee to ignore. Perhaps the Congressional Delegation could start it.....just a thought.
