Thursday, June 4, 2009
Media / Woods What's the Matter with Gail Kerr? Puff Queen Suddenly Turns Tough in Maynard Column
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 8:05 AM
click to enlarge
Gail Kerr is the queen of puffery. She loves to coo and gush over the city's political elite. Her fondness for Ronnie Steine, for instance, seems to know no bounds. When he was making his 2007 comeback, she was quick to help by writing an adoring column forgiving her buddy for those little pesky PR miscues from his past, namely shoplifting and lying about it to the public.
But in this morning's Tennessean, she suddenly unveiled her new cranky self in a piece about at-large council member Jerry Maynard. You start reading and you think you're going to learn all about how Jerry likes to rescue stray puppies. Then the next thing you know, Gail's slapping Jerry as an overly ambitious cad who talks to the media too much. Huh?
Maynard's crimes? He worked for his father as an assistant pastor at the Cathedral of Praise church "until Senior pushed Junior to go find his own way." There's that. What else? Well, he won't rule out running for other political offices, and he talks to reporters a lot, and he let his law license lapse because he was too busy to keep up with the continuing education requirement, and he talks to reporters a lot, and he led protests against the school rezoning plan ... Wait, stop right there. We've heard enough.
It's just a guess, but we think it's that last little matter that's really gotten under Gail's skin. How dare an articulate, young (black) politician call out the Chamber of Commerce and the white establishment for trying to resegregate schools? We just can't tolerate that.
Comments (1)
Showing 1-1 of 1
I got a totally different vibe from that column. I think she likes Maynard-look at how the last couple of paragraphs, for goodness sake!-but is also acknowledging that the old guard doesn't know what to do with him because he isn't playing the game of paying dues by serving on Council for years before speaking up, then years more before thinking of moving on. Of course, you *can't* serve on Council for years and years anymore...
like
dislike
Posted by
loonytick
on 06/04/2009 at 10:20 AM
