Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Politics / Woods A Look at Odd Behavior by Tennessee Governors
Posted by Jeff Woods on Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 9:44 AM
Comments (8)
Showing 1-8 of 8
Don Sundquist: Adopted a stray dog. Wouldn't give it back to it's boy owner.
John Wilder: Regularly referred to himself in the third person. Had lengthly discussions with portraits in his office. (Okay, he was Lt. Gov., but his longevity in office elevates his stature).
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Isham Harris: During Civil War, carried Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston's body around during Battle of Shiloh like a 1860s version of "Weekend at Bernie's."
John C. Brown: Advocated for creation of a true "public school system," that wacky liberal!
Anonymous,
And, soon after, the dog disappeared again and was put to death at the animal shelter because the family never bothered to go there to look for the dog.
Back then, when the Scene was a somewhat responsible journalistic operation, one writer noted that the press had puppy blood on their hands for the coverage of the story.
Mark, is that true about Governor Sundquist's adopted dog? I recall the story, of course, but not that unhappy ending.
Never mind. I looked it up (in the Scene archives). The story is correct. Very sad. (And as reported later in the Scene in a long story by Liz Garrigan, Governor Sundquist was treated unfairly over this incident.)
Oh Jesus Christ! Liz is an animal freak. Of course, that's what she'd write. Sundquist stole that damn dog off the street and refused to give it back to the kid when the kid saw it on TV. It was the kid's dog! Sundquist was breaking the kid's heart.
Henry,
It was a sad story. The dog's name was 'Bailey' I believe. Even then the media had a tendency to miss the story for a chance to be snarky.
Mr. Woods,
Breaking his heart so much that Bailey ended up in the pound for days before being killed?
Talented writers like Henry can capture the snark. You might be better off hunting the cat in the hat or trying to frame Roger Rabbit.
Informed rumor also had it that Sundquist sent then staffer Justin Wilson on a failed rescue mission to the dog pound. To leave Sundquist out of any discussion of odd behavior by governors is like ignoring Jack the Ripper in the history of serial killers.
