Subject: Social Policy

• The Great Tobacco Gold Rush

  November 26, 1998

• Surprise! Only One Southerner in Obama's Cabinet

  Congressman Zach Wamp says he's shocked that Barack Obama didn't appoint a bunch of Southerners to his Cabinet. (As if.) "The Democratic Party, under the president-elect, is overlooking the South. I am concerned, but I don't have much of a say in the process. I know a lot of Southern, conservative Democrats, and they're being taken for granted." But don't fret. Congressman Lincoln Davis says he'll watch out for our interests with his new seat on the mighty Appropriations Committee. Sen. Lamar

  January 19, 2009

• Bredesen, Cooper Still Waiting for Obama's Call

  After Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination for secretary of health and human services yesterday, Politico was quick to name Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper as possible replacements. But overnight, our hometown heroes seem to have dropped out of consideration.

  February 4, 2009

• The Backlash Against Bredesen

  Politico reports this evening on the burgeoning backlash against the very real possibility that President Obama might appoint Phil Bredesen to lead his ambitious health-care reform efforts. While the governor and press secretary Lydia Lenker keep dismissing all the buzz as mere media speculation, sources say Bredesen's a top candidate. By some accounts, the choice has come down to Bredesen or Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Update: In Washington, Sebelius meets with Obama adviser. The discussion

  February 6, 2009

• Would Bredesen Want HHS Job If It's Offered?

  The governor is revving up his PR machine to lobby for the HHS position. But lost in all the hubbub is this question: Would he want the job if the president offered it? He has stated repeatedly that he wants to lead President Obama's health-care reform initiatives, not merely run the giant HHS bureaucracy: "If it were a case of really being able to help in some fundamental way, something I really believe in which is to create universal health care, I certainly would think about it and talk abou

  February 10, 2009

• MoveOn Calls Bredesen 'a Bad Choice for Health Care Reform'

  MoveOn, the web-based liberal advocacy organization that raises megabucks for the Democratic Party, is telling supporters who the president should pick to run the Health and Human Services Department. MoveOn's answer? Anybody but Bredesen. In an email, MoveOn asks supporters to kneecap our governor. How can you tell who's a real health care champion? We need someone who's going to support visionary progressive health care reform; someone with a track record of standing up to the insurance and p

  February 10, 2009

• Phil Bredesen's Own Words Sabotage His Health Care Reform Pitch

  Bredesen invokes the Dick Cheney MethodA story yesterday in the Wall Street Journal said it all, quoting Governor Phil Bredesen as saying that "advocacy groups don't matter nearly as much as the pharmaceutical groups, the hospitals, the doctors' groups. There's a lot of very powerful interest groups that will play in this thing."This is Phil's idea of health care reform. Cut a deal with the guys who've screwed us all these years, and exclude those who represent consumers. It's the same method Di

  February 11, 2009

• Sky's the Limit for GOP's Righteous Agenda: Yes We Can!

  After a month of whining about those wicked Democrats and the unfairness of life, House Republicans are offering assurances that they're ready to get down to business. GOP caucus chair Glen Casada: "Whether we're 49 or 50, that's not as important as getting our ideas passed. We are back to norm." What a relief! And we were beginning to fret that the Republican agenda might falter this session.

  February 17, 2009

• Culture Warriors Storming the Capitol

  Culture War weirdness is returning to the Capitol in a big way. On Wednesday's agenda? A slew of anti-abortion measures, plus Stacey Campfield's "Don't Say Gay" bill prohibiting any mention of homosexuality in public schools. Yes, it's that special time we've all been waiting for when the legislature's new Republican majority begins to pay back its bug-eyed base. Outlawing abortions, of course, is at the top of the to-do list. Likely to pass tomorrow in the Senate Judiciary Committee is the in

  March 10, 2009

• SJR127 Rolls Out of Senate Judiciary; Sen. Black Insists: 'I'm not trying to take someone's right to abortion away'

  Sen. Diane Black: She's pro-commonsenseRepublicans succeeded this afternoon in shoving SJR127 back onto the Senate floor, but Democrats managed to make them look like callous nutcase extremists in the process. So it all worked out for everyone, right? (Well, not for pregnant women, but that's politics.) In the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats offered two amendments--one to make exceptions in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother, the other to allow abortions only to save the moth

  March 11, 2009

• Phil Bredesen becomes America's Health Care Enemy No. 1

  February 12, 2009

• Cesar Salud!

  Know your history before citing it

  July 3, 2008

• Unlikely Messenger

  Liberal Briley does an about-face on illegal immigration

  July 19, 2007

• Words of the Week

  May 10, 2007

• A Conversation With Bob Corker

  The Senator-elect on who he’ll hang with in the Senate, the Iraq war and immigration

  November 9, 2006

• Small Crime, Big Time

  One young woman’s plight offers a glimpse into the very near future of immigration enforcement

  October 12, 2006

• Pandermonium

  Tennessee Senate candidates, GOP and Democrat alike, make illegal immigration the new Willie Horton

  July 27, 2006

• In the Shadows of Demonstration

  During last week’s immigration rally, two opposing groups watched history from the sidelines

  April 6, 2006

• Felons in the Kitchen

  State lawmakers want to punish moms for hiring illegal immigrants

  March 30, 2006

• SJR127 Rolls Through House With 76 Votes

  The House has just voted by the stunning margin of 76-22 for SJR127, the anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution. Proponents defeated a Democratic attempt to make exceptions for rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. A sampling of the debate: Rep. Mike Turner, D-Nashville: "I have three daughters and I'm concerned that if one of those young ladies got in this situation of being brutally raped by some gangster or some hoodlum, they should have choices." Rep. Sherry Jones, D-N

  May 18, 2009

• Status Report

  Where we are, circa 2004

  November 18, 2004

• Lamar! Grants

  Sen. Alexander makes K-12 education his top priority—again

  May 20, 2004

• Inside Bill Purcell’s Brain

  March 18, 2004

• The Magic Word

  Schools need money—period

  January 11, 2001

• Stop the Scofflaws

  Critics dig up dirt on controversial tax naysayers

  June 22, 2000

• Lamar Lessons

  Gore steals from Alexander on education

  May 11, 2000

• Schooling the Voters

  June 17, 1999

• Sticking Point

  March 5, 1998

• Off the Dole

  May 8, 1997

• Back to the Hill

  January 11, 1996

• Health Care Enemy No. 1: Rick Scott Leads Fight Against Obama Reforms

  Here's a TV ad by Conservatives for Patients' Rights. Doesn't Rick Scott make a really credible spokesman? Liberals are slapping their knees in delight over the choice of Rick Scott (of Columbia/HCA infamy) to head up Conservatives for Patients' Rights, a new group planning to spend $20 million to derail President Obama's health-care reforms. If they want to lose the PR war on this one, the opponents couldn't have picked a better spokesman. Scott is truly Health Care Enemy No. 1, as The Natio

  May 11, 2009

• GOP Launches Scare Offensive to Block Health Care Reform

  They may not have any ideas of their own. Nor do they even know what will be included in Congress' final health care bill. But that isn't stopping the Party of No from trying to scare the hell out of people about attempts to improve the nation's health system. Get a load of the video above, courtesy of the National GOP. If Republicans have been wandering in the woods since getting crushed last November, it appears they have now retreated back to their native environment.

  June 17, 2009

• Blue Dogs Rake in the Dollars from the Health Care Industry

  Here's an interesting bit of research from the government watchdog OpenSecrets.org suggesting why our beloved Blue Dog Democrats might oppose true health-care reform: There's a particular breed of lawmaker on Capitol Hill that is pushing hard against a public health care plan, much to the delight of two seriously moneyed special interest groups--insurers and pharmaceuticals. They're the Blue Dogs: moderate, vocal and funded in part by the industries trying to protect their bottom line. The ty

  June 30, 2009

• Lamar Alexander: 'It's Not Time'

  Here's the new TV ad titled "It's Time" from Barack Obama's campaign arm, which is trying to drum up support for the president's health-care reform initiative. Today, our own Lamar Alexander was one of the 10 Republicans who voted against overhauling health care in the Senate health committee. All 13 Democrats voted for it so it passed anyway in a landmark moment in the party's efforts to expand health coverage in this country. Alexander issued this "the-sky-is-falling" statement:

  July 15, 2009

• Bredesen Pops Up in Health Debate, Warning Against 'Mother of All Unfunded Mandates'

  At the summer meeting of the National Governors Association, Gov. Phil Bredesen joined critics of Democrats pushing for health care reform. In fact, just about all the governors attending were afraid Congress is about to expand Medicaid without giving the states a way to pay for it. In The New York Times, Bredesen produced the catchiest quote by calling it "the mother of all unfunded mandates," guaranteeing that we'll see our governor pop up on the TV gab fests shortly. "Medicaid is a poor vehi

  July 20, 2009

• Health Care Reform Supporters Take Over Tea Party Rally

  Service Employees International Union members are claiming they commandeered a Tea Party rally outside Bart Gordon's Murfreesboro office and turned it into a health care reform rally. Seven teabaggers were overwhelmed by more than 60 health care reform supporters who converged on the downtown square. "They didn't know what hit them. Rutherford County is ground zero for conservative politics in Tennessee and we went right into their house and took over their event."

  July 28, 2009

• The Resurrection of States' Rights (The Non-Lynching Variety)

  Texas Governor Rick Perry wants to reject Obama's healthcare plan​From ace correspondent Mark Breton: Texas and Nebraska's state governments are resisting the ObamaOverhaul. Nebraska has at least three state senators working on resolutions asserting Nebraska's sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. Texas Governor Rick Perry has stated that he will invoke states' rights to resist the president's healthcare plan, believing other states will follow. Over the next few years we are going to b

  July 29, 2009

• Cooper: the Scrooge of the Health Care Debate

  ​Jim Cooper is the star of a favorable report in the Economist headlined "What now for Obamacare?" Here's how the article begins: "It's a lot easier to be Santa than Scrooge," harrumphs Jim Cooper. The congressman from Tennessee is complaining about the health-reform plan unveiled in July by the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives. He thinks it is a populist initiative that will end up fueling rather than curbing America's runaway health inflation. Such tough talk would

  July 30, 2009

• MoveOn Tries to Pressure Cooper

  ​MoveOn is trying to put the heat on Jim Cooper over health care reform. Lord knows, he needs it. But since he's one of the Blue Dogs working to weaken the president's public health insurance option, why would he sign a letter of outrage over the deal? Pith is confused. Anyway, here's MoveOn's email blast to the Coop's constituents: The heart of President Obama's health-care reform plan--the public health insurance option--is under attack. And your representative, Jim Cooper, has a chance to

  July 31, 2009

• Cooper Under Liberal Attack Again

  ​They're playing their favorite game at Daily Kos again today, bashing our congressman for having the audacity to suggest that perhaps a little compromising is in order on this health care reform thing. Cooper's latest offense? He's saying the public option can't pass the Senate, so maybe we ought to find another way to keep the insurance companies honest. "It's really not an ideological question; it's a question of how you pass a bill," he explained. "We don't have 60 Democratic votes in the

  August 20, 2009

• Cooper Fires Back at Daily Kos

  ​Congressman Jim Cooper is lashing out today at the liberal blog Daily Kos, which is touting a poll purporting to show he's ignoring the wishes of his constituents on health care reform and vulnerable to a reelection challenge from the left. According to the Daily Kos survey, which the blog conducted in association with the independent polling firm Research 2000, 61 percent of all Cooper's constituents and 80 percent of Democrats in his district favor creating a new public health insurance pl

  August 24, 2009

• Cooper For Public Option Before He Was Against It, Or Something

  ​In a stock letter from Blue Dog Rep. Jim Cooper, posted on the comments section of the Daily Kos, a constituent gives us a glimpse into the health care reform obstructionist's baffling reasoning. It goes something like this: Even though I have stood, arms locked with the GOP, in the path of a public option, I don't really have a problem with the public option even though the bill I'm pushing does not provide for a public option. So I can say I'm not against a public option and do everything w

  August 24, 2009

• Why Doesn't Bredesen Ever Talk About the Cost of Not Fixing Health Care?

  ​Gov. Phil Bredesen is back in the headlines today denouncing health care reform as too costly for the states. (Well, at least he's doing that in today's Tennessean, which is running a few days behind the rest of the world on this one. The governor himself is on his way to China.) Anyway, Pith is wondering why Bredesen, the former HMO executive, never mentions the cost of failing to fix health care? A new study by the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, a pro-reform group, breaks

  October 18, 2009

• How Rep. Jim Cooper became a fighter—and a target—in the health care wars

  October 29, 2009

• Susan Lynn, I'm on to Your Dastardly Plot

  I'm reading Jeff Woods' story today about Susan "10th Amendment Fetishist" Lynn's Rep. Lynn may not have fully thought this 'nullification' thing through.​newest plot to stick it to the federal government, and it got me thinking, "Shoot, when even Campfield thinks your crazy idea is crazy, it's pretty dang crazy." Lynn wants to amend our state constitution to grant the state the power to nullify any federal laws the state disagrees with. In this case, Lynn wants to "protect" Tennesseans f

  December 30, 2009

• Lamar Attacks! Whatever Happened to Finding the Good and Praising It?

  ​Sen. Lamar Alexander said today on the Senate floor that "Democratic policies are pushing the states over a financial cliff" and "turning them into bankrupt wards of the central government." He said "the 60 senators who voted for this so-called health care reform legislation ought to be sentenced to go home and serve as governor for two terms and try to pay for it" and sending the states the bill for Medicaid expansion will cause "either higher state taxes or higher tuition, or both ... dama

  January 20, 2010

• The Curse of the Pickup Truck

  How could anyone forget Ol' Fred's pickup?​According to this Fox News blogger, here's the lesson for Democrats from Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate race: "never mess with a candidate who drives a pickup truck when you're trying to pass health care reform." That's right, Democrats should have remembered ol' Fred and his pickup truck and what happened to Jim Cooper and his health care plan when they tried to pass a health care plan while Scott Brown was riding around Massa

  January 21, 2010

• Bredesen Declares Scott Brown's Victory 'a Good Thing'

  Bredesen is happy this guy won.​Even as Gov. Phil Bredesen was declaring himself "a happy Democrat," he also was saying today he thinks Scott Brown's Massachusetts victory might have been "a good thing." That's because, according to Bredesen, it might shock Democrats out of this insane notion that they should fix our health care system and make them think like Republicans. In the governor's mind, people are worried about losing their jobs, and they don't care about health care reform. It

  January 26, 2010

• As House Health Care Vote Looms, Cooper Remains Undecided

  ​According to a Washington Post table, Cooper remains undecided on health care reform in its current state. The Senate's health care bill is, of course, far from perfect. And the move toward a rule that would "deem" its own passage as tacit approval of the Senate measure -- followed by sidecar legislation aimed at modifying some of the more ridiculous terms of the Senate bill, like the Nebraska giveaways -- strays far from the ideal path toward ratification. It all sounds much more like o

  March 17, 2010

• Cooper Backs GOP Resolution To Force Vote On Senate Bill

  Since the Clinton push for health care reform in the 90s, Rep. Jim Cooper has largely been regarded as a) an intractable stick in the mud, or b) the punji stick that skewered the Clintons' bill. Of course, it was more complicated than all that, and failure had many a disowning father. The same will be true should House Dems fail to come up with something this go-round, no matter how they go about getting it. And they seem to have embraced that part: Whatever it takes. Hence the prevailing attit

  March 19, 2010