Dyersburg, a small West Tennessee town located not far from the Mississippi River, has produced its share of weird political figures.
Perhaps the oddest was Tommy Cribbs, a sheriff who, in his off hours, was known to take a machine gun and head out to an area lake, where he would attack flocks of ducks, geese, or any other living critter he happened to stumble upon. When things got slow around the office, Cribbs was known to take out a pistol and shoot at the flies that buzzed through his office.
Cribbs’ most aberrant behavior took place when he absconded with a local farmer’s sheep and drove across the Mississippi River to Arkansas. Then, when police officers were about to raid the hotel room where Cribbs and the sheep were doing God-only-knows-what, the sheriff pushed said sheep out the hotel window. The sheep did not survive the fall to the ground below. When the incident took place, one local newspaper editor remarked, “That’s no way to treat a lady.”
David Lanier, a former Dyersburg mayor and, until several years ago, a county judge, is another local character whose behavior should encourage visitors to check the water in Dyersburg before they drink it. Lanier was a sexual oddball, and what he did made headlines. As a matter of fact, his behavior will soon be a topic of discussion at the U.S. Supreme Court.
According to testimony in a lower federal court, Lanier, while serving as a judge, often coerced his employees into having oral sex with him. On at least one occasion, he was wearing his judicial robe. Lanier was convicted by a lower court and was sentenced to prison.
Then the case was appealed. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, where Nashvillian Gil Merritt is the presiding judge, voted 10-5 in favor of overturning the conviction. The Circuit Court reasoned that the Constitution does not guarantee freedom from sexual attacks by public officials. Since it was federal officials who prosecuted the case, the appeals court was concerned about whether the federal government ought to be in the business of protecting the citizenry from sexual assault.
Now it will be up to the Supreme Court to determine whether the federal government should protect individuals from sexual assault. If the Supreme Court rules that Lanier’s conviction should stand, protection from sexual assault would, in essence, become a civil right.
The Lanier case has interesting local value. When Lanier’s case was heard on appeal, it pitted two Nashvillians against one another. Merritt wrote the majority opinion that Lanier’s conviction should be overturned, while Martha Craig Daughtrey wrote the dissenting opinion.
The case has been widely publicized. Presidential candidate Bob Dole recently slammed Daughtrey for what he called her “liberal” ruling in the case, and CNN recently produced a long segment on the case, insinuating that it was a matter of judges taking care of judges. Frankly, such speculation is farfetched.
Thus far, some women’s groups have expressed disgust at the appeals court ruling. The notion that Lanier may be able to walk away from his obvious wrongdoing has astonished some. Others have been confused and upset by the fact that Merritt is apparently leading a charge that may ultimately clear Lanier.
Let the Supreme Court decide.
And the Oilers deal drags on
Nashville has an unlikely ally in its campaign to undermine the congressional bill that now postpones the ground-breaking for the East Bank football stadium. That ally is Cleveland’s Democratic Mayor Michael R. White, who has denounced the “Fan Freedom and Community Protection Act.”
In a letter to the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Martin Hoke, White warned that “This illogical, anti-competitive legislation could ultimately doom major-league sports and the attendant economic benefits.”
White knows something about major-league sports and their economic benefits. He played a role in luring the NBA’s Cavaliers from suburban Richfield to downtown Cleveland’s new arena. He also negotiated with the NFL to guarantee that the Browns’ name and colors would stay in Cleveland and to make sure that a team will resume play in 1999 in a new lakefront stadium. At the same time, he can brag about the cash windfalls that came to the city from the Indians’ World Series appearance last fall and from the team’s sold-out 1996 season.
Hoke’s bill would require teams to give their home cities six months’ notice before moving. The bill would force the four major-league sports to consider 10 factors before moving and to provide replacement teams within three years if qualified investors can be found. And as far as Hoke is concerned, White’s opposition is just partisan politics.
Hoke may be right. White supports an alternative bill, sponsored by fellow Ohio Democrats, Sen. John Glenn and Rep. Louis Stokes. Their proposal would regulate the four major -league sports—hockey, basketball, baseball and football—but would do away with the provision that forces the leagues to provide replacement teams. The Glenn-Stokes proposal gives a city six months during which it can attempt to buy a departing team or induce the current home team to stay.
According to longtime political observer and former Cleveland Plain Dealer politics editor Mary Anne Sharkey, “The mayor feels that Hoke was not there when he was needed” during the tough negotiations that followed Art Modell’s October announcement that he was moving the Browns to Baltimore. “Now he’s just grandstanding.”
Sharkey describes Hoke as “the luckiest politician in Ohio.” In 1992, when Hoke was first elected to Congress, incumbent Mary Rose Oakar was caught up in the House post office and banking scandal. In 1994, his Democratic opponent, county treasurer Francis Gaul, was caught up in an investment scandal that cost the county $114 million. Both were later indicted. Gaul is appealing his conviction on a misdemeanor malfeasance charge. Oakar still faces perjury charges for lying to the FBI.
This fall, Hoke has a viable opponent in former Cleveland Mayor and now state Sen. Dennis Kucinich, who has managed to resurrect his political career after taking the city into default in the late 1970s. Kucinich’s maverick approach to personal, door-to-door campaigning and his popularity in the largely Demo-cratic, blue-collar district gives him an advantage over Hoke.
Sharkey says that “Hoke positions himself in Washington as a Newt [Gingrich] Republican, but in his district he positions himself as a moderate, [Ohio Gov.] George Voinovich Republican. One of the hidden secrets is that he’s very much in line with the Christian Coalition, which doesn’t play well in that district.”
Meanwhile, Hoke is hoping that, at least in November, one thing will play well in his district—his stand against the big, bad, powerful lords of the NFL and for the downtrodden and still fuming Browns fans.
