Old Politics vs. New Leadership in Tennessee

Below is an interesting article, Old Politics vs. New Leadership in Tennessee, by JB Williams that appeared in Canada Free Press.

Old Politics v. New Leadership in Tennessee

By JB Williams Wednesday, June 30, 2010

There is a national struggle underway for conservative control of the GOP in the 2010 elections and cases like the Tennessee Senate race between old RNC guard Mae Beavers and new GOP rising star Susan Lynn are playing out all over the country.

Old RNC power brokers like John McCain (AZ) and Carly Fiorina (CA) are fighting to maintain the status quo in a political party that long ago lost touch with its roots and the core conservative principles and values that most Americans hope to return to in the 2010 elections.

Across the board, incumbents are in BIG trouble in both political parties on the national scene. But that sentiment has spilled over into many state races as well and nowhere is that more evident than in the heated senate race in Tennessee’s 17th District.

As the left-wing Tennessean paper reports in its June 29th story —“It looks like it may be a summer for the record books, both in terms of heat and also for political shenanigans.”—“Anyone who is a regular listener to right-wing bloviator Steve Gill knows that “fact checker” is not in any job description on his staff. Gill’s attack on fellow far-rightist State Rep. Susan Lynn helps make the point.”

While I have been a supporter of Mae Beavers and a listener of Steve Gill in the past, I must admit that the left-leaning Tennessean has called this one right! Gill has been a well-known sycophant of TN Senator Mae Beavers for years now. His unwarranted personal attacks on TN Rep. Susan Lynn are well known in Tennessee, and have always been played off by locals as nothing more than Beavers Camp rhetoric.

However, the truth stands in the way of both Beavers and Gill this time around and Tennessee conservatives are looking for new conservative leadership, not old RNC campaign shenanigans.

As a conservative Tennessee blogger put it—“Before Mae announced she was running for Wilson County Mayor, she had options. Any decision concerning what to do about remaining the Senator from District 17 was hers alone. Mae admits many people encouraged her to run for Wilson County Mayor and that such encouragement was influential in her decision not to run for Mayor.”

Mae decided to retire from the TN Senate and run for the better paying Wilson County Mayor office, leaving her senate seat vacant and open to new conservative leaders like popular TN Rep. Susan Lynn. Mae also thought she had hand-picked her senate successor in long-time supporter and local businessman A.J. McCall.

But when McCall was forced out of the senate race, running far behind Lynn in the polls, and Mae was forced out of the race for Wilson County Mayor running far behind, Mae had a sudden change of heart.

Beavers dropped out of the Mayor’s race on the heels of McCall dropping out of the senate race, and Beavers announced that she was no longer going to retire her senate seat, placing her in a head-to-head competition with front-runner Susan Lynn.

The TN blogger states the obvious reaction of most Tennessee conservatives, especially Tea Party types seeking new conservative leadership and an end to old RNC political games - “No one forced her [Mae Beavers] to make that decision. She took counsel of her family, her God, her advisors, her constituents and herself and, ultimately, she alone made the decision not to seek re-election to the Senate. She alone had the freedom to make that choice for her life.

Once made, announced and implemented, other people took into account her choice and made their own decisions. Susan Lynn chose to run for Mae’s available seat and as many as 10 candidates may run for Lynn’s seat from TN House District 57. Money was spent, momentous decisions were made that impact individuals, families, voters, the TN GOP and perhaps even Americans beyond the borders of Tennessee.”

Beavers Shoots at Lynn and hits Tennessee Citizens

National Obama policies have forced the states to take up emergency legislation to challenge the federal government’s assault on Tenth Amendment rights.
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One of those measures is the Health Care Freedom Act, which the conservative legislators group ALEC had written model legislation on, making it easier for state legislatures to move quickly to protect their citizens from an over-reaching Fed.

Beavers is single handedly responsible for killing the Health Care Freedom Act in Tennessee leaving all Tennesseans exposed to the federal health mandates pushed into law by Obama.

• Lynn was the first to introduce the Health Care Freedom Act in the House with HB2622—a bill carefully crafted on the ALEC model, taking into consideration previous decisions by the state’s Attorney General concerning “unconstitutional” language in an older senate version.
• A couple weeks later, Beavers followed Lynn’s lead by introducing a competitive bill in the senate, SB2560. SB2560 included the language which the states AG had already deemed “unconstitutional” which means it would have been vetoed by Democrat Governor Phil Bredesen had it passed.
• Beavers refused to compromise by removing the “unconstitutional” text and going with Lynn’s HB2622 which had support in the House to pass, and was void of the “unconstitutional” text leaving Governor Bredesen no grounds upon which to veto.
• In the final hours of floor debate, Lynn reluctantly moved to accept Beavers bill despite knowing that it would likely be vetoed, in an effort to pass some form of Health Care Freedom Act. But in the end, both HB2622 and SB2560 failed to pass and once again, the old politics defeated new leadership, leaving the people of Tennessee without protection of a Health Care Freedom Act.

Now folks, this is exactly why most American voters are as angry with incumbent Republicans as they are Socialist Democrats today.

Beavers’ personal ambition won out over honorable statesmanship and the best interest of the people of Tennessee. Don’t expect to hear this truth from Beavers sycophant Steve Gill.

But it is for this reason that I hereby endorse TN Rep. Susan Lynn for Tennessee’s District 17 Senate seat.

I further request that ALL conservative Americans seeking honest conservative leadership in government join me in supporting Ms. Lynn’s campaign to end the politics of old in the Tennessee Senate.