Vote scheduled on ousting Durham as GOP whip
State Rep. Claims God Is Talking To Him
Political correctness slur bogus, allows for rudeness
Looks like Santa may leave big lumps of coal in lots of stockings at the University of Tennessee this Christmas.Tea Party legislators from the Speaker on down have accused Chancellor Jimmy Cheek and the entire school of the worst sin in the conservative catechism: “political correctness.”
It is a theme that runs deep in right-of-center politics.
Just on Tuesday night at the big GOP presidential debate, we heard repeatedly that “political correctness” is to blame for most of America’s ills, from ISIS to acne.
Whoever came up with the slogan "political correctness" was a messaging genius.
You can wield that phrase like a bludgeon, automatically indicting pretty much anybody as a squishy headed “liberal” with no moral compass or “real” American values.
Accusing anyone of “political correctness” gives license to denigrate and insult at will. That makes it a very useful political tool indeed.
But we should know better. Didn’t your mother teach you that you should always be polite, considerate and respectful to others? Tennessean (Subscription)
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Vote scheduled on ousting Durham as GOP whip
Tennessee’s House Republican caucus will meet next month to reconsider embattled Rep. Jeremy Durham’s leadership position over what one colleague called his “questionable judgment.”Rep. David Alexander of Winchester wrote a formal letter to ask for a vote on Durham’s future as House whip, and he quickly got the four additional requests he needed. Caucus leaders decided Thursday to schedule the Jan. 12 meeting.
In a phone interview, Alexander noted that the House whip is responsible for managing the re-election efforts of Republican incumbents, and he said negative attention on Durham could hurt those efforts.
“If I was a rich person and I was thinking of giving money to a political party or a cause, it would give me pause if those people allowed somebody with questionable judgment to be in their leadership,” Alexander said.
Durham did not return email or text messages seeking comment. Humphrey on the Hill
What 'Behavior' Was Durham Counseled About?
Two things are remarkable about this. One is that it's rare to see the state's leadership Republicans not circling the wagons around one of their own in time of controversy — something noted in today's Scene print story covering the matter to date.
But what's even more curious is the timing. Up to this point, the flap about Durham has concerned a mysterious date change on his Adderall prescription in 2013 and a letter he wrote to a judge suggesting leniency for a youth pastor who pled guilty for possession of child pornography in 2014.
But the Associated Press didn't break those stories until little more than a week ago. The statements from Harwell and Ridley indicate Durham's behavior had raised red flags at least six weeks before then.
Asked for specifics, officials would not say what prompted that talk — or why it was serious enough to "impact the institution's reputation."
"What 'behavior' did the speaker ask Connie Ridley to talk to Durham about?" Pith asked Kara Owen, spokeswoman for Speaker Harwell.
"Professional behavior," Owen said. Nashville Scene
Still Think Donald Trump Might Run As An Independent? As Of Today, He Can't In Tennessee
Tennessee election officials finalized the ballot on Thursday for next year's presidential primaries. That means voters will have their pick of 14 Republicans and three Democrats.But the options for the candidates themselves just got slimmer, especially for insurgents like Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Bernie Sanders.
All have shaken up the primaries. But what if they lose? Time and again, they've been asked if they'd drop out of the race for their party's nomination and run as an independent.
As of now, they can't. At least not in Tennessee, says Secretary of State Tre Hargett.
"We have what's commonly referred to as a 'sore loser' provision. ... Anybody that's on the ballot will not be eligible to run under any other banner."
That's right. A "sore loser" provision. It says people who lose their primary can't turn around and run again for another party or as an independent.
This does happen in other places. Hargett points to Connecticut's Joe Lieberman, who won back his Senate seat as an independent in 2006, despite losing the Democratic primary that year.
But in Tennessee, that's against the rules — even for presidential candidates — and it turns out, the state isn't alone. Ohio, South Carolina and Michigan are also among those that say primary losers can't run as independents in the general election. WPLN
State Rep. Claims God Is Talking To Him
Tennessee state Rep. Mark Pody claims God spoke directly to him and warned him "wicked" same-sex marriage proponents would pay a hefty price, which served as the impetus for the conservative lawmaker's decision to draft legislation in defiance of the historical Supreme Court decision.
The Republican representative, a self-proclaimed born-again Christian, filed "The Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act" in September to defend a Tennessee state law and constitutional amendment voters supported in 2006 specifying the state can only recognize marriage between a man and a woman, The Lebanon Democrat reports.
In a video uploaded to YouTube on December 11, Pody spoke about the bill with an audience of conference attendees at the Nashville Defy Tyrants Training Sessions. That group is affiliated with an organization that supports The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates, which encourages lower courts to actively resist higher court decisions if the higher court "makes immoral/unjust laws or policies" that run contrary to "God's law."
Pody told his audience that when the historic marriage equality ruling was sent down by the Supreme Court, God spoke to him and told him through a Bible passage that he was meant to warn others against the consequences of gay marriage.
"Hear the word at my mouth and give them a warning from me," he quotes a Biblical passage from Ezekiel 3:17 while reading from off his phone. "When I say unto the wicked, 'Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require from thy hand.'"
Through the passage, Pody suggests God commanded him to save proponents of gay marriage from death by dissuading them from their "wicked way" of supporting marriage equality. Pody seems to be under the impression God will hold him accountable should the representative not try to in earnest issue the warning. The Huffington Post
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