Month: September 2005

Categories
Editorial Opinion

EDITORIALS

 

CODE RED

For quite
some time, the Shelby County Commission, spurred on by the “smart growth’
rhetoric of county mayor A C Wharton and by Commissioner Deidre Malone’s
proposal for an outright moratorium, has been inching its way toward the
imposition of fair and reasonable standards to govern new development in Shelby
County. Almost despite itself, the commission took something of a leap in that
regard on Monday.
            Late in the
debate on a resolution to provide a “model” to identify locations where
development should be either “encouraged or discouraged,” Commissioner Julian
Bolton successfully proposed that the commission adopt a color-coding system to
map prospective development sites. The color red would be used to indicate
those areas where development would be most ill-advised, because of such
factors as inadequate infrastructure, the prospect of school overcrowding, or
insufficient projected property-tax revenues. Orange would indicate a somewhat
lesser degree of caution, and so on through the color spectrum.
            Bolton was
asked later on: How would such non-binding distinctions be an improvement over
the current system whereby negative recommendations by the Land Use &
Control Board and the Office of Planning and Development are frequently ignored
by the commission?  It’s a matter of
imagery, Bolton answered. “How can somebody run for relection if you’ve got a
public record of his voting over and over for projects that had red flags on
them? People can understand something like that.”
            The
commissioner, who used frank language on Monday concerning the need to put the
interests of taxpayers ahead of those he called “capitalists” and “profiteers,”
may have something there. Meanwhile, chairman Tom Moss, who expressed some
measured doubts about the resolution on Monday, is on hand to provide necessary
contrasts as the debate continues to unfold.

 

THE RIGHT MOVE

            “This project is going forward,”
said  Governor Phil Bredesen to
tumultuous applause  Thursday night. The
subject was a proposal for state funding to begin the process of transplanting
the law school of the University of Memphis 
to a downtown location, upgrading it in the process.
            The
audience which heard this happy news, at a fundraising event for Bredesen at
the East Memphis residence of city councilman Jack Sammons, included many
representatives of the University of Memphis, who hatched the relocation
project earlier this year in an effort to shore up the school’s long-term
accreditation.
            The
American Bar Association had put the university on notice that its present law
school facilities on Central Avenue were considered inadequate. Among other
problems, a rainy day would cause New Orleans-style flooding in the building’s
basement, where the law school library is housed.
            The
move, into the landmark Post Office building on Front St., which would be
extensively renovated for the purpose, would ultimately cost some $41 million,
said Law School dean Jim Smoot, one of several university officials
to have lobbied the governor on the point.
            It
would be money well spent, and we congratulate the budget-minded governor for
making the project a priority.

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Categories
Sports Sports Feature

FROM MY SEAT

CHIRPING TOWARD A CHAMPIONSHIP

With Major League Baseball’s postseason merely a week away, I have a challenge for the statistics experts at the Elias Sports Bureau. In the history of the American and National leagues, has there ever been a team to win 100 games two consecutive years with but two players picking up as many as 400 at bats in each season?

Having won 97 games through Sunday (with five to play), the 2005 St. Louis Cardinals could become the first such club (their 2004 edition won 105). From this outpost of Cardinal Country, it appears Tony LaRussa has done his finest job in 10 years as manager of the Cardinals, save for the 2002 season when he kept his talented ship afloat in the aftermath of two deaths (Jack Buck’s and Darryl Kile’s) that threatened to wither the indomitable spirit of Cardinal Nation. With Jim Edmonds and Albert Pujols the lone healthy holdovers from the mighty lineup that won the 2004 NL pennant, La Russa backed the best starting pitching in baseball with a patchwork batting order that often had as many as four players with time this season here in Memphis. Hector Luna, Scott Seabol, John Gall, John Rodriguez, Skip Schumaker, and Mike Mahoney often had to check their jersey for one redbird or two to remind themselves just where they were playing on a given night. And were it not for another former Memphis regular — outfielder So Taguchi — this final season at “old” Busch Stadium might not be one to celebrate.

St. Louis spent most of August with half their regular lineup on the disabled list. Star third baseman Scott Rolen missed more than 100 games (and will be absent in the playoffs) after an injury to his shoulder last May. Larry Walker has fought a painful neck ailment that requires a periodical cortisone shot — just as painful — to allow the future Hall of Famer to man his rightfield post. Leftfielder Reggie Sanders broke his leg in an outfield collision with Jim Edmonds. And catcher Yadier Molina — already the backbone of this club according to insiders — missed several weeks after a pitch broke his hand at the plate in early summer.

So what kind of chances will the Cardinals take with them into October baseball? As Abner Doubleday must have said when he drew up the game’s plan, it’s all about the pitching. Chris Carpenter (the likely Cy Young winner in the NL until his meltdown last Friday in Milwaukee), Mark Mulder (16 wins through Sunday, but also crushed by the Brewers in his last start), and Jeff Suppan (16 wins) will toe the rubber, followed by either veteran Matt Morris (who has struggled since the All-Star break) or young Jason Marquis (who only recently got his groove back after a dreadful stretch of 13 starts). The innings eaten up by these five starters have eased the pain of a bullpen not quite as strong as the 2004 version. Carpenter and Mulder are considerable upgrades over last fall’s foursome (Morris, Marquis, Suppan, and Woody Williams) which was simply overmatched against Boston in the World Series.

If the pitching retains its consistency for another month, St. Louis will count on the metronomic briliance of Pujols in the middle of the order to produce enough crooked-number innings for perhaps four more postseason wins than the team earned last year. Looking for a key variable between this team and the 2004 edition? The middle infield is the place. Shortstop David Eckstein (a member of the Angels’ 2002 championship club) and Mark Grudzielanek have been steady anchors, both with bat and glove. The 5’7” Eckstein, fittingly, does every little thing right from his leadoff spot, and Grudzielanek will be fueled by this being only his second postseason foray in 11 years as a big-leaguer.

Fact is, the Cardinals are fluttering as they near the playoffs, losing five of their first seven since they clinched their division title September 17th. And focus will be difficult this week, as St. Louis holds what amounts to a five-game festival to celebrate 40 years of history at the soon-to-be-imploded Busch Stadium. (Soon after the Cardinals’ final playoff game, the stadium goes down to make room for the completion of “new” Busch Stadium, which will be ready for Opening Day 2006.) Dozens of former players will be making appearances, with a parade preceding the regular-season finale this Sunday. Gibby, Ozzie, Red, and of course, Stan the Man. Plenty to celebrate as the Cardinals look back. Just makes you wonder — looking forward — if the 2005 club has what it takes for a second parade, to be held the first week in November.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Best In Class

“They say the best classes go to the fastest/Sorry, Mr. West, there’s no good classes/Not even electives, not even prerequisites/You mean I missed my major by a coupla seconds?”

On his new CD, rapper Kanye West sums up the horror of course registration, that free-for-all of academic ambition that pits college students against each other for a few available spaces in each class.

It’s a horror many know. “I remember registering in a huge auditorium and getting absolutely nothing,” says Glen Munson, now an award-winning registrar at Rhodes. Munson designed a system of advance registration that responds to student demand, adding sections where necessary.

So, what are these much-desired classes? Deans, registrars, and faculty from three local universities told us what classes top the list at their institutions. What we found is that college is still the way most of us remember: a place for young pagans to discuss sex, bodily excretions, and the finer points of public speaking.

Rhodes College’s Most Popular Class: Sex and Gender in the New Testament — a study of New Testament passages pertaining to sexual activity.

Why? “I think the boys probably take it because they hear the word sex and the girls take it because they hear the word gender,” says Ashley Kundif, a Rhodes sophomore.

Runner-Up: Astronomy — an introduction for nonscience majors.

Why? “It seems almost like we’re hard-wired to feel curious about the stars. We’re all pagans at heart,” says Jay White, the professor who teaches the class. Christian Brothers’ Most Popular Class: Christian Ethics — a critical investigation of the theological convictions grounding Christian understandings of doing what is right.

Why? “It’s a popular class because we discuss a lot of hot-button issues: the death penalty, homosexuality, and war,” says Professor Peter Gathje. “The students get very excited to discuss issues of sexuality.”

Runner-Up: Parasitology — the study of the morphology, taxonomy, life cycle, distribution, pathology, and control of parasites of man and other animals.

Why? “I think it’s a morbid fascination with the things that cause explosive diarrhea,” says Dr. Stanley Eisen. “This is a class you really experience. When I teach about ticks and lice, I can watch my students scratching themselves. When I teach about flukes and tapeworms, some of them start to lose weight.” University of Memphis’ Most Popular Class: Introduction to Film — a comprehensive study of the form’s function and a history of film art.

Why? “A lot of students sign up because they think it’s going to be easy, eating popcorn and watching movies,” says Professor Danny Linton, “and they end up getting an F.”

Runner-Up: Oral Presentation — principles and practices of basic oral communication.

Why? “I think students like this class because … you can stand up and speak without fear of your peers booing and throwing things,” says instructor Andre Johnson.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

To the Point

Along with the trashed waterfronts, obliterated households, and flooded thoroughfares it left behind, Hurricane Katrina also managed to do some serious damage to reputations — especially political ones. The world is familiar with the oh-so-public cashiering of former FEMA boss Michael Brown, whose mug ought to be used henceforth in the margin of one of those picture dictionaries to illustrate the word “scapegoat.”

Yep, they did a heck of a job on Brownie. But he was no more negligent or ill-prepared or slow to respond to Katrina than his supervisors of record — ranging from Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff to the commander in chief, George W. Bush, himself.

And, yes, the Democrats in the case — notably New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco — seem to have performed just as miserably and short-sightedly.

As we go to press, indications are that Hurricane Rita is en route to the same areas so recently afflicted. God only knows — literally — what the outcome will be of that. Only one thing is clear: Whether for political or other reasons, no machinery now exists — four years after 9/11 and more than three years since the creation of the much-ballyhooed Department of Homeland Security — that gives the nation any assurance that an appropriate response can be mounted to either a natural or a man-made disaster.

Predictably, politicians have proposed political solutions to the crisis. Last year’s Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, weighed in this week with a typically ponderous and multi-pointed attack on the Bush administration — one that, however sensible, would require a bulldozer to cut through the rhetoric and find the senator’s concrete proposals.

We don’t think the issue is all that abstruse, and neither does the last Democrat to have established a surefire connection to the American public, former President Bill Clinton. Breaking with his recent habit of making only polite, non-accusatory statements about the administration now in power, Clinton came forward this week with some statements that were simple and to the point.

Said Clinton about the debacle that saw thousands of hurricane victims stranded in flooded New Orleans: “You can’t have an emergency plan that works if it only affects middle-class people up. When you tell people to go do something they don’t have the means to do, you’re going to leave the poor out.”

Clinton continued: “It’s like when they issued the evacuation order. That affects poor people differently. A lot of them in New Orleans didn’t have cars. A lot of them … had kinfolk they had to take care of.”

And, finally, the former president said: “This a matter of public policy. And whether it’s race-based or not, if you give your tax cuts to the rich and hope everything works out all right, and poverty goes up and it disproportionately affects black and brown people, that’s a consequence of the action made.”

We couldn’t have said it better. Nor has anyone else.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Blue Ribbon Babies

Maybe the Memphis City Schools’ Blue Ribbon Plan should be recreated throughout the community.At a recent meeting, MCS board president Wanda Halbert complained that the Blue Ribbon magnets that both she and Commissioner Tomeka Hart had on their cars were gone.

“We don’t know if anyone has taken them,” Halbert said. “Maybe they fell off when we washed our cars …”

“I didn’t wash my car,” interjected Hart.

“Well, we don’t know, but they’re gone,” Halbert said.

If they were taken, it’s the only bad behavior that has increased since the plan was implemented. Put in place by the superintendent after the board banned corporal punishment last year, the Blue Ribbon Plan includes increased personal interaction (less paddle, more prattle?) to improve student behavior and school safety.

Figures comparing the first 20 days of the new school year to last school year were encouraging. Fights decreased 40 percent; officer referrals dropped 34 percent; and district suspensions decreased 57 percent.

“I think it’s probably due to a more conscious effort on the part of teachers, administrators, and the support teams at the schools to be more proactive in dealing with the kids. In other words, letting them know what the expectations are and recognizing when [students are] doing well,” said Denise Johnson, the district’s Blue Ribbon Plan coordinator.

During Johnson’s 10-year tenure as principal at Sherwood Middle, an orientation was held at the beginning of each school year at which the kids were read the rules. Under the Blue Ribbon Plan, Johnson takes children to the physical location where certain behavior is expected.

“For example, if you have a certain procedure in the cafeteria — in terms of where students line up, which door they go into, what do they do with their trays — you actually take the kids to the cafeteria and walk through it,” she said. “You display what the appropriate behavior is. I never did that as a principal. Never.”

The dress rehearsal gives children an explicit understanding of what’s expected and a chance to practice the rules.

“Sometimes when we tell the kids to walk on the right side of the hallway and to use their inside voices, you have to have them practice, because, to a kid, what’s an inside voice?” Johnson asked. “We used to say things to children like ‘Be respectful’ and ‘Be kind.’ What does that look like? What does that sound like?”

The idea is impact the overall climate and culture of the schools and, in the process, increase student achievement, attendance, and participation.

“You have some kids who come to school every day. They never miss a day, but they’re not engaged at all,” Johnson said. “They’re not being disruptive, but they’re not achieving academically because they’re not engaged. There are a lot of children who have been allowed to progress to a certain level just because they’re quiet and obedient, not because they were actually mastering all the work they needed to master.”

Though the school district recently made enough progress to get five schools off the state’s “high priority” list, there’s still room to improve. And reasons to do so.

One thing that has come up in the coverage of Hurricane Katrina is the poor performance and fiscal difficulties of New Orleans’ public schools. But, in many ways, the fate of New Orleans rests on those very schools. The city might be ready for visitors in time for New Year’s, but with its schools shuttered until next fall and its teachers looking for jobs in other cities, New Orleans isn’t ready for families to move back.

We’d be wise to remember that New Orleans isn’t the only city whose future rests on its schools.

“What we’re trying to do is get people to think differently about dealing with children,” Johnson said. “In the past, our way of trying to do that was to put out the bad kids, just put out those kids who won’t do what you want them to do, but we can’t afford to do that. They’re part of our citizenry and our community.”

Without this change, we’d be missing more than our magnets.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Seriousness and Courage

There is a Mandinka warrior loose in Memphis. His name is Pete Sherrif and he owns the Clean Cuts Full Service Beauty Salon at 667 South Highland. A short man with a spring in his step, Sherrif (pronounced shuh-reef) smiles wide as he mischievously evades questions about his marriage status. (“Not too long, really,” he says, when asked how long he’s been married.) After admitting how many kids he has — 10 — his eyes twinkle as he adds, “If you print that, no one will want me no more!”

Love life aside, Sherrif’s work ethic is undeniable. Even as I’m talking to him, I feel as if he is in mid-leap between very important places, and that I had better use his time wisely.

“I get up at 4 o’clock in the morning. I work at the airport and at about 12:30 I go to [my brother’s] car lot. Before I go home, I come to the shop. Even after I get home, I get on the computer, looking for more business. “You have to have courage,” he adds.

This courage, according to Sherrif, is his ethnic heritage. Raised by a Muslim imam in the midst of 14 brothers and sisters, Sherrif learned the value of education and reinvesting early on. His father operated an Islamic school for 150 students, ranging in ages from 3 to 30. His mother cooked the meals. The school was self-supporting, with a peanut and rice farm used to feed the students and generate income.

When I comment that the number of siblings in his family (seven brothers and seven sisters) is lucky and may have something to do with his success, Sherrif disagrees: “Luck is one thing. Seriousness is something else. Seriousness and courage.”

After completing his school studies in Liberia and Guinea, Sherrif immigrated to the West Coast of the United States, where he had some relatives and friends. Sherrif realized that his likability would serve him well: “I said to myself: If I go to a developed country, I’ll do much better.”

Sherrif arrived in Los Angeles in 1969 and studied air conditioning and refrigeration. At the behest of a younger brother with a new car dealership, he moved to Memphis. He’s been here ever since.

By all appearances, Clean Cuts is a typical small American salon. There are stylist’s stations and swiveling black leather chairs with grooved shampoo bowls nearby. Still clad in his airport uniform, Sher rif fills a request for change from his barber in English and asks his wife to turn down the music in French.

The shop is less than a mile from the University of Memphis, in a new retail strip that also contains a staffing service, a violin store, and a cell-phone outlet. Pictures of attractive black women with their hair in the latest braided styles adorn the windows.

Sherrif says he invests all of his earnings in his fledgling business, but he’s concerned about staffing.

“We are desperately looking for stylists and master barbers. I don’t know what happens here in Memphis. A lot of them go to school, but they don’t take the test. They don’t obtain their license.” His four-month-old operation only employs one barber, but he adds, “I know there’s a better day that will come.”

When asked what advice he would give prospective business owners, he becomes reflective: “They must put seriousness in what they want to do. Seriousness and honesty. Honesty. Repeat that. People are not very honest here. They are too playful. We all know how to play. But when it is time for seriousness, you’ve got to be serious.”

Categories
News News Feature

Brash Behavior or Terrorism?

>
Exhibit A: Mahmoud Maawad, an Egyptian student at the University of Memphis living illegally in the United States for six years with a bogus Social Security number, got an apartment near campus — and a few miles from Memphis International Airport. He furnished it with nothing more than a bedroll and a computer, which he used to order $3,300 worth of pilot gear over the Internet, including a DVD titled How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act and a map of the airport terminal even though he is not a pilot. He gave the vendor, Sporty’s Pilot Shop, an overdrawn debit card and used the e-mail address “pilot747.”

Exhibit B: Rafat Mawlawi, a U.S. citizen with dual citizenship in Syria, lived in a quiet neighborhood near Craigmont High School. Because he has a felony conviction, he is not supposed to own firearms, but he kept a shotgun and three loaded handguns in a safe in his home. He also kept a 1997 photograph of himself shouldering a rocket-powered grenade launcher in Bosnia while standing next to an associate of Osama bin Laden, $34,000 in cash, and al Mujahadeen videotapes in Arabic. When federal agents arrested him at his home in April, he lied to them before admitting he was moving to Syria.

So what do we have here? Two cases of post-9/11 criminal stupidity? Two cases of an overzealous Terrorism Task Force trying to justify all the money spent on counter-terrorism by locking up a couple of Muslims? Or two terrorism suspects?

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the United States Attorney’s Office in Memphis are not taking any chances. Maawad was jailed without bond last week. Mawlawi has been in the federal correctional institution in Mason, Tennessee, without bond since April. Neither defendant is charged with terrorism. Maawad, 29, was charged with wire fraud and fraudulent use of a Social Security number. He has pleaded not guilty and is not likely to go to trial for several weeks. Mawlawi, 55, was charged with illegal possession of firearms, immigration violations, and conspiracy to organize a sham-marriage scam involving Memphis women and Middle Eastern men. His trial is set for October 3rd.

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents won’t comment outside of the courtroom. Attempts by the Flyer to interview Mawlawi in prison have been discouraged by prison officials and his attorneys, Lorna McClusky and Bill Massey. Mawlawi said in a letter to the Flyer that he would like to talk. His brother Nabil, who owns a sandwich shop in Bartlett, has been trying to arrange an interview but without success.

Nabil Mawlawi, an American citizen, said his brother is not a terrorist sympathizer. Rafat Mawlawi served 12 years in the U.S. Navy and was honorably discharged. His 1993 arrest record stemmed from a divorce and some missed court appearances. He got five months probation on a fraud conviction. His brother explained the photograph with the rocket launcher as the sort of macho souvenir picture that an American hunter, gangster-wannabe, or paramilitary freak might have. Rafat Mawlawi was teaching school in Bosnia after the war, when weapons were plentiful. As for the videos, Nabil Mawlawi does not condone them but says that such material is readily available on the Internet and that his brother was probably motivated by simple curiosity.

Mahmoud Maawad spoke on his own behalf at his hearing last week. He said he is a full-time student at the University of Memphis and worked for cash at a convenience store on Chelsea in North Memphis. He admitted he is in the United States illegally and was busted in March for selling liquor to a minor. He said his bogus Social Security number was issued to him as a student ID number in 1998 when he was in New Jersey. Somehow he used it to get utilities and a debit card and enroll in school. He entered the United States at New York City from Egypt in 1998, and his visitor’s visa expired in 1999.

Assistant U.S. attorney Steve Parker said Maawad failed to register at the U of M as an international student as required and was working illegally. He has no family in Memphis. “His entire presence in this country has been one unlawful thing after another,” he said.

Maawad lived in Olive Branch, Mississippi, for an unknown length of time before moving in June to an apartment at 3557 Mynders. An FBI agent testified that the apartment did not have furniture, a television, a bed, or a clock. Agents who searched it found a bedroll on the floor, a few clothes, a desk and chair, and shelves containing DVDs and books that Maawad bought over the Internet between June 25th and August 6th of 2005.

Sporty’s Pilot Shop in Batavia, Ohio, sells educational materials and equipment to private pilots, according to spokesman Bill Anderson. Maawad ran up $2,500 worth of purchases on his debit card and tried to buy another $800 worth of items before Sporty’s Pilot Shop rejected his card and notified the FBI. The purchases included a private-pilot course, flight-simulator software, a flight gear bag, radio communications handbook, maps of the Memphis airport, a Navy flight jacket, the DVD How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act, and instructional programs on “airplane talk.”

Memphis is the number-one cargo airport in the world. Hundreds of jets from FedEx, UPS, and passenger airlines take off and land every day. Earlier this summer, a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal outlined how FedEx is one of the federal government’s key partners in the war against terrorism and how they share information about possible terrorism activities.

It’s no wonder that Parker described this case as “scary.”

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Crossroads Politics

Republicans could be forgiven for indulging in some bittersweet rejoicing last week. It had been back-and-forth for most of the evening, but when the final vote was totaled last Thursday night in the District 29 state Senate special election, Democrat Ophelia Ford was ahead by only 13 votes — count ’em, 13.

Final unofficial totals, including early voting and absentee ballots and all 60 precincts were 4,333 votes for Ford and 4,320 for Republican Terry Roland, the Millington service-station owner who had carried his unlikely underdog challenge to the very brink of success. (Perennial nuisance candidate Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges, running as an independent, polled 89 votes, leading some to wonder if he had influenced the outcome and, if so, in whose direction.)

Understandably, Roland refused to concede, telling a group of supporters at his Millington headquarters on election night, “We’re still in the race,” and promising to “turn things over to the people who know how to handle things like this” — presumably a team of political and legal advisers.

A spokesman for the Roland campaign would subsequently promise to contest the outcome, saying, “We’re going to bring in a shitload of attorneys” from Tennessee and Washington. And, sure enough, as of this week, Roland’s gathering battery of lawyers and political advisers was actively pursuing a challenge through various appeals to state and local election officials.

Much statewide attention had been focused on the Ford-Roland race for the light it might shed on a variety of looming political subjects: the state of the Ford-family campaign apparatus; the possible shift of power in the General Assembly, where Republicans had hoped to build on their current 18-15 majority in the Senate; the signals the outcome might send for races to come, including that of Senator-elect Ford’s nephew, U.S. representative Harold Ford, Jr., now a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Long considered a stronghold for the Ford family and for Democratic candidates in general, District 29, which hugs the Mississippi riverfront for almost the length of Shelby County, has a largely African-American population, but Roland’s Republican team had put forth intense efforts, not just in his own Millington bailiwick, but, to some measurable effect, in the inner city itself.

But even as Republicans were taking heart at one of their number’s showing in a predominantly Democratic district, other figures in the party were doing their best to move the GOP in an opposite direction.

There were two cases in point: one local, one statewide.

First, there was a pending change of the guard in state House District 97, soon to be vacated by incumbent Tre Hargett. Former House Republican leader Hargett ignited a storm last month by first accepting a job as chief lobbyist in Nashville for the Pfizer pharmaceutical firm, then rejecting it — under pressure from Pfizer itself, some theorize — when the “revolving-door” job offer became an issue in the legislature’s still-festering ethics controversy.

Hargett would ultimately be offered a higher-paying job by his long-standing employer, Rural/Metro Ambulance Services, but he had meanwhile quit his leadership post and declared he would leave the legislature. Though some still believe that Hargett will reconsider and run for reelection next year, the main issue seems to be whether he will serve out his current term or resign his House seat outright, forcing the appointment of an interim successor.

If the latter turns out to be the case, both Shelby County GOP chairman Bill Giannini and other local Republicans have indicated their preference that the County Commission select a fill-in and not one of the several Republicans interested in running for the seat next year. (“I don’t want to create a state representative,” Giannini said bluntly this week.)

Several Republicans have signaled their intent to run for the seat, including three prominent middle-of-the-roaders — Bartlett alderman Mike Morris, teacher/activist Jim Coley, and Shelby County school board member Anne Edmiston. Other candidates may be coming, and at least one who’s already there has prompted some concern in the GOP mainstream.

That would be Austin Farley, the “Political Cesspool” broadcaster whose radio shows, like his Web site, focus on efforts, in Farley’s words, “to preserve our Southern heritage and its symbols.” Among other things, Farley has been a vigorous defender of the status quo in the simmering controversy over three Confederate-themed parks in downtown Memphis.

There are no runoffs in legislative races, and the more crowded the field gets, the better the chances for someone like Farley, whose hard-core constituency could give him a plurality.

Conventional wisdom, of course, holds that District 97, in the heart of Bartlett, is Republican for time to come, about as “red” on the political color chart as it’s possible to be, the center of gravity for SUVs sporting the letter W. About as staunchly Republican a place, in other words, as Senate District 29 — which just elected a candidate named Ford by 13 votes — is staunchly Democratic.

And there’s the rub. Last week’s nip-and-tuck affair in District 29 is a lesson that cuts both ways, especially in special elections. If a bona fide Bubba like Terry Roland can do as well as he did in John Ford’s bailiwick, then why, Democrats are beginning to ask themselves, shouldn’t a Democrat be able to pull something off in Tre Hargett’s?

District 97 was, after all, represented for decades by Democrats — first Harold Byrd of the Bank of Bartlett Byrds, then his brother Dan. And there were mainstream Democrats discussing seriously last week the option of trying to talk Dan Byrd out of political retirement.

The issue of Republican identity is at stake on the statewide level, too — notably in next year’s governor’s race, where Democratic incumbent Phil Bredesen‘s onetime aura of invincibility has been tarnished enough by the his budget-minded paring of the TennCare rolls that statewide Republicans have begun to dream of mounting a credible challenge.

Senate Republican leader Ron Ramsey of Blountville is one prospect, as is former legislator Jim Henry of Kingston, a well-liked centrist who ran for governor in the 2002 GOP primary. Most Republican hopes, though, have been vested in state representative Beth Harwell of Nashville, the former state Republican chair.

But just as the specter of Farley bedevils the mainstream Republicans of Bartlett, so, on the statewide scene, does that of one Carl “Two Feathers” Whitaker, an arch-conservative gubernatorial candidate and pillar of the Minuteman movement that has made an issue of thwarting illegal immigration from Mexico.

Whitaker claims Native American ancestry but also, as he light-heartedly told a recent meeting of the socially conservative Defenders of Freedom organization, has “some white” in him. Too much so, grumble some alarmed Republicans, mindful of several recent e-mails from Whitaker to his network of supporters alerting them to sex crimes allegedly committed by illegal aliens in Tennessee.

Though Whitaker is considered a long shot in the governor’s race, to say the least, the very fact of his candidacy makes him a potential Republican nominee by default and intensifies the pressure on Harwell or some other mainstream GOP figure to declare.

The fear in Republican ranks is that anything resembling a race-based appeal could nullify the GOP’s developing approach to traditional Democratic voters — specifically to the middle-class, religiously conservative blacks so recently courted by Terry Roland and targeted for long-term outreach by Shelby County Republican chairman Giannini.

Complicating the picture is the fact that the GOP right is capable of making its own pitch to voters in the center of the political spectrum.

Republican crossover appeals have been based, locally as nationally, more on “values” issues than on economic ones, but a rough form of populism has lately begun to rear itself in the ranks of the Defenders of Freedom, a local group which occupies the rightward edge of local Republicanism and stresses religious and patriotic themes.

E-mailing his local network this week, DOF founder Angelo Cobrasci announced a memorial service for a man who, he said, had died after losing his TennCare prescription-drug benefits “as a result of these draconian cuts by Governor Phil Bredesen.” And he wondered: “How many more?”

For that matter, when Whitaker himself addressed a meeting of the DOF a few weeks ago, he began his speech with solicitous-sounding reflections on the TennCare crisis.

Which is to say, the crossover lanes potentially run in more than one direction, for Republicans as well as for Democrats, and the two-way traffic could generate as many potential hazards as benefits.

Categories
Opinion

Job Description

A federal prosecutor in Memphis once said that a United States attorney has “more power than a good man ought to want or a bad man ought to have.”

Well, the job of U.S. attorney for Western Tennessee is open now that Terry Harris has resigned to be vice president of customer security for FedEx Express. And the man or woman President Bush picks to replace him will have more direct influence on Memphis than the people Bush picks to fill the vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court. He or she will lead a staff of 37 attorneys in Jackson and Memphis and jump into the middle of the Tennessee Waltz.

So far, three names have emerged as possible replacements: David Kustoff, a Bush political ally, attorney, and former head of the Shelby County Republican Party; Larry Scroggs, an attorney with Burch Porter and Johnson and former Republican state representative; and Thomas Parker, an attorney with Baker Donelson and assistant U.S. attorney in Memphis from 1995 to 2004.

Should the chief U.S. attorney have experience as a prosecutor? And is a political background an asset or liability, particularly at this time? I put those questions to Bud Cummins, the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, and Jim Neal, former U.S. attorney in Nashville and a lawyer in private practice for 35 years. Neither man has a dog in this hunt, but both have tried cases in federal court in Memphis.

“Experience as a prosecutor is helpful,” said Neal. “But is it necessary? No. The office today involves more administration than it used to. Back when I was U.S. attorney in the Sixties, offices were smaller. You had a one-volume manual, and now you have something like 10 volumes.”

Neal wanted to personally prosecute high-profile cases such as the one against labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, so he designated an assistant to administer the office. He admits that would be harder to do now that there are new areas such as terrorism (see related story on page 11).

Neal, a Democrat who was close to the late Robert Kennedy but has never been a political candidate himself, is a little uneasy about prosecutors with primarily political backgrounds. “I think it could make the job harder,” he said. “I would hate to see the day when being extremely active politically is a crucial ingredient. The U.S. attorneys in this country have enormous power to do wrong. Prosecution should absolutely be nonpolitical.”

Cummins, who prosecuted former Shelby County medical examiner O.C. Smith earlier this year, had more political than prosecutorial experience when he was appointed by Bush in 2000. He had been a candidate for Congress and chief counsel to a Republican governor but had also clerked for two federal judges and done some criminal defense work in private practice.

“I don’t think prosecutorial experience is a necessary prerequisite,” he said. “Most offices are already staffed with real talented prosecutors. What you bring may be management talents, communication skills, and people skills. A big part of what we do is deterrence, by going out and explaining to the public what we are doing and why.”

Cummins said Bush and his attorney general are “absolutely intolerant of prosecutors engaging in political activity of any kind. If you can’t leave politics at the door, you shouldn’t come here or you won’t last.” In more than four years, Cummins said he has gotten only one call from a politician about a case, and he backed off after Cummins explained the facts. When he gets calls, “99 percent of the time those people have been told by the subject of the investigation an incomplete set of facts.”

Federal prosecutors in Memphis have had strikingly different backgrounds. Harris was a veteran state prosecutor. Veronica Coleman worked in corporate law. Ed Bryant was an all-but-declared candidate for Congress when he took over for Hickman Ewing, who was a career prosecutor. Mike Cody was former head of the Shelby County Democratic Party and former President Jimmy Carter’s state campaign manager.

As a reporter, I have known them all, plus many of the well-known people they prosecuted. I think it’s the most important and powerful public office in Memphis.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Q & A: Susan polgar

Chess — it’s not just a man’s game anymore, and, ladies, you have Susan Polgar to thank.

Polgar paved the way for women in the once male-dominated game. In 1986, she broke the gender barrier by qualifying for the Men’s World Championship. Then, in 1991, she earned the Men’s Grandmaster title, the highest honor in chess.

Last weekend, Polgar was in Memphis to teach and demonstrate simultaneous games at Lausanne Collegiate Schools’ chess camp. Since chess instills discipline, focus, and critical-thinking skills in its players, we couldn’t let the opportunity pass without learning from a Grandmaster. — By Bianca Phillips

Flyer: What was it like when you achieved the Men’s Grandmaster title?Polgar: I felt really motivated to get there and prove that women are just as capable as men in chess and basically anything that requires thinking. I was very proud.

When did you first become interested in chess?I started when I was about 4. A few months later, I had my first big success winning the championship in Budapest for girls under age 11. I won all of my games, 10 out of 10.

didn’t you break a Guinness World Record recently?I had to walk over nine miles while playing 1,131 games over 16 hours of time. I broke four different records. The main record was to play 326 different opponents simultaneously. The other record was playing 1,131 consecutive games, some against the same opponent. The other two records related to the score.

Do you still play every day?I still prepare when I play a big tournament or exhibition.

How does chess relate to everyday life?Chess can teach you responsibility. When you make a move, you have to plan ahead and consider opponents’ moves, just like in life. When it’s a rainy day, take an umbrella. The more you get into chess, the more you discover logic and discipline and not rushing through decisions.