In appointing state
Senate pro Tem Rosalind Kurita (D-Clarksville) to the influential
Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) this week,
Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville), the Senate’s presiding officer,
said, “Sen. Kurita has the rare ability to think outside the box and find
answers to the problems facing our state.”
Or, as Ramsey’s GOP
Senate colleague Paul Stanley put it more informally last week,
introducing Ramsey at a testimonial dinner for Memphis’ Lewis Donelson at
the Homebuilders’ Association, “Every now and then you’ll get a right-thinking
Democrat to see things your way.” It was Kurita’s surprise vote last January as
the lone Democrat voting for Ramsey that enabled him to oust longtime Speaker
John Wilder (D-Somerville) out of his box as the state’s Lt.
Governor;.
night, however, came from Donelson himself, the 89-year-old eminence and honoree
of last Friday night’s event. Among other things, Donelson was: one of the
founders of the host Shelby County Republican Party. He was also a key member
(and a leading peacemaker) on the new Memphis city council that was elected in
1967 and had to grapple with the 1968 sanitation strike crisis that culminated
in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
When the newly elected
Lamar Alexander was sworn in as governor three days early in 1979.to bring to an
end the pardons-for-sale scandal under outgoing Gov. Ray Blanton, it was
Lewis Dnelson who gave an invocation for that historic swearing-in ceremony, and
it was Donelson who promptly became Alexander’s principal agent in gathering up
the reins of state government as Finance Commissioner and Chief Operating
Officer.
More recently, Donelson
was lawyer for rural school districts in several successful litigations that
fundamentally changed the way state education is financed.
For these and other
accomplishments, Donelson was toasted by dignitaries including Ramsey, former
Governor Winfield Dunn, former city councilman Fred Davis, state
Supreme Court Justice William Koch, and District Attorney General Bill
Gibbons.
When all the choruses
and testimonials were done, Dnelson ascended the dais to make his own remarks of
acknowledgement. Wearing a Cheshire grin almost as large as his diminutive self,
he began this way: “After hearing all that, I’m almost obligated to die.”
Footnote:
Though it was handled in good grace by everybody, there was one major snafu in
the proceedings. Ramsey’s appearance came only after the other
testimonial-givers and Donelson himself had spoken. Somehow GOP chairman Bill
Giannini, who otherwise handled things well, overlooked the lieutenant
governor until large parts of the crowd had left thinking the event was over.
Stanley hastened to the dais to tell Giannini otherwise, and Ramsey then came on
– promising a “brief” speech that turned out to be, hmmm. regulation-size.
Democratic congressman Steve Cohen continued his Zelig-like pace this past week,
becoming a co-sponsor of a resolution to impeach Vice President Cheney
and of another to censure both Cheney and President Bush. (Cohen had
previously been a sponsor of a resolution to impeach Attorney General Albert
Gonzales.)
Appearing at Prescott
Church Wednesday night, Cohen observed of the vice president: “Cheney is
obviously running the government. And you can look at him and tell he’s not
Mother Theresa.”
Though he acknowledged
“this isn’t going to get passed either,” Cohen announced that he is also
sponsoring a constitutional amendment requiring that pardons and commutations
require a two-thirds majority of the Supreme Court confirming that they are “in
the interests of justice.”
At the close of his
remarks at Prescott, Cohen hailed the church’s pastor, Marise Tuttle,
and presented her with a thick volume documenting the success of women in
politics and public life. Then he quipped, “This doesn’t mean there needs to be another women in Congress anytime soon.”
That, of course, was an
oblique reference to Nikki Tinker, who was runnerup to Cohen in the 2006
election and has already launched a campaign for the 9th District
congressional seat in 2008.
