Tag: Andy Holt

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All-White State Committee Votes to Keep Forrest Bust

CREDIT: Nathan Bedford Forrest Boyhood Home/Facebook

State Capitol building

An all-white House committee shot down two proposals from a black House member to remove the bust of slave trader Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol.

Rep. Rick Staples (D-Knoxville) brought his ideas on removing the bust back to lawmakers after the Tennessee General Assembly broke earlier this year on COVID-19 concerns. Nathan Bedford Forrest Boyhood Home/Facebook

Staples’ original resolution sought to remove the bust of the KKK founder and replace with two other Tennesseans — Anne Davis, who worked to establish Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and William F. Yardley, the first African American to run for governor in Tennessee.

Staples broadened his original resolution with an amendment that would have allowed the bust to be of any Tennessean who worked for racial equality in the state.

The all-white House Naming, Designating, and Private Acts Committee debated the proposals for more than an hour. The debate touched on protests around the state focused on racial injustice, removing other busts and statues around the capitol building, and one lawmaker’s concern that Staples’ bill would exclude white lawmakers like her from having a bust in the capitol one day.

Staples said he was not trying to erase history, as many lawmakers have worried about over the hours and hours of debate on this topic. Instead, he said he was trying to celebrate an different figure that “touches us all in a positive way.”

Staples

“People are watching us right now,” Staples said. “Somebody said to me last week — a protestor at a peaceful rally. He said, ‘Sir, I respect you and I know what you’re saying. But some of the white folks you work with [meaning the other House members], I want them to know what I feel and where I’m at and what we’re trying to do and that we want change.”

Staples urged the committee members to be brave. He said those who lead on issues will sometimes “catch hell” but, as a lawmaker, “nobody can touch you,” and voting for his resolution would put them “on the right side of history.”

Debate on Staple’s proposals came after the committee approved Speaker Pro Tem Bill Dunn’s (R-Knoxville) idea to designate the area where the Forrest bust now resides for only Tennessee lawmakers. Forrest was never an elected official. His idea will go before the State Capitol Commission during their next meeting.

“[Racial injustice] is a burning issue,” Dunn said. “Yes, it’s a focus today but with the news cycle, who knows where it’ll be next year.”

With that, Dunn said Staples’ bill was too narrow to only include those who worked for racial equality in Tennessee. Staples said, “the issue is not just burning right now, it’s been burning for decades. It just boiled over right now.”

Crowds gathered in Health Sciences Park in Memphis around the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest, prior to its removal.

Susan Lynne (R-Mt. Juliet) agreed with Dunn. She said Staples proposal would exclude “many other possible legislators or office holders that, maybe, didn’t meet those characteristics” for racial equality outlined in Staples resolution.

“I said, jokingly, to my seat mate here, ‘according to his resolution, we cold not have a bust of you or me,’” Lynne said. “Not that that would ever happen but we would be completely excluded.”

Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) has spoken bluntly for the removal of the bust in the past. He did the same during Tuesday’s committee hearing.

“I have had people tell me that when they look at that bust, it hurst them and it bothers them,” Mitchell began. “They say, if he was alive…he would want to kill them or want to sell them.

“If you’re so afraid of what might happen in the next election…and you do what you know to be reprehensibly wrong, you’re in the wrong business.

“(In the committee) we talk about the Bible. Then, open it up and read it sometime. Know right from wrong.

“How long do we need to have discussion on this bust that you all know needs to come down, before you’ll have enough political cover to hide your decision?”

Minutes before Nathan Bedford Forrest’s statue was removed from Health Sciences Park

Off-floor cross-talk among members caused committee chairman John Mark Windle (D-Livingston) to threaten to take a recess “if we can’t continue in a civil manner” and wanted members to “not direct negative comment to other members.”

One of those members, apparently, was Andy Holt (R-Dresden), who said he was not searching for political cover on the issue. 

“Nathan Bedford Forrest did awful, terrible things; we can all agree to that,” he said. There were a lot of things in his life he shouldn’t have done. But, selectively, that is the only portion of his life that are known in the mainstream, not about the changes in his life at the end.”

He said he was not making excuses for Forrest. But he said a body is already in place to decide whether or not he deserve a prominent place in the capitol building.

Holt continued to say members of the body have not addressed atrocities committed by Tennessee native and American Preisdent Andrew Jackson. Identical statues of Jackson stand on the capitol grounds in Nashville, the White House grounds, in Jackson Square in New Orleans, and Jacksonville, Florida. 

Holt

Rep. Jason Hodges (D-Clarksville) said monuments shoudl be given to those “we celebrate and we’re not ashamed of.” He told Holt he’d be happy to vote for his bill to remove Jackson, too.

“I actually don’t want to remove him, either,” Holt said. “But what I see is a focus on one individual while one nearly maintains his historical innocence.”

Holt said Jackson committed atrocities on entire cultures and ethnicities that had not even been discussed before he brought them before the committee. He called for “intellectual honest” in speaking on Forrest and Jackson.

In the end, Staples’ broader proposal to honor someone who pushed racial equality in the state failed on a vote of 11 to 5. His original, more-narrow proposal, failed with the same vote tally.

Before the vote, he said while he was probably leaving without a win, he felt like “I’ve done my duty based on the outcry of Tennesseans.”

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Politics Politics Feature

Nonpartisan Event Stirs Partisans

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

In politics, as in everything else (maybe more so in politics!), no good deed goes unpunished. When state Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) and Senator John Stephens (R-Huntington), co-chairs of the Tennessee legislature’s West Tennessee Economic Development Caucus (WTEDC), decided to schedule four nonpartisan events in the weeks prior to the November 6th election, they seem not to have anticipated negative feedback.

But they got some. Big-time.

When White aide Paul Marsh, on behalf of the two co-chairs, recently sent out a letter to a network of civic and governmental leaders announcing a series of four regional meetings of the WTEDC with the candidates for governor and U.S. senator, he conscientiously specified that all four — gubernatorial candidates Karl Dean (Democrat) and Bill Lee (Republican) would take part, sequentially. Ditto with the two candidates for Senate — Phil Bredesen (Democrat) and Marsha Blackburn (Republican).

Jackson Baker

GOP’s White and Democrat Craig Fitzhugh at WTEDC event

As planned, the schedule called for Dean on Monday of this week in Jackson; Bredesen on October 18th, also in Jackson; Lee on October 22nd in Martin; and Blackburn, back in Jackson on October 23rd. Monday’s meeting with Dean, the former mayor of Nashville, took place as scheduled at the offices of the Southwest Tennessee Economic District, which will be the site for the other Jackson meetings as well.

Members of both political parties and presumably some independents as well were on hand Monday, as, with White presiding, Dean and others discussed the status of the West Tennessee Megasite in Haywood County and other ongoing or potential development projects in the region. The group conversation was collegial, focused, and nonpartisan, a veritable object lesson in civic responsibiliity.

It remains to be seen, however, if that kind of comity holds up for the next go-round — the meeting with Bredesen. Upon receipt of Marsh’s original letter, at least two recipients — both Republicans — responded with curt and identical refusals: “No, thank you” regarding the Bredesen meeting. And it became clear that both decliners, Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald and state Representative Jim Coley, represented the tip of an iceberg. Several other Republicans found ways of conveying their displeasure, apparently seeing the planned occasion as some sort of partisan disloyalty.

Undiscouraged, White took pains to reassure his party brethren that no such treason was afoot, that the series of meetings with contenders for statewide office were part of no political agenda but were merely intended to be disinterested occasions for sharing ideas and information.

On Wednesday of last week, however, The Tennessean of Nashville carried a report of a hostile reaction to the scheduled Bredesen appearance from the famously partisan and unbashful state Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden), a legislator famous (or infamous) for such capers as an anti-whistleblower bill that Governor Bill Haslam vetoed as unconstitutional and for dumping hog waste into fresh-water streams, an offense that earned him a fine from the EPA.

Holt vaunts his position on the rightward fringe of the Republican Party, too, and was quoted by the Tennessean as denouncing the WTEDC’s plans to meet with Bredesen.

Said Holt: “I’m a member of this Caucus, but I want it to be VERY CLEAR, that I am not, and have no intention of EVER hosting Phil Bredesen at any event with which I’m associated!” Holt wondered, “Who’s [sic] idea was this?” He called the Bredesen scheduling and the public invitation to it  “egregious political miscalculations” and threatened to resign from the caucus. 

Several of the Republicans present at Monday’s WTEDC meeting with Dean expressed dismay at Holt’s attitude. State Representative Jimmy Eldridge, currently a candidate for mayor of Jackson, was particularly vexed. “Can you believe that? We’re trying to have a meeting of minds here. This is completely nonpartisan!” And Eldridge was seconded by several others.

Count it as a healthy omen, even a sign of potential redemption for state government, that such was the prevailing reaction toward a nonpartisan event in a highly charged political year among the Democrats and Republicans gathered in Jackson, all of whom practiced the most elaborate courtesies toward each other.

• As it happens, Bredesen has been the focus of attention in numerous other ways of late. The former governor, whose innate centrism and willingness to reach out across the political aisle had previously been serving him well, took a good deal of flack last week from his fellow Democrats, who judged him to be overdoing it.

Many Democrats expressed displeasure that Bredesen had reacted to taunts from GOP opponent Blackburn by publicly disowning Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York during the two Senate candidates’ recent televised debate. But that reaction was nothing compared to the outrage that greeted Bredesen’s statement endorsing President Donald Trump‘s designation of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court after an abbreviated FBI investigation of Kavanaugh for alleged sexual misconduct and before the final party-line vote in his favor in the Senate.

Meanwhile, whatever the reason for it, the polls, which had been showing Bredesen with a significant single-digit lead reversed course, and Blackburn began to top such samplings as were made public.

No doubt compounding the Democratic candidate’s discomfort was a series of hard-hitting TV attack ads from the Blackburn camp. Some of these were patently misleading — notably one which attempted to connect the former governor with the current opioid-addiction problem (apparently based on the fact that, among other things, his stock portfolio includes some shares of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical group). That approach is a blatant attempt to do a turn-around on the fact that Blackburn was the author of Pharma-friendly legislation that 60 Minutes identified as a major factor in inhibiting the DEA’s ability to control the proliferation of opioids.

• The campaign of Democrat Gabby Salinas for the District 31 state Senate seat is calling foul on a mailer sent out by her opponent, Republican incumbent Brian Kelsey. Headed by a picture of Kelsey and his wife, Amanda, with a family dog and replete with other domestic themes and references, the mailer states, “Brian Kelsey’s Family Has Called Shelby County Home for Seven Generations. He’s From Here. He’s One of Us.”

Salinas is a cancer survivor whose family emigrated here from Colombia during her childhood to pursue treatment for her at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A spokesman for her campaign maintains that the “nasty” mailer, a “not-so-subtle dog whistle” is “attempting to raise the question of Gabby’s heritage and background as an immigrant and naturalized citizen.”

Kelsey’s response (via Kelsey’s campaign manager, Jackson Darr): “It’s very simple. It means that Brian lives in Shelby County. Senator Kelsey has deep roots here. … Brian participates daily in Shelby County life. That’s what it means to be one of us.”

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Radio Silence: Rep. Holt on Las Vegas, NCRM on Bernice King’s Anti-Gay Stance

CREDIT: Twitter, Facebook

Twitter, Facebook

Rep. Holt gave away three AR-15s at his Turkey Shoot this year. Bernice King, far right, got a Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum, despite years of anti-gay statements.

Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) and the National Civil Rights Museum left Flyer questions unanswered recently, but you should know that we did ask.

Holt and the Turkey Shoot Guns

Holt famously gave away two AR-15 rifles at his Hogfest and Turkey Shoot last year. The event came just days after a gunman used a semi-automatic rifle and semi-automatic handgun to kill 50 people at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub.

Holt’s decision made national news and he reportedly received death threats because many thought offering the rifles, which some said were like the ones used at the Pulse shooting, was disrespectful.

In a statement at the time, Holt said the Pulse shooting and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were fueled by “radical Islam.” He was “furious” that people would blame guns for the violence.

“I’m furious that I get phone calls from the media asking me if I’m still going to give away an AR-15 at our Hogfest, rather than asking me how many extra firearms I’ll be handing out to ensure people can protect themselves,” Holt said. “After all, it was a bullet that stopped the terrorist (at Pulse). Amazing how so many seem to miss that fact.”

ON DATE DATE, four days after gunman Stephen Paddock shot and killed 58 people and injured 546 in Las Vegas this year, I emailed Holt a question to his state-issued email address.

I asked, if he were to have another Hogfest and Turkey Shoot following the mass shooting Las Vegas, would he still give away AR-15s. I got no reply.

But maybe the question was moot. By the time Paddock killed those people in Las Vegas, Holt had already hosted the second Hogfest and Turkey Shoot event at his Dresden Farm. The event is a fund-raiser for his political campaign. It took place this year on September 23, about a week before ???THE VEGAS SHOOTING?

Holt did give away AR-15s to the winners of the Turkey Shoot this year — three of them. But they came with some stipulations:

“The recipients of these rifles will be required to have a background check performed, and must pick the rifles up from NT Pawn & Gun in Martin, TN. The AR-15 giveaway is subject to all applicable state & federal laws.”
[pullquote-1]Holt, usually active on Twitter, had nothing to say about his Hogfest event, giving away the guns, or the Las Vegas shooting. However, on the Monday following the mass shooting, Holt did retweet a pithy comment from @Richman_89:

“I don’t know if Tom Petty is dead, but I’m absolutely sure journalism is.”

Bernice King and the Freedom Awards

The National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM) was completely non-responsive when asked recently why they gave a Freedom Award this year to Reverend Bernice King. She is the youngest of Dr. Martin Luther King’s children who has said in the past that her “father did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage.”
[pullquote-2]In an October 13 email to Connie Dyson, the museum’s marketing communications manager, I requested an interview with someone from the museum to talk about the selection of King for an award. I got no reply.

In 2004, Bernice King helped to lead an anti-gay-marriage march that began at her father’s grave. About 50 protesters carried signs that read “Don’t Hijack Dr. King’s Dream” and “All Forms of Bigotry are Equally Wrong,” according to an ABC news story at the time.

King has said that marriage was instituted by her God, not people, and that marriage was between a man and woman. She’s said that she doesn’t believe people are born gay. In her 1996 book, “Hard Questions, Heart Answers,” King said the “present plight of our nation” is that traditional marriage is being undermined by “alternative lifestyles.”

In 2005, KIng led a march to her father’s gravesite and called for a Constitutional ban on gay marriage.

During Atlanta’s 2012 Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally, King did include LGBT people among the various groups who needed to come together to “fulfill her father’s legacy.” Speaking at Brown University in 2013, King said: “I believe that the family was created and ordained first and foremost by God, that he instituted the marriage, and that’s a law that he instituted and not… that we instituted.” Regarding same-sex attraction, King said: “I … don’t believe everybody’s born that way. I know some people have been violated. I know some people have unfortunately delved into it as an experiment.”

King has said that her “spiritual father” was the Bishop Eddie Long, who died in January. King was an elder in Long’s church, which offered “homosexual cure” programs. “Everybody knows it’s dangerous to enter an exit,” Long preached to gay men, according to a story at Huffington Post. He added that they “deserve death” for their vile behavior,“ the HuffPo story said.

None of this is mentioned in King’s bio on the NCRM Freedom Awards website.

Terri Lee Freeman, president of the museum, said at the awards event that King and the other winners, “exemplify Dr. King’s mission and legacy of fighting for and protecting the rights of every man, woman and child, regardless of their race or social enconomic status,” but especially “the marginalized, subjugated and disenfranchised,” according to a story from The Commercial Appeal.

We’re not saying the questions to Holt or the museum were ignored, exactly. Maybe they’re in a spam folder somewhere.

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Politics Politics Feature

James Mackler: A Democrat in the Senate?

Can a Democrat be elected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee? James Mackler, a Nashville lawyer and Army veteran, intends to find out. Mackler was in Memphis on Tuesday as part of an ongoing tour in which he is acquainting himself with Tennesseans across the state and simultaneously getting them acquainted with him.

Mackler is a political newcomer, making his first bid for office as an aspirant for the Senate seat now held by Republican Bob Corker and on the ballot in 2018. Besides having begun his race as an unknown, he confronts the fact that no Democrat has served in the Senate from Tennessee for a full generation, since then incumbent Senator Jim Sasser was upset by Republican Bill Frist in 1994.

Neither circumstance fazes Mackler, who sees his race as a case of  answering a call to public service. This is the second time he has felt such a call. As he puts it, the first time was on September 11, 2001, when the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington prompted him to “shut down” his law practice and join the Army, becoming a Blackhawk helicopter pilot in Iraq and later serving in the Army’s JAG (legal) corps.

“I needed to do something to make a difference,” he explained on Tuesday. “I resigned from my job to run for the U.S. Senate for the same reason. I felt called back to service, and I believe my track record of service will appeal to voters across Tennessee, especially those ready for change.”

So, for the second time, troubled by “seeing what our leaders in Washington aren’t doing,” Mackler left his law practice and hit the road as a candidate. There was a personal motive as well. His daughters, students at a private Jewish school in Nashville, were evacuated from their school four times for bomb threats — part of a wave of such actions nationwide.

“I was so upset that our country has become so divided and that I had to explain that to my girls. It was a critical moment,” he says.

Mackler’s platform focuses on three issues: “jobs, health care, and education.” He sees incumbent Republican Corker as especially vulnerable on the health-care issue, having voted with the majority of his party in several unsuccessful efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Mackler might take comfort from a poll taken earlier this month by Public Policy Polling, a company that normally takes its surveys in tandem with Democratic causes and candidates and was paid for by the health-care advocacy group Save My Care.

That poll was taken from a sample of 663 registered Tennessee voters during the period of August 11th-13th by robo-call, a method whereby a recorded message poses questions to persons on a pre-selected call list and listeners who hear the message out are invited to respond by using the numbers on their dial pad.

That poll purported to show Corker with a favorable job-performance rating of 34 percent, as against an unfavorable rating of 47 percent and found that less than half of those surveyed would vote for Corker, while 37 percent would vote for an unnamed Democrat.

Besides Democrat Mackler, a first-time candidate who is in the process of introducing himself to a state constituency, two Republicans with some pre-existing name identification have also talked of opposing the senator.

One is former state Representative Joe Carr, an ultra-conservative who garnered a respectable 40 percent in a 2014 primary race against Tennessee’s other Republican senator, Lamar Alexander. Another, who also occupies a place on the GOP’s right wing, is current state Representative Andy Holt, who has referred vaguely to “multiple polls” but has not identified them or cited any particulars.

And, of course, there are even vaguer soundings taken by President Trump, who responded to Corker’s recent criticism of him for lacking “stability” and “competence” with a tweet that said: “Strange statement by Bob Corker considering that he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in ’18. Tennessee not happy!”

For all that, two recent polls — one released by Vanderbilt University showing Corker with a 52 percent approval rating and another taken by the polling company Morning Consult giving the Senator a 57 percent approval rating — would seem to bolster Corker’s chances.

In any case, Mackler knows he has his work cut out for him. His rounds in Memphis on Tuesday included an appearance at a Latino Leadership Luncheon and an evening fund-raiser. And, as he indicated, he intends to be back, again and again.

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Politics Politics Feature

Scrum for Corker’s Seat?

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

As of the 4th of July weekend, there was no significant change in the prospective lineup for next year’s race for governor to succeed the term-limited Republican incumbent Bill Haslam.

The two definite Republican entries — former state Economic Development Commissioner Randy Boyd and Nashville businessman Bill Lee — are still the only formally declared candidates on the Republican side. Fourth District U.S. Representative Diane Black, state House Speaker Beth Harwell, and State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris of Collierville are still the main GOP figures on the maybe list. (Norris also remains one of the serious maybes to fill a vacant federal judgeship.)

Former Nashville mayor Karl Dean is the only Democrat to have made a 2018 governor’s race official, but state House Democratic Leader Craig Fitzhugh of Ripley is considered a likely candidate, as well.

All that is same-old, same-old. Where there is renewed speculation on the statewide political scene is in regard to the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Bob Corker. The Senator is chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and is also an important and active member of the Senate’s Banking and Budget committees.

Since his election in 2006 in a close race with Democratic nominee Harold Ford Jr., Corker has steadily become one of the more prominent GOP voices in Congress. In 2016, he was seriously considered by then-candidate Donald Trump as a possible vice-presidential running mate. And there have been off-and-on rumors that Corker wants to run for president at some point.

It has long been assumed, and still is, that Corker will be a candidate for reelection to his Senate seat, which comes due again in 2018. But other scenarios have been floated — including a possible Corker race for governor in tandem with a Haslam race for the Senate seat that would then be open.

Whatever the case, other candidates are eyeing a race for Corker’s seat next year. At least one Democrat, Nashville lawyer and Iraq war vet James Mackler is already running and has sent out an elaborate mailer statewide boosting his candidacy.

And there are also Republicans who are looking covetously at Corker’s Senate seat — especially on the GOP’s right wing and in its Tea Party constituency, where Corker’s oft-professed readiness to work across the aisle with Democrats on various issues has aroused suspicion.

The senator may also have raised hackles on the Republican right with recent statements expressing concern over actions by Trump, such as the Senator’s statement, in the wake of his firing FBI Director James Comey in May, that the president seemed to be on a “downward spiral.”

More recently, Corker has vowed to block arms sales by the administration to member nations of the Middle Eastern Gulf Cooperation Council, including feuding U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

UPDATE: Senator Corker’s office has forwarded this comment on the Senator’s proposed block on the arms sale:

Just wanted to note that the senator spoke with Secretary Tillerson in advance of sending the letter regarding future arms sales and that his goal is to give the administration leverage as it works to resolve the dispute.

The White House press secretary also made positive comments about the senator’s efforts, noting the administration shares his goals…

:

White House response:

Q: Senator Corker says he will use his authority as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to block the sales to Saudi and Qatar until that crisis is resolved. Is that a constructive step in your view?

Sean Spicer: I think we share Senator Corker’s goal on two fronts. One, obviously we want to resolve the situation. I know that the states that are involved are viewing this as a family matter and Secretary Tillerson is helping to facilitate some of the that. We believe that is positive. We share that concern. We also share the concern about terror financing that Senator Corker has, and I think we can work together on both those goals.

Seventh District Congressman Marsha Blackburn is said to have considered a Senate race, and other names mentioned as possible Republican opponents for Corker include Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, State House Representative Andy Holt, and Americans for Prosperity Tennessee state director Andrew Ogles.

Another possible GOP challenger is Mark Green, the state senator from Clarksville who was recently nominated by President Trump to become Secretary of the Army but had to withdraw from consideration amid objections to his ultra-conservative social views from Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Previous to that, Green had been considered a prominent prospect to run for governor, but he has since said no to resuming that quest. A brand-new website boosting his possible candidacy for the U.S. Senate has appeared under the auspices of Nashville activist Rick Williams, however, and it is known that Green has ambitions to serve on the federal scene.

• Shelby County Democrats, whose squabbling and ineffective local party organization was decertified as dysfunctional by state party chair Mary Mancini two years ago, are about to rise again.

David Cocke and Carlissa Shaw presiding, bylaws will be adopted and representatives will be elected to serve on two distinct local bodies — a county committee and a new group to be called the Democratic Grassroots Council.

The county committee will function as the party’s executive arm, while the new council will deliberate on policy, discuss possible projects, and in general serve as a sounding board for party objectives.

• No rest for the weary department: The Shelby County Commission, having punted on approval of a budget at its June 26th meeting and thereby having missed the traditional July 1st deadline beginning the new fiscal year, was scheduled for another try at resolving differences during committee meetings this Wednesday.

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Politics Politics Feature

Pre-Summer Heat in Memphis Politics

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

UPDATED AND REVISED


On Saturday, a day in which the afternoon temperature soared into the 90s, the annual “community picnic” sponsored by longtime political broker and former Shelby County Commissioner Sidney Chism took place, as usual, on the grounds of the Horn Lake Road Learning Center in South Memphis. 

And, as usual, the event attracted active politicians, candidates for political office, and a politically oriented crowd, though attendance seemed somewhat down this year, whether because of the excessive heat or by the relative scarcity of blue-ribbon political contests to come — at least among Democrats, who are normally predominant at these events.

Even so, there were several such pairings to be glimpsed. District 85 District Johnnie Turner was there, for example, as was one of her primary opponents, pastor Keith Williams. General Sessions Clerk Ed Stanton Jr. was there with a sizeable support group, and one idependent opponent, William Chism, was also there — though not Republican challenger Richard Morton.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, his stock buoyed by a recent poll made an appearance, as did former Mayor Willie Herenton, who made a point of praising Shelby County Commission Chairman Terry Roland for supporting the former mayor’s proposal on behalf of two proposed model youth detention facilities in Frayser and Millington.

(Though the proposal was approved 8-2 in a commission vote last Monday, Roland came in for criticism and accusations of “bullying” from a minority of his fellow Republican members who either voted against the proposition or abstained.)

• On the eve of what could well turn out to be a long, hot summer, and with all the crises, ongoing and potential, affecting Memphis, how is the approval rating of Mayor Strickland holding up?

Rather well — or so would a fresh new poll taken on the mayor’s behalf seem to suggest.

A new sampling of public opinion by Public Opinion Strategies, the firm relied on for the Strickland campaign during the 2015 mayoral race, shows the mayor’s approval rating, as of May, 2016, to be 68 percent, with only 15 percent of those polled disapproving.

The sampling is broken down three ways:

*By gender, with 66 percent of men approving and 15 percent disapproving, and with 70 percent of women approving, against 14 percent who disapprove.

*By political party, with 89 percent of Republicans expressing approval and a statistical sample small enough to register as zero disapproving; 65 percent of approval from Democrats, with 17 percent disapproving; and 63 percent of independents approving, as against 19 percent disapproving.

*By race, with whites approving at a rate of 80 percent with only 5 percent disapproval, and with an approval rate of 62 percent among African Americans, 20 percent disapproving.

*And, rather oddly, the poll offers figures for “Northern Districts” (73 percent approval, 13 percent disapproval) and “Southern Districts” (61 percent approval, 17 percent disapproval).

According to Steven Reid, the consultant whose Sutton-Reid firm represented Strickland during his successful 2015 mayoral race, the poll, with a margin of error estimated at 4.9 percent, was conducted with “likely voters” by telephone from May 15th to May 17th, with 25 percent of those sampled contacted by cell phone.  

 

• The office of State Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden), in an email addressed to the Tennessee media, claimed to have received “death threats” from a Memphis telephone number in the 487 exchange.

According to Holt assistant Michael Lotfi, whose voice is heard along with that of the caller in an MP3 audio sent along with the email, the caller was first heard from at about 5 p.m. on Monday on Holt’s Nashville office telephone and phoned repeatedly thereafter.

In an audio portion of one of the calls, the caller is asked by Lofti whether he owns guns. The caller says he has several, though he does not directly threaten either Holt or Lotfi with them. He does say he intends to be in Nashville on Tuesday morning to “beat [the] ass” of Lotfi, whom he addresses as “bitch.”

The caller does not seem to make a specific death threat, nor does he profess to be a “Democrat,” although Lotfi’s email attempts to brand the caller that way.

A voice similar to that heard on the recording answered when the Flyer called the number listed in the email as the source of the phone calls from Memphis. The person on the line declined to identify himself or to comment on the several alleged conversations with Lotfi, but an online number-tracing service appeared to lead to an individual whose Facebook page is replete not with threats to anyone but with numerous anti-gun postings, including some directly relating to Holt.

The bizarre conversation with Lotfi, the only one of the several allegedly received by Holt’s Nashville office from which a recording was offered, took place in the aftermath of Holt’s announced plan to give away an AR-15 at a forthcoming fund-raiser of his, a pledge Holt (literally) doubled down on a day after the weekend massacre at an Orlando, Florida, gay nightclub that resulted in some 100 casualties, including 50 deaths. An AR-15 was the assassin’s weapon of choice.

In response to the atrocity, Holt promised to give away two such automatic assault weapons for self-defense purposes along with other firearms, as de facto door prizes for attendees at his fund-raiser, entitled “Hogfest.”

As frequently chronicled by the Flyer‘s “Fly on the Wall” columnist, Chris Davis, Holt, a pig farmer, has become something of a cynosure for media attention, much of it negative. In 2015 he was threatened with a $177,000 fine by the Environmental Protection Agency for illegally dumping 860,000 gallons of hog waste into a public stream.

The EPA dropped the fine, conditional upon Holt’s acceptance of a consent decree requiring him to close two lagoons from which the waste had been emptied. The agency reserves the right to re-institute the fine if the agreement is breached.

As Davis noted in an online post on Monday, “Holt, who’s introduced his share of faith-based anti-gay legislation, burned his traffic tickets on YouTube, and showed support for antics perpetrated by the Bundy Ranch militia,” has also made virulent attacks on Ninth District Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), who, in the wake of the Orlando tragedy, called for legislation banning “all assault weapons and high capacity magazines.”

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1425

Kiss, Kiss, Bang

You know, it’s getting easier to see things through the lunatic eyes of Tennessee Rep. Andy Holt (R)-Duh. Per Holt, the Second Amendment exists, in part, to ensure bad guys have access to immense firepower. Because that furnishes good guys with deserving targets. It’s pretty obvious, really — right there in the constitution between the words “well regulated” and “militia” and not all that hard to see if, like Andy, you squint.

Holt had planned to give away an AR-15 semiautomatic, the prefered weapon of mass shooters like Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 in a Florida gay bar on Sunday. In the Orlando massacre’s horrific wake, Holt’s so consarn mad about the dadgum liberals with their gun control, he wishes he could give away more.

“I’m furious,” Holt writes. “I’m furious that I get phone calls from the media asking me if I’m still going to give away an AR-15 at our HogFest, rather than asking me how many extra firearms I’ll be handing out to ensure people can protect themselves. After all, it was a bullet that stopped the terrorist. Amazing how so many seem to miss that fact.”

Of course, he’s right. A bullet stopped Omar Mateen, the suspected agent who was able to buy an AR-15 like it was a quart of milk. The system works.

First Responder

If you aren’t following Scanner Memphis on Twitter (@ScannerMemphis) you’re missing out on curated “highlights and lowlights” from Memphis area police and fire scanners. Highlights from June include:

• “They called about a man carrying a real cross and a sheet. I’m waiting to engage him.”

• “There is a man who is completely nude, touching himself.”

And the all-time classic …

• “Y’all see that idiot in the silver Nissan?”

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Andy Holt to Give Away AR-15 Rifle, Would Hand Out More

You know, it’s getting easier to see things through the lunatic eyes of Tennessee Rep. Andy Holt, (R)-Duh.

Every unhinged missive he fires off sheds a little more light on the pig farmer’s thought process, and finally it’s clear to me, per Holt, that the Second Amendment exists, in part, to insure bad guys have access to immense firepower. Because that, in turn, furnishes good guys with deserving targets for their own, even immenser firepower. It’s pretty obvious, really — right there in the constitution between the words, “well regulated,” and “militia,” and not all that hard to see if, like Andy, you squint. 

Holt’s been out of the spotlight lately. According to a Facebook post, he’s been “toiling away in the dirt,” just trying to provide for his family. That honest endeavor provided the  legislator with an opportunity to think, pray, and commune with his Lord. You see, a man with a history of hate and abusive behavior walked into a gay bar in Orlando, Florida Sunday morning and, in no time at all, gunned down 50-innocent people with an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon. Holt had planned to give away one of those deadly, fast-shooting rifles at a campaign fundraiser and turkey shoot called HogFest. But now, in the Orlando massacre’s horrific wake, Holt’s so consarn mad about the dadgum liberals, he wishes he could give away more.

“I’m furious,” Holt writes and — oh hell, I’m just going to copy the whole thing right here.

“I’m furious over the fact that our government literally refuses to recognize the threat of radical Islam. I’m furious that it is no longer an insidious threat; but has been allowed, and even encouraged, to become an all out blatant attack due to the inaction of our irresponsible government “leaders.” I’m furious over the fact that reckless ‘leaders’ like Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) rush to blame the 2nd Amendment rather than radical Islam. I’m furious over the fact that so many are too ignorant to understand that the Twin Towers were not brought down by a firearm, but we’re instead brought down by radical Islam. Do you think these people care if they use a gun, bomb or an airplane? I’m furious that so many like Cohen cannot wait to leave us defenseless in the face of such great risk. I’m furious that I get phone calls from the media asking me if I’m still going to give away an AR-15 at our HogFest, rather than asking me how many extra firearms I’ll be handing out to ensure people can protect themselves. After all, it was a bullet that stopped the terrorist. Amazing how so many seem to miss that fact. I’m furious that the NSA continues to spy on ordinary Americans like you and me, yet allows suspected terrorists to easily walk away. I’m furious that I see elected liberal democrats rushing to literally blame Republicans for this tragic attack on the LGBT community. While I am a conservative Christian, my heart literally breaks for these women and men on so many levels. I’m furious that these same liberal democrats rushing to condemn conservative Christians that may disagree with a lifestyle, simultaneously rush to defend a religion that readily hangs and massacres gays and lesbians. Ever been to a country where Muslims are the majority? If you have, you’ll find gay men hanging in the streets. This is disgusting in so many ways. The media, our government, it’s all literally disgusting. I say all this to say that I understand how angry you all are. You have every right to be.

All that being said, I want you all to do 3 things for me.

1.) I want you to call the ones you love most and let them know how important they are to you. I want you to hold onto them for dear life. I want you to cherish every last moment.
2.) I want you to arm yourselves and learn to shoot with deadly accuracy should the need arise. Protect your family. Protect yourselves. Protect your friends. Our government has made it quite clear that it is incapable of doing so. At the end of the day, it’s your responsibility anyways.
3.) I want you to pray. Pray for the victims and their families. Pray for our country. Pray for the followers of a deadly, merciless religion. Pray for leadership. Pray for mercy and grace.
Dear media,
You want to know if I’m still giving away an AR-15? You bet the farm I am. And to those that have a problem with it, ‪#‎MolonLabe‬! How about asking liberals when they plan on banning gun free zones?

Holt, who’s introduced his share of faith-based anti-gay legislation, burned his traffic tickets on YouTube, and shown support for antics perpetrated by the Bundy Ranch militia, seemed particularly upset by gun-hating Democrats like Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen, who would “leave us defenseless.”

The question, of course, is who Holt means by “us.”  

If memory (and Google) serves, Senate Republicans joined together (on the day after the San Bernardino massacre no less) to block a D-supported bill that would have prevented people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns legally. Cohen vocally supported that measure. He’s also co-sponsored legislation regulating large capacity ammunition, and closing fire sale loopholes. And yet, somehow, in spite of all that reckless Democrat behavior, even the NRA Political Victory Fund graded Cohen a gentleman’s C. Not perfect, but not too shabby for somebody trying to leave Americans all defenseless and shit.

But let’s not forget that “a bullet… stopped the terrorist,” Omar Mateen, who was picked up and questioned about ISIS ties, but still able to pick up an AR-15 like it was a quart of milk. 

See. The system works. 

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Politics Politics Feature

Two More for Tennessee’s 8th District

The race for the 8th Congressional District, due to be vacated following incumbent Republican Stephen Fincher‘s surprise announcement of non-candidacy this year, has turned into a free-for-all on the Republican side, with controversial Republican state Representative Andy Holt joining the already full ranks of GOP hopefuls.

At least one Democrat, Shelby County assistant District Attorney Michael McCusker of Germantown, has announced his interest in running for the seat, thereby serving notice that there may well be a general election contest in the district, once counted safe for Democrats but considered Republican property following the easy victory of Fincher over veteran Democrat Roy Herron in 2010, a GOP sweep year almost everywhere in Tennessee.

A flood of Shelby County Republicans responded almost immediately to Fincher’s withdrawal statement, made two weeks ago. Within an hour of hearing the news, five local GOP hopefuls had their hats in the ring.

In order of their announcement, these were: George Flinn, the wealthy radiologist, broadcast executive, and former Shelby County commissioner; former U.S. Attorney David Kustoff; Shelby County Register Tom Leatherwood; state Senator Brian Kelsey of Germantown; and County Commissioner Steve Basar.

Of those five, three had made previous races for Congress — Flinn in both the 8th and 9th Districts and Kustoff and Leatherwood in the 7th, when that district lapped into the eastern portions of Shelby County the way the 8th does now after reapportionment. The new lines drawn after the 2010 census resulted in 55 percent of the 8th District’s population residing within Shelby County.

Holt is a decided contrast to the more urbanized aspirants from Big Shelby. A pig farmer who hails from Dresden, in Northwest Tennessee, Holt has been under investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency for polluting the fields and streams adjacent to his property with massive amounts of waste, nearly a million gallons of it, produced by his animals. He was also the sponsor of legislation aimed at penalizing whistleblowers who reported instances of animal cruelty.

In a press release issued Friday, Holt made an effort to set himself apart from the Shelby County candidates, saying that “to me, the idea of deciding (within mere moments of hearing Congressman Fincher isn’t running for reelection) to run for Congress without truly taking the time to fall on my knees and pray to God for his guidance with family and friends seems self-entitled and reckless. I simply am not that person.”

McCusker is a wholly different kind of outlier. An assistant D.A. for the past several years, he is a retired Army major whose military career was prompted by the 9/11 attacks in 2001. He served in Afghanistan as combat advisor to the Afghan National Army and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service and the Army Commendation Medal.

Upon resuming civilian status after 2006 and joining the D.A.’s staff, McCusker attempted to file for D.A. himself as a Democrat in the election of 2010 but was denied the opportunity to do so by a faction on the Shelby County Democratic executive committee that questioned his party bona fides because he had supported Republican Mitt Romney during the 2008 GOP presidential-primary process and had pulled a petition to serve as a Romney delegate at that year’s Republican National Convention.

McCusker, who grew up in a Roman Catholic Democratic family in East Tennessee, would explain his flirtation with the GOP as a consequence both of his wartime service under a Republican commander-in-chief and his sympathy with Mormon Romney as a member of a religious minority. He accepted his temporary banishment from the Democratic ticket in good grace and was rewarded with a position on the party’s ballot in 2014, when he ran unsuccessfully for Criminal Court clerk.
Here he is again, considering both a personal comeback try and one for his party, which has been diminished to the point of near-extinction in Tennessee, except in Memphis and Nashville. As McCusker put it in a statement released over the weekend, “At this time, I am exploring whether or not we can conduct a campaign that meets the needs of the hardworking people of the 8th Congressional District. Ultimately, my decision will be to do what is in the best interests of the constituents and my family.” 

• As noted in this week’s cover story (“Making a President,” p. 16), Tennessee is preparing to have its say in determining the presidential nominees for both political parties, as of Tuesday, March 1st — dubbed “Super Tuesday” because of the number of states holding primaries or caucuses that day.

A harbinger of what is expected to be a flurry of local activity on behalf of several campaigns was the visit to Whitehaven High School last Thursday of former president Bill Clinton, who, on behalf of the candidacy of his wife, Hillary Clinton, addressed an overflow rally of several hundred in the school’s gymnasium. On the same night that former first lady, senator, and secretary of state Clinton was tangling in a TV debate in Milwaukee with her Democratic rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, her husband was making her case in Memphis, a potential hotbed of Democratic primary votes on account of the city’s large black population.

Memphis congressman Steve Cohen introduced the former President variously as “the greatest president this area has ever seen” and (reprising a onetime honorary title) as “the first black president” and (in a more accurate variation on that trope, considering Barack Obama’s later election) as “a stand-in for the first black president.”

The point was that both Clintons had developed important connections with black voters over the years, and a large part of Bill Clinton’s mission in Memphis was to demonstrate that, even on populist issues where Sanders’ campaign might have obvious appeal to African Americans, Hillary Clinton’s positions were equally compelling, if not superior.

The former president argued that his wife’s means-based plan for reducing tuition costs in college was more realistic than Sanders’ call for universal free tuition, and contended further that her proposals to build upon the already existing Affordable Care Act was economically feasible, while the Vermonter’s espousal of “Medicare for all” was not.

He cited Hillary Clinton’s jobs proposals, coupled with stout raises in the minimum wage, as common-sense solutions to a stagnant consumer economy in which “somebody’s got to earn something to buy something.” He quoted Lyndon Johnson on the notion that anyone spurning “half a loaf” solutions is someone “who’s never been hungry.”

Clinton spent considerable time demonstrating his wife’s commitments to criminal justice reform and her intercessions, going as far back as her time in Arkansas, against federal funding for white-only schools. 

He touted her as able to “stand her ground” on principle and “seek common ground” on issues, noting that she was able to team up with former Republican House leader Tom DeLay on legislation facilitating post-infant adoptions.

As Hillary Clinton herself has done of late, the former president made efforts to endorse the actions of the Obama presidency and to associate her with the president’s accomplishments, which are “far greater than he’s been given credit for.”

Her goal was to make “the American dream” available to everybody, to people of all races, classes, and stations in life — “Yes, we can,” he said, invoking a well-known Obama phrase — and the course of her life, he proclaimed, had been one of “always making something good happen.”

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Fly on the Wall 1403

Verbatim

Tennessee Representative Andy Holt made national headlines last week after he tweeted and deleted his support for the federal wildlife refuge-occupying Bundy militia. His comments came from liberals and conservatives alike. Nobody described the fallout from Holt’s scandalous tweet better than Nashville Scene blogger Jeff Woods, who wrote, “For grabbing attention, it might go down in Twitter history — right there with Kourtney Kardashian’s iconic ‘do ants have dicks?’ tweet.”

Parade Critic

A writer for Arkansas’ Northwest Democrat Gazette was unimpressed by Memphis’ New Year’s Day celebration on Beale. As part of his Liberty Bowl coverage, Bobby Ampezzan fired off a column titled “Fans in Memphis Find Kooky Collection in Parade.” According to Ampezzan, “The parade featured two AutoZone semi-trucks, high school marching bands from as far away as Ohio, a couple of New Orleans-style krewes, and a Chevy Camaro car club.” And things just get worse from there: “One float advertising pizza featured a few unskilled dancers plodding their way through the Cha-Cha Slide. Another for Gun Oil featured plaid-clad dudes pitching Mardi Gras beads. By the time the Razorbacks’ spirit squad and marching band came through, spectators clapped their approval because this, at least, had something to do with something.”

@MistakenIdentity

Memphis educator Pat McFadden received his 15 minutes of internet fame last week because he shares a name with a British Labour Party politician who was sacked from his Shadow Cabinet position. By virtue of having the Twitter handle @patmcfadden, the Latin teacher at St. Mary’s School was frequently tagged in heated political conversations.