Tag: Jim Cooper

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Good Start for Lee Harris

Say this for Lee Harris: The man gathers no moss. The University of Memphis law professor and state senator-elect from District 29 is still keeping his City Council seat warm, a participant in every significant debate and hands-on in every decision reached there. And, though he doesn’t formally begin his new job as state Senate Democratic leader until January, Harris has already begun to exercise his authority on the statewide scene.    

        On Tuesday, as Presdent Obama was on his way to Nashville for a speech on the immigration issue, Harris issued a statement of greeting: “As people of a state known for its Southern hospitality, we could not be more proud to welcome those immigrants who choose to make Tennessee their home, and to welcome President Obama here today. We thank those immigrants for their many contributions to our state, just as we thank the president for sharing his views and addressing this very important issue.”

Harris’ statement of welcome was well-considered, generous,
and — most importantly — forthright on a sensitive
issue regarding
which too few public officials, either Democratic or Republican, had much useful to say during the recent election season.

As anyone who has observed City Council proceedings over the past four years knows, Harris is seldom at a loss for words. He is even prone — to tell it like it is — to jump the gun on an issue once in a while. In this case, and, we trust, in many more to come, these tendencies (which, like all other human attributes, have both a high side and a low side) will serve Harris and his constituents well, for political rhetoric in Tennessee, once a haven for redoubtable orators, has taken a distinct turn for the worse — toward the mealy-mouthed or the spiteful, depending on which side of an issue was being taken.

Witness: U.S. Representative Diane Black (R-6th) accused the president of having “chosen Nashville as a destination to publicly thumb his nose at the American electorate that just rebuked him in the last election” and said, further,”The Obama presidency has been a disaster and can’t end soon enough.” State Represntative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) said: “Enjoy your stay, and we soon hope to see you in court soon.” By comparison, the often vitriolic U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-7th) was almost courtly: “I share in the frustration Americans have with this president and will continue to do everything in my power to stop his executive amnesty. Enough is enough.”

All this as a response to a presidential executive order that cracks down on the hiring of undocumented workers and strengthens border security, while it provides a path to “earned citizenship” with numerous legal hoops for serious and productive immigrants to jump through.

As for the chorus of Democratic defenders of Mr. Obama… Congressmen Jim Cooper of Nashville and Steve Cohen of our own bailiwick accompanied Obama on his trip to Tennessee. Otherwise, vocal Democratic support of the president is about as non-evident as it was during the recent fall campaign. But at least Harris didn’t keep us waiting for his appropriate and on-point remarks. Keep it up, Mr. Harris. We could use a few more politicians willing to shoot straight.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Kyle and Cooper?

As Sara Kyle decides whether to challenge Governor Bill Haslam and his billions in the 2014 governor’s race (and here’s hoping that she does), there is more to think about for 2014.

With the announcement that the rabidly rightist state representative Joe Carr of Lascassas has decided to challenge Senator Lamar Alexander in the Senate GOP primary, it raises some questions that Democrats need to think about.  

As we have seen in other states, when a moderate senator such as Alexander is challenged in a GOP primary and then defeated, it has enabled Democrats to elect a senator, as in the case of Joe Donnelly in Indiana, and it has opened up possibilities for Michelle Nunn (yes, that’s Sam’s daughter) in Georgia.

Congressman Jim Cooper

Does Joe Carr have a real chance to knock off Alexander in the primary? Well, once we start seeing his disclosures and can determine if the Club for Growth and ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) will put serious funding into Carr’s campaign, then that could cause Democrats to rethink whether to field a candidate who can raise money into the race.

If no one else gets in, I will probably vote for Jacob Maurer, the Nashville liberal activist; he seems to have the right stands on the issues for me, but I harbor no illusions about his ability to beat Alexander in a general election. However, what if Carr really gets the wackos out to beat Lamar in the primary?  

The old-guard GOP truly hates the Tea Partiers with a purple passion, and if the last member of the Holy Trinity that built the establishmentarian TNGOP (Howard Baker, Fred Thompson, and Alexander) is upended, does anyone else think that some of their money might go to a Democrat worth voting for?

I think we may know the answer to this question before Christmas. And, if it looks like Carr can make enough headway to beat Alexander, then Democrats need to get someone ready to run.

When it comes to the type of person that old-guard GOPers might be willing to support in the event of a Carr upset over Alexander, there’s really only one Democrat who could get the support and funding from those folks.

Jim Cooper.

I know, I know. No, I am not high or drunk or otherwise altered. Under normal circumstances, I would be calling for Cooper, Nashville’s Democratic congressman and a Blue Dog’s Blue Dog, to be primaried from the left.            However, as you may have noticed, these are not normal circumstances, and if Joe Carr were to somehow snatch the GOP nomination from Alexander, there are a lot of GOP donors who would be pissed off enough to help Cooper. This may be his best shot.

All of this, of course, comes down to whether the wackos in the TNGOP can knock off the old guard; no one thinks Cooper could take Lamar Alexander mano-a-mano. However, if Carr proves to be a more formidable force than anyone believed, Cooper would be ready to send him back to Rutherford County.  It would also mean that a Democrat would win a Senate race for the first time in this state since Al Gore was reelected in 1990.

All of which means that Jim Cooper needs to think about this seriously. As much as I have been at odds with him on my blog, he clearly would be our best choice in the event of a GOP Senate primary upset. I would absolutely hold my tongue and keyboard and try not to criticize him, knowing what the alternative could be.

And if we had Kyle and Cooper at the top of our ticket, it sure as hell might encourage other Democrats to run for state House and state Senate positions, and that is a consummation devoutly to be wished.

So, Jim Cooper, take this under consideration, if you have not done so already. If Carr can beat Lamar, you could move up and take another Senate seat from the GOP, which would be indeed a good thing. For you, for the party, and for the state.

Memphian Steve Steffens is the proprietor of leftwingcracker.blogspot.com, a Democratically oriented blog.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Bachelor No More

The number of Memphians attending the recent wedding of former 9th District congressman Harold Ford Jr. to the former Emily Threlkeld in South Beach, Florida, was relatively modest — though attendees included such well-known personages as Shelby County mayor A C Wharton, lawyer/lobbyist John Farris, Ford confidante Jay Lindy, the Rev. Bill Adkins, lawyer David Cocke, and entrepreneur Billy Orgel — most of these with their spouses, as well.

Conspicuous absentees were the groom’s brothers, Jake and Isaac Ford, both of whom had been present, along with numerous other Memphians, at a pre-nuptial reception at the Brooks Museum in early April. Intervening between that event and the wedding itself, which took place on Saturday, April 26th, was a public disagreement between Harold Ford Jr.’s siblings, on one hand, and their brother and father, former congressman Harold Ford Sr., on the other.

That disagreement concerned remarks made by the two younger Fords on the occasion of Jake Ford’s filing as an independent for his brother’s former congressional seat. Candidate Ford was quoted as making racial and religious references concerning the 9th District’s need for black representation that were repudiated by brother Harold and by his father. Harold Ford Jr. called the remarks “insulting,” and Harold Ford Sr. termed them “not representative of the family.”

• Where the newly married former congressman will ultimately maintain his domicile is something of a mystery. Currently, Ford is dividing his time between the three offices he maintains: in Nashville; in Washington, where the Democratic Leadership Council, which he leads, is headquartered; and in New York, where he is affiliated with the Merrill Lynch brokerage. He also maintains an apartment in Memphis. The new Mrs. Ford, a designer, has worked in both New York and Paris.

Equally uncertain are the former congressman’s political plans. A close runner-up in his 2006 U.S. Senate race against current Republican incumbent Bob Corker, Ford is widely considered a potential candidate for governor in 2010 — though a few close friends doubt that Ford, who remains preoccupied with national and international concerns, will make that race.

A new book, Clinton in Exile: A President Out of the White House, by Carol Felsenthal, contains a passage that the former congressman may regard as bittersweet. Felsenthal quotes former president Bill Clinton as saying in 2006 that Illinois senator Barack Obama and then Senate candidate Ford “are the two guys with the juice to go all the way” — presumably, to gain the presidency.

Ford’s defeat by Corker temporarily dropped him out of the running for national laurels, though his celebrity and multiple associations, including his new affiliation with the cable channel MSNBC as a commentator, provide him with a platform for a political revival at some point.

Felsenthal’s book quotes the former president as having said, at the same time he was touting Obama and Ford, that he doubted his wife, New York senator Hillary Clinton, would be a presidential candidate in 2008. “No, because I don’t think she can win,” he is reported to have said.

• The question of who would address the Shelby County Democrats’ annual Kennedy Day Dinner became a campaign issue of sorts for local party chairman Keith Norman, who had to fend off criticism on the matter from one or two executive committee members at the party’s reorganizational meeting several weeks back.

At the time, committee members were being asked to sell tickets to this year’s gala dinner without being able to tout a major speaker — or any speaker at all.

In the long run, however, the party and Norman seem to have landed on their feet. Keynote speaker at the dinner, to be held Friday, May 9th, at the University of Memphis-area Holiday Inn on Central, will be Tennessee’s 5th District congressman, Jim Cooper of Nashville.

Inasmuch as Cooper is the state chairman of Obama’s presidential campaign and the dinner falls right in the middle of Obama’s still-heated campaign with rival Hillary Clinton, the Nashville congressman’s appearance should make for interesting news fodder — especially in that Cooper’s name has figured in campaign coverage of Hillary Clinton’s 1994 problems as White House liaison for the then Clinton administration’s health-care plan.

Some of that coverage has focused on tension between Hillary Clinton and Cooper, who was the author of a voluntary health-care plan that rivaled her own and — perhaps not coincidentally — is similar to one advanced this year by Obama.