Earlier this week, University of Tennessee football coach Phil Fulmer stepped down after 16 seasons at the helm of the Volunteers. He had a winning record and a program that produced NFL-quality talent, but after awhile he had grown lazy and complacent, he hadn't recruited the necessary talent, and he was no longer focused on winning championships but rather just winning enough to be bowl-eligible. The Vols came to the realization that in order to get back into winning form, they'd need to bring in a new and innovative leader to shake up the system.
I've met Gray Sasser several times. He's a nice person and a good Democrat. But after last night's beatdown in the State House at the hands of the Republicans, it's become pretty apparent that he is now the Phil Fulmer of Tennessee Democrats. And just like the coach, I believe that the time has come for Gray Sasser to step down for the good of the team.
To be sure, Phil Bredesen bears some of the blame for what happened. He's the one with money and capital that could have made a difference for at least a few candidates. But he chose, instead, to sit on his hands and talk about Wal-Mart and Waffle House. And now we're at the mercy of his veto pen for the next two years, at which point Bill Frist will be only too happy to relieve him of that burden.
But I do believe that most of the blame falls on Sasser. It's not Bredesen's job to recruit candidates and help them win, after all. What we saw this year was a group of uninspiring candidates who had no chance against the Republican juggernaut. Yes, Bill Hobbs and Robin Smith are heinous individuals. But at least they're organized, enthusiastic, efficient heinous individuals.
Reading the Nashville Scene's interview with Sasser infuriated me even more. On Obama:
In a lot of our rural areas, we ran into a very strong headwind at the top of the ticket, and a lot of our legislative candidates who ran some really strong races lost by only hundreds of votes.
But then he goes on to say:
But let me say this, Barack Obama I think is right now at his low point in Tennessee. A lot of Tennesseans don’t know Barack Obama because of the way the campaign was focused on other states.
So which is it? Did we lose because we had this ultra-liberal at the top, or because that ultra-liberal didn't campaign here enough? Apparently, some Senate Democrats
think it's the latter. If it is the latter, then perhaps someone should have spoken up when Bredesen basically told Obama not to come here. And if it's the former, then it was your job to focus on why each specific candidate should be elected, rather than keep the focus on the top of the ticket.
On the effect of the Obama election on Tennessee politics:
One of the things we have to do is build on the foundation that Obama helped us lay here. We need to identify these new people and make sure we get them plugged into taking back the state House and taking back the state Senate.
I've heard that before, in the form of "we want to get young people involved." It's a lie. It makes for a nice talking point, but there has been no action on that front and I don't anticipate seeing any anytime soon.
On bloggers:
It’s easy so sit on the sidelines and throw stones or be an anonymous blogger out there and take potshots at people in the political game
It's also easy to throw stones when you hand the stones to us, while wearing a sign that says "Stone me." You know who else shows a similar disdain for bloggers and YouTube and all that other stuff these kids do nowadays? John McCain. Remind me how his week has gone?
On the new Republican majority:
Q: What’s going to happen with the Republicans in charge of the legislature?
Sasser: I’m worried that they will try to advance a hard-right agenda. I would think it would be a mistake for the Republicans to move far to the right very quickly. You would hope that they would try to work with this governor, who has done a great job of managing our fiscal situation.
Q: What would a hard-right agenda mean exactly?
Sasser: Are they going to model their governance after people like Rep. Stacey Campfield or more like Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker?
Uh, why would they listen to you on this, exactly? Why would they bother with Bredesen, who's a lame duck anyway? Why would they defer to Corker and Lamar!, who aren't up for re-election until 2012 and 2014 respectively?
Guess what? As Aunt B. so devastatingly illustrates it, Campfield and Mumpower and their friends are in charge now. We are going to see a far-right agenda, whether you think that imprudent or not. Everything from abortion and gay rights to fiscal policy is going to fit neatly into the far-right agenda. And Bill Hobbs probably already has press releases written explaining why all of their positions are now mainstream.
And here's my fear, Mr. Sasser. Are you and the remaining Democrats going to fight back against the far-right agenda, show why Campfield and Mumpower are outside of the mainstream, and stand up for Democratic values? Somehow, I don't think you will. I think you and so many other Tennessee Democrats are so used to trying to out-Republican the Republicans that you don't know what else to do. So you'll meekly go along with whatever they want, all in the name of "bipartisanship," you'll continue to lose because you don't stand for anything, and then you'll be scratching your head once again two years from now.
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When I was younger, my father taught me how to play blackjack. He taught me a very important lesson in the game, which I think applies to politics and life in general as well. In blackjack, you can't play not to lose; you have to play to win. If you have a 16 and the dealer has a 9 showing, you have to hit, even though the odds are you'll bust. But you'll lose against the dealer's 19 anyway, so you have to take the chance that the next card is a 5 or lower.
The central problem the TNDP had in this election cycle is that they were playing not to lose. Rather than trying to advance a Democratic majority, they were trying to simply retain the seats we had and keep the powder dry until the 2010 Governor's race. While North Carolina (and hopefully Georgia) Democrats knocked off sitting Republican U.S. Senators, and a Kentucky Democrat came close to knocking off the Senate Minority Leader, the TNDP chose instead to barely put up a fight against Lamar! Alexander. The one candidate who could have self-financed, Mike McWherter, was told not to run. Again, that was Phil Bredesen's doing, but it's the job of the TNDP to convince good candidates why they should run. Bob Tuke is a nice guy, but he never had a chance.
One other thing--Rosalind Kurita. I'm glad Tim Barnes won that race in the end, and am hopeful that now that Ron Ramsey doesn't need Kurita for a majority in the Senate anymore, he'll simply agree to seat Barnes rather than start the whole mess back up again (of course, he may do that just to rub salt in the wound, but if he does seat Barnes, then maybe Kurita will finally see of how little use she really is to her new Republican friends). But from my vantage point, the TNDP allowed itself to be completely distracted by the Kurita issue, even after the primary results had been thrown out. Every few days came a new angry anti-Kurita press release. Perhaps if Sasser had spent a little more time campaigning for people like Vaughn and Ruppe and less time going after a write-in candidate, things could have turned out differently. Oh whoops, did I just throw a stone from the sidelines?
There is one bright spot I see among state Democrats. Chattanooga wisely re-elected Andy Berke to the Senate. He's someone who proves that we can win even in East Tennessee by articulating a clear message and sticking to core progressive values. Look to people like him for an example of what we should be doing, rather than to the same good ol' boys club in Nashville.
So I guess the remaining question is, what exactly has Sasser done for us lately, and what specifically will he do in the future?
Hey, at least Phil Fulmer won a national championship.
