Breaking: Politician Quoted By Political Reporter

The Tennessee Democratic Party is imploding to a large degree. I hope they get it over with so it can be rebuilt. And, yes, I’m feeling snarky. If you don’t care about Tennessee politics, go look at this picture of Nashville blogger Lesley getting a kiss from a dolphin.

On to politics now.

What we know is this: Gary Odom brags to reporter Jackson Baker, who has an exemplary record of covering state and national politics, for roughly 30 minutes and then cries foul because he was quoted in a story. He was boasting about what a wheeler and dealer he was. To a reporter and not just any reporter as Baker has been around the block a time or two. And now, because Naifeh and Co. aren’t speaking to him and he’s being scrutinized by his peers and the Tennessee political community, Odom is saying he was “misquoted.”

Bwhhahhhaaa. Wait, let me pick myself up off the floor from the laughing.

You spoke to a reporter, Gary. A reporter who, I don’t know, covers POLITICS and people witnessed this conversation according to Baker. My dog Mabel even knows that when you are a politician and you speak to a political journalist that you are going to be quoted.

Either Gary Odom has the brain of a chihuahua or he thought he had a full house in a game of poker. I’m going with a combination of the two. First of all, Odom didn’t mastermind anything regarding the Kent Williams coup from what I’m hearing, and if the democrats in the house were smart, they’d move on to another topic. I would be surprised if Odom knows how to spell coup from the way he’s acting. And as for talking to Baker, he knew what he was doing. The ego had landed. He wanted to be praised for being a mastermind. And basically calling Jimmy Naifeh a doddering pile of goo was the way he went about it?

Man, the dumb emanating off of Odom is blinding.

What we also know is that this isn’t Odom’s first rodeo. He’s been pulling for more power for quite awhile. It’s a game, but if you go and piss off other representatives, then you find yourself in a storm. The TNDP doesn’t need this right now.

One sane thing was said by Democratic Caucus leader Mike Turner yesterday however and it was this.

Turner: … We’ve been meaning to set this straight for a long time anyway. At the same time, there were some things said that did upset some people. We decided let’s get this thing straight. Speaker Naifeh led this caucus for a long time. He’s done some great things. He’s done a few things that’s irritated people over the years. But he’s not the cause of our downfall. … The biggest cause of our downfall is we’ve kind of ignored our infrastructure. We don’t have a Democratic Party on a county-by-county basis anymore.

And that’s what Chip Forrester needs to concentrate on right now is strengthening local parties in each county. Turner is right here.

I realize I’m picking on Odom and I own it. But members of the House aren’t too happy with him and I’m not a fan of arrogance. Gary, sweetie, you talked to a reporter who is standing by his story. John Litz of Morristown says you were just a small piece of the pie.

I have some popcorn cooking. Let’s see where this goes next.