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Tennessee politics can be a very interesting thing. This year we have seen the Jason Mumpower/Kent Williams hootenanny, a crowded race for governor on both sides of the spectrum (I’m not talking about that one) and this week’s hokey pokey with the announcement of John Tanner citing he wasn’t going to run for another term, thus ending two decades in Washington.

Freddy Freddie O’Connell wrote today about Roy Herron throwing his hat into the congressional race and I do think it’s because he always wanted to run for the 8th. It’s been pretty much common knowledge around “these parts” for a long time as I wrote about earlier this week. I sat at a middle school basketball game last night and even folks who could care less about politics where talking about this. (Always remember, you will meet real voters at things like this. Nine times out of 10, if you are at a community event, a coffee shop or even a bar, you are going to hear what people are really thinking and they honestly only care about the election when it gets into the meat of it.)  The overall theme was that Roy has wanted to run for that seat for a long time. No one was really surprised that he went for it within hours of John Tanner’s retirement presser.

Now onto the primary as I’ve been thinking about it and talking to other political junkies here in Hoots where we’ve discussed this. You know, this race is going to have four primary television markets and I do believe that the national GOP is watching this carefully. You are going to have Nashville, Memphis, Jackson and add into the mix a bit of WPSD in Paducah which is a huge source in the upper corner here in northwest Tennessee. Two small markets and two huge television markets which are going to add up to some big dough-re-mi. That is most likely going to be on the mind of anyone even thinking about getting into the primary race.

One thing that John Tanner did very selflessly is give a one-year’s notice because whoever runs in this primary is going to have to have some jack. Already there is talk of a Dr. Ron Kirkland seeking the GOP slot out of Jackson. Other candidates names being tossed around for the Dems are Philip Pinion, Doug Jackson, Judy Barker and Mary Kate Ridgeway (and in the spirit of disclosure, I used to work for her husband, Don, when I was a program coordinator at NWTEDC.) More names will pop up in the next few days, I’m sure. The domino effect will also be into play regarding the 24th state senate seat. Who will seek the 24th if Roy were to win? If that person is already in office, and as an example of Barker/Jackson who haven’t decided yet to run or Mark Maddox who says he won’t seek John’s seat, who will seek their office if that scenario were to come to fruition? I’m thinking long term here, of course. And I’m not really talking about Jimmy Naifeh because I just don’t know if seeking this seat at 70 years-old is going to happen. Who knows? Willie Herenton says he will run against Steve Cohen, so one never knows a definitive answer with those two guys.

No one wants to talk about money for campaign races during economic times like these. And with this one getting national attention, you can bet the  parties in Washington are observing carefully what what is being said around the state. I also believe, because of the 8th’s high visibility, that we are going to see Mainstream Media more involved in this race. Sometimes they get involved, other times they don’t. As of this morning and since Tuesday, there were more than 300 news stories on Google talking about Tanner. He is a co-creator of the Blue Dog Democrats. He has the NATO thing going on. This time, I think you are going to hear a lot of traditional press.

The bottom line in this early time in the game is that this race is going to take a great deal of funding, it’s going to get a lot of attention and those Republicrats that tended to vote for Tanner (and they did) are going to be weighing their vote more heavily because this area has suffered huge job losses in recent history which is much of what I’m hearing being discussed. Tanner is what they knew and although not everyone adored him, he was well liked creating almost a new brand of voters for those in the middle who weren’t tied to a party line all the time for the past 20 years.

With what appears might be a crowded field on both sides, it’s going to take a lot of cash to get attention to win that seat.

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.

I’m going to take another stab at writing about Tuesday’s shenanigans in the House. Now that the dust has fallen and the story is (gasp) 48 hours old, let’s talk about some things that need addressing. I sort of compare the whole Kent Williams/Gary Odom/Jimmy Naifeh drama to when my grandmother watched soap operas when I was a kid. If this isn’t your cup of tea, go look at this picture of a platypus.

After months of one of those supercouple’s fighting, bantering and then falling for  each other, eventually you’d have the show where they’d get together and do the deed which was usually filled with lust, passion and a pay off. My grandmother loved her some soaps and would wait with bated breath for those moments.

And THEN, a new set of problems would air it’s ugly head and keep the starcrossed lovers apart, confused, fighting, etc.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

While all the drama is going on, we need to keep in mind that politics is still happening behind the scenes. And we are so busy watching the “fun” stuff that we may be missing out on the important issues that impacts our day-to-day lives.

Let’s also be clear. In my opinion, both sides of the political aisle have been arrogant recently. The arrogance over having a house majority, arrogance over bumfuzzling other politicians, arrogance over pulling a fast one. And don’t forget about redistricting, which has been the behind the scenes talk since November.

I’ve received several emails from both sides of the aisle on this one and I guess the bottom line for me is this:

A.) The GOP was played on Tuesday. See soap opera reference above. The TNDP has been played in the past. It’s a chess match, folks. It swerves from side to side. And it is understood that both parties are supposed to stick together. But they don’t. It’s as easy as that. As for political drama earlier this week, it was amazing. But as they say about sports, you are only as good as your last game. Same thing goes for politics.

B.) Some secretive stuff was going on while the drama played out. Remember that. What was your Rep. or Senator doing during all of this? Hmmm.

C.) The average person I talked to yesterday had no idea what went on in the house on Tuesday. They could have cared less (which is another post for another day.) The big talk in Hoots yesterday was the TVA increase on their electricity bills and how the hell they were going to pay it. We also discussed doing a benefit for a local group of brothers who have a heart disease. The oldest, who is a senior in high school, needs a heart transplant.

You see, not everyone is a political junkie.

D.) In my neck of the woods, this is scaring the hell out of us because UT is looking at cutting 700 jobs which will completely impact my community. The only guy I see talking about these things is Sen. Andy Berke.

E.) Does anyone in the Tennessee House know Robert’s Rules of Order? Just asking.

I know. My fellow progressives are probably saying “‘Coma! Shut up.” I understand, but I also think we need to put this in perspective. The house has been a dunghole for years. Although Tuesday’s hootenanny was great fun for us on the left, we still have several months to get through and there is work to be done.

And, to quote Sharon Cobb from the comments yesterday: “Gawd, that was some brilliant politics, yesterday. Sick and twisted, but brilliant.”

It was. Now it’s time to get busy.

Well, this is interesting with a hat tip to Kleinheider:

Stoking the back-room intrigue recently was (Mark) Maddox’s announcement last month that he planned to seek (Gary) Odom’s leadership position because Odom was advertising his interest in the speakership. Odom fired back with a letter of his own saying that he had made no such comments, and that decisions would come later.

Maddox said he still believes that Odom will seek the speakership, although he admits that he has slightly less confidence in that now than he did several months ago. Amassing a war chest, he said, “would be a characteristic of somebody who’s looking at higher office.”

“The leader has given every indication that he’s running for speaker, and I want to put my hat in for that position,” he said.

Without saying what his intentions are one way or the other, Odom reiterated his comments last week that he wouldn’t consider leadership positions until after the election.

This is my opinion, and my opinion only. Odom IS looking to make a move. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. All politicians look up. It is what it is.

Battles behind closed doors in Nashville are so interesting to me and, that my friends, is what I believe is going on.

The Tennessee General Assembly seems to be writhing as change seems to be in the air. Instead of weapons, we see polite statements in media coverage that are barbed with really what’s going on in the back rooms.

It happens every election year.

So, if this is a throwdown between Odom and Jimmy Naifeh, I can’t help but wonder who is going to win.

People just don’t set up war chests for no reason. Remember that.