The Republicans—who had just finally won control of the State House for the first time in 40+ years – were suppose to elect their Speaker of the House today. And failed!
The Tennessee State House has 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats. Well, Rep. Kent Williams (R-TN) got the support of all 49 Democrats plus his own vote to put himself in the Speaker's chair.
In the last election, a bunch of belligerent right-wing radicals tried to bully Rep. Williams (a moderate) into taking far-right stands—going so far as to threaten boycotts on his family business, etc.
Well, Rep. Williams had had enough of bullies and blowhards destroying the Republican Party from within. And the Democrats knew it. So the Democrats approached Rep. Williams about being the new House Speaker.
Rep. Williams said, "yes," and history was made, just minutes ago.
The GOP was promising all sorts of abortion votes, 2nd amendment votes, anti-immigrant votes, anti-gay votes, etc. – your basic nightmare right-wing nutjobs run amuck scenario. Not so fast!!
As the vote took place, the House chamber at moments erupted into near bedlam, with spectators raining down boos, hisses and angry shouts, all of which was quickly quieted when Naifeh threatened to have unruly audience members removed from the chamber.
Williams has been administered the oath of office, and speaking from the well, says "it's time to end the infighting and the bickering." Boos came from the gallery.
Republicans appeared shaken in the aftermath of the vote, and sat in stunned, stony-faced silence.
And to top it off:
The official Republican nominee, Jason Mumpower (a wingnut from Bristol in Sullivan County) was left speechless, clutching the family bible that he had brought in preparation for taking the Speaker's oath of office.
More of this, please. Seriously, good for them. I'm still amazed that the wingnuts don't seem to realize just how out of touch they are these days with moderate America. They just keep screaming about the "us vs them" culture war while the economy tanks and pissing everyone off with their entitlement issues. And as expected, the country is tired of them. I actually feel kind of bad for conservatives like Williams sometimes, who have to be very pissed off at how embarrassing the current GOP is on a daily basis. If this keeps up, I think we are going to see a long stretch of Democratic majorities in state and federal office (probably until the Democrats inevitably become corrupt after getting drunk off their own power, which will happen).
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