A drama has recently unfolded in the halls of the Tennessee state legislature that carries a number of important lessons for citizens everywhere. And no, I’m not talking about the high-profile arrests of a number of state legislators as the result of a two-year FBI sting.

I’m talking about promises made only to be broken, lies and deceptions, and abuse of power with one goal in mind — the obstruction of legislation that has popular backing but is opposed by a powerful few such that the rights of citizens continue to be withheld.

First, a drama played out in the Senate:

• In November of 2004, Republicans took control of the Tennessee Senate for the first time since reconstruction, winning 17 of the 33 seats.
• Democrat John Wilder had been Lt. Governor of the state since 1971 and promised that, if reelected by his fellow senators, he would give Republicans chairmanship of five of the nine standing committees as well as a majority of members on each committee (the same deal as when Democrats controlled the senate).
• In spite of the GOP majority, Wilder was reelected because two Republicans, Tim Burchett of Knoxville and Mike Williams of Maynardville, abandoned their party and voted for a Democrat.
• Wilder reneged on his promise, keeping all five Democrat chairs. And he gave Republicans the majority in only seven of the nine committees, keeping Democrat majority in the two most powerful committees: Finance and Commerce.

  Of this, Senate Democrat Caucus Chairman Jim Kyle infamously said of Wilder, “He may be a liar, but at least he’s my liar.”

Hopefully the Senate Republicans have learned their lesson. More hopefully, House Republicans will not make the same mistake when they take a majority in the near future.

But this is only the first of two sequences of events. The Senate story is related to the second, which plays out in the House, because in spite of losing the power struggle the GOP senators were able to obtain 18 cosponsors for Senate Bill 1901 and pass it by a 29 to 3 margin. SB 1901 was designed to eliminate the ban on the carry of a firearm in restaurants provided the licensed carrier is not consuming alcohol and the restaurant is not posted. (TN legislation lookup here.)

In other words, I would be allowed to eat lunch at an Applebees or Fridays without having to trust that my gun does not get stolen out of my car in the parking lot, just as the citizens of at least 33 other states can. (BTW, any cops that you see eating lunch in any establishment that serves alcohol in Tennessee are technically breaking the law. They are off duty and there are no exceptions allowed for under current statutes.)

Now to the other half of the story which took place in the Tennessee House:

• HB 2225 (the companion bill to the Senate version) is introduced by Democrat Frank Buck, possibly the second-best friend a gun owner in Tennessee has ever had (the first being Democrat Ben West.)
• The bill is soon relegated to the misnamed “Constitutional Protections Committee”. Gun owners have another name for this group of five — “Kill Bill”, because every gun bill that comes before this subcommittee dies a horrible death.
• The Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) begins an intensive effort to get concerned citizens to contact their legislators. They are joined by the Gun Owners of America
• On May 31st, House GOP Leader Tre Hargett adds his name to the bill as a cosponsor. He is joined by seven Republicans by the end of the next day.
• The TFA continue pushing the grassroots effort hard and is joined by the Defenders of Freedom. By April 7 there are 28 cosponsors.
• The NRA and TFA distribute the message to legislators that a failure to cosponsor HB 2225 will be viewed as a recorded “no” vote on a Second Amendment bill. By April 15 there is an astounding 52, but the worrisome aspect is that there are only 9 Democrats among them.
• On April 20, the Kill Bill subcommittee lives up to its name and does not pass the legislation out of committee in spite of the fact that there are now 60 cosponsors (out of 99 representatives, 1 of whom, John Windle, is deployed to Iraq). The vote is 3 to 2, predictably, along party lines. Three Democrats give a lesson in the meaning of oligarchy.

• A miracle occurs on April 27: two of the three Democrats don’t show up for the subcommittee meeting and a similar bill, HB 887, passes out of committee 3-0 (even the lone Democrat voted for it).

  The House Speaker, Democrat Jimmy Naifeh, goes ballistic. Rumor has it that he threatens the Republican subcommittee chair, Chris Newton, telling him that if he doesn’t make a motion to move the bill back into the subcommittee, Naifeh will remove Newton from chairman of the subcommittee. Newton tells him that he will make the motion but not vote for it, probably believing it will fail.

  Newton makes the motion, dictator Naifeh calls for a voice vote and immediately bangs the gavel saying that there were no objections — even though hands were shooting up all over the floor of the House! (“Dozens” according to the Nashville Files Blog.)

  Note that the motion to move it back into subcommittee required 66 votes to approve and yet not one vote was heard. This abuse of power is well documented by blogging poltician Representative Stacey Campfield.

• May 4 and HB 887 comes before the subcommittee again. As before, there are enough sponsors and cosponsors to pass the bill if it was put to a floor vote. Naifeh shows up and personally argues against the bill. His presence makes certain that the bill fails with a 3-2 vote along party lines.
• In a last-ditch effort to overcome an obstructionist committee, on May 25 legislators tried to force a “discharge” motion on HB 2225. This would have given the bill a straight up-or-down vote on the House floor. The discharge motion requires a 2/3 majority to force the bill out of committee, even though a simple majority is needed to pass the legislation (sounds eerily familiar to certain judicial filibusters, doesn’t it?). The motion failed 54 to 36, with 5 present but not voting (including Republicans).

As Tip O’Neal famously said, “All politics are local.” Certainly, the closer that politics are to you, the more they affect your daily life.

The lessons that a concerned citizen can draw from these events are clear.

1. Politics is a dirty, dirty affair.

2. Politicians have long depended on an uninformed electorate to hide their shenanigans. Blogs like Bill Hobbs and the Nashville Files are exposing the dirty secrets that go unreported by the media.

   In addition, the internet is enabling organizations like the Tennessee Firearms Association to capture and distribute video of politicians when they pull stunts like Naifeh’s instantaneous “no objections” voice vote.

3. Courageous politicians like Representative Campfield
   are breaking new ground and informing the electorate without the filter of the press.

4. Virturally every House Republican cosponsored one or both of these bills. Even though a third of the House Democrats has an “A” or “B” NRA rating, very few signed on. They said they would vote for it if it came to a floor vote, but were too gutless to cosponsor in the face of the party machine’s opposition. In light of that, one wonders how many would actually have voted for it at all.

   Democrats can mouth the pro-gun line all they want, but when it comes right down to it darn few are willing to vote that way.

5. Lobbying organizations like the NRA get all the media attention, but the lobbies at the state level are just as important. If you are a gun owner, then join your state-level organization. If you have other interests, seek out those organizations.

   Join. Donate money. Get on the mailing lists. Call, fax and email your reps whenever you are asked to do so. It works.

6. Finally, the dramas that occur at the state (and local) political bodies are every bit as intense and entertaining as those in Washington D.C. In addition, they will steal your rights away faster, because they think that no one is watching.

   Don’t let them be right about that.