Just Sayin'...

Lame Duck not the only ones talking about the Democrat lobbyist problem.

Frank Cagle weighed in recently on the coming change.  New York Times also featured a recent Sunday article about Republican lobbyists being courted.  Just how arrogant (or naïve) does one have to be to think Nashville Democrat lobbyists are immune to reality?

Excerpts from the Cagle column:

http://www.metropulse.com/news/2010/sep/08/republicans-vie-governors-mansion-house-senate-wha/

Who Controls the Lobby?
Republicans after governor, House, Senate, but what about the other branch?
By Frank Cagle

During the century that the Democrats controlled the Tennessee General Assembly, there grew up a cadre of influential lobbyists. They contributed money to Democratic candidates’ election campaigns, kept them wined and dined, and served as unofficial instruments of the Democratically controlled leadership.

…This is not to say the lobbyists didn’t buy the occasional meal for Republicans or give small campaign contributions to Republican members in safe seats. After all, they needed a Republican vote now and then. But lobbyists knew where the power lay and were loath to offend the Democratic leadership.

…There was a similar situation in Washington after the Republican takeover in 1994.

…Word went out that if you wanted your bill passed, maybe you ought to be hiring Republican lobbyists and not Democrats.

…Democrats have charged that this is an effort to intimidate lobbyists and prevent money flowing to Democratic candidates. Of course it is. And if Republicans get firm control, they will control redrawing all the legislative and congressional districts, a power the Democrats have held for decades. This could ensure Republican control of the Legislature for years, if not decades, to come. It has to give a lobbyist pause.

…The Republicans may take the governor’s chair and retain control of the Senate and the House in this election. It also looks like they intend to get control of that other branch of government: the boys and girls in the hall.

Craven Crowell vs. Craven Cowards

While Democrat lobbyists are scurrying about desperately trying to buy influence, maybe they could try to buy some courage as well.  The recent and much-discussed “Democrats for Haslam” list included such Dem luminaries as Craven Crowell and Drew Kim.  At least the people on the list had the political courage to admit that (a) they were Democrats, and (b) they were openly supporting Haslam.

Compare their acts of political courage with all those Democrat lobbyists who are frantically trying to hide their years of partisan back-stabbing of Republicans, now that the Republicans are looking at a clean sweep of state government.  The Crowells and Kims put their names out in the open for all to see, while the Lame Duck Lobbyists try to hide behind their client’s PAC checks.

The chickens for the Lame Ducks are finally coming home to roost...