Tom Humphrey

Earlier this year, state Human Resources Commissioner Rebecca Hunter told state legislators that Gov. Bill Haslam believes so strongly in evaluation of employees that he has personally evaluated the performance of everyone in his cabinet.

The ceremonial signing season, which is currently under way, may in some ways be the antithesis of efficiency in government that our governor and all legislators proclaim as a goal. But it enjoys great bipartisan popularity.

A recent Vanderbilt University poll found that, if you count people who don't bother to register for voting, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are locked in a dead heat for carrying Tennessee in this year's presidential election.

In an interview last week, House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick remarked that the Legislature doesn't have enough lawyers these days.

More superlative performances from the 2012 session of the 107th General Assembly:

Some legislative superlatives from the 2012 session of the 107th Tennessee General Assembly:

Gov. Bill Haslam wisely waited until the day after 107th General Assembly had permanently adjourned to announce he was for the first time exercising a right granted by the state constitution to act as judge, jury and executioner of legislative ...

Recent events illustrate that the art of compromise, historically valued in the world of politics, remains a constant in the new normal of Republican rule in Tennessee government. So does the belief that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Displaying an evolving new normal in his gubernatorial reign, a believing-in-better Bill Haslam last week officially and formally, albeit cautiously, expressed mild disagreement for the first time with a piece of legislation that reached his desk.

One curiosity in the new normal of Republican rule in the General Assembly seems to be a role reversal of the House and Senate in institutional attitude.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner, naturally, got a fair amount of media attention when he declared recently that Republican legislators are "preoccupied with sex" and in a restrictive mode on the subject.

Tennessee got a grade of "C" last week in a "state integrity" national rating of state governments, an averaging of some areas wherein our fair state warrants an "A" and others wherein it warrants an "F."

Tennessee's nickname has escaped the attention of the Tennessee General Assembly since thousands of citizens responded to Gov. William Blount's call for volunteers to serve in the War of 1812.

Going into Super Tuesday, it seemed possible that the Tennessee Republican primary tradition of conservatives splitting their votes to assure plurality victory for a moderate would hold true.

It took about three minutes to deftly destroy the latest effort to impose term limits on state legislators. The maneuver, accomplished with bipartisan collaboration, assures that no term limits can be put in place for another decade or so and ...