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Tom Humphrey: Alexander book tells of bipartisanship of inauguration coup
Published 6/2/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 4 comments
While U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander has devoted a lot of time and effort to burnishing his partisan Republican credentials in preparation for next year’s re-election run, he has also been deftly including a history lesson from his background on the ...
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Tom Humphrey: Governor, majority of citizens together in muddled middle
Published 5/26/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 18 comments
Some of the findings in this month’s Vanderbilt University poll suggest that the Republican supermajority Legislature may be a bit out of sync with the overall Tennessee electorate — at least in comparison with Gov. Bill Haslam.
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Tom Humphrey: State's business is the media's business, despite Haslam's ire
Published 5/19/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 37 comments
Things haven’t been go ing all that well for Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration lately on the media attention front, so maybe it was understandable that he expressed irritation last week when asked about ties to an East Tennessee developer who ...
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Tom Humphrey: Tensions might be because of speakers looking to future
Published 5/12/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 4 comments
House-Senate hostility is nothing new in Legislatorland, but the basis of tensions that led to the flare-up in the waning days of the first Republican supermajority session just might be more fundamental — and thus more enduring — than the ...
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Tom Humphrey: Amid tax-cutting boasts, new levies sneak out
Published 5/6/2013 at 4:00 a.m. 5 comments
Most folks didn’t notice, but the Tennessee General Assembly imposed a new tax on some Tennessee businesses during its recently-completed 2013 session and raised taxes on a few others.
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Tom Humphrey: Legislators receive more awards for political pursuits
Published 5/5/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 2 comments
More 2013 supermajority session superlatives:
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Tom Humphrey: It really wasn't an honor for politicians just to be nominated
Published 4/28/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 2 comments
Some superlative legislative performances during the first supermajority session of Tennessee’s 108th General Assembly:
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Tom Humphrey: Does voucher issue show Haslam is too clever for legislators?
Published 4/13/2013 at 2:00 p.m. 5 comments
A couple of observations scribbled in a notebook while lost in Legislatorland:
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Tom Humphrey: Casada plan gives caucuses spending, fundraising power
Published 4/6/2013 at 6:46 p.m. 0 comments
While one bold plan to enhance to the political power of the Legislature’s partisan caucuses sank into the 2013 session sunset last week amid considerable media clamor and political rhetoric, a subtle plan with the same general goal was quietly ...
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Tom Humphrey: Coordination would make visits to Capitol much more productive
Published 3/17/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 0 comments
A time-honored ritual for the lords and ladies of Legislatorland is welcoming various groups of common citizens to the state castle, um, Capitol for a Day On The Hill, wherein they are granted audiences with the elected nobility to present ...
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Tom Humphrey: Legislators make point in overruling local governments
Published 3/10/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 2 comments
Local governments shouldn’t be allowed to play with knives, according to a bill pending before the General Assembly. And there are several pieces of legislation declaring, to one degree or another, that the federal government shouldn’t be trusted to handle ...
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Tom Humphrey: Legislative speed requires care by GOP supermajority
Published 3/3/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 0 comments
By standards of legislative speed of the not-too-distant past, the so-called “guns in parking lots” bill roared through the General Assembly at a breakneck pace, crossing the finish line at just one month after starting.
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Tom Humphrey: Signs point to Haslam supporting federal Medicaid expansion
Published 2/24/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 38 comments
Politico discovered Bill Haslam last week, declaring in a flattering profile piece that he is “the most important Republican governor you’ve never heard of,” a prospective candidate for national office and “at the very least a model for national Republicans ...
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Tom Humphrey: Lawmakers happy to crow about cockfighting bill
Published 2/17/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 4 comments
Tennessee legislators have been fighting over cockfighting for decades and, as with many morality matters in our state and elsewhere, the squawking boils down to whether traditional values or emerging values prevail in the pecking order of our collective consciousness.
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Tom Humphrey: Administration could have learned from past DCS woes
Published 2/10/2013 at 3:00 a.m. 6 comments
Former Gov. Phil Bredesen fired Michael Miller as commissioner of the Department of Children's Services in 2003 and named another commissioner, Gina Lodge of the Department of Human Services, to serve as his interim successor.
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