How nice. If only Democrats at the national level had such audacity...

Seriously. Just a little switcheroo - whoever came up with this plan, slipped into Harry Reid's office. Who'd complain? Other than the Tennessee residents, of course.

in this Tennessee household of Democrats, there was much chortling over this. The people they interviewed were so angry, their voices trembled.

Well played, House Democrats. Well played.

Plus, this action clearly shows that the Repubs there won't be able to count on clear majorities for votes. Nice.

I do wonder what other kinds of repercussions Williams may have from this piece of rather brilliant, diabolical maneuvering.

My first thought was to contrast this with something involving Congressional Democrats and Joe Lieberman. In which case the Congressional Democrats would have said something as bold and forthright as "Uh, Joe, would like one of these doughnuts we brought?"

My thoughts exactly - didn't even blink - just kicked his ass out.

In 2006 the Pennsylvania legislature did the same thing--a Democratic majority elected a republican, Dennis O'Brien, speaker of the house. Just so you know that Tennessee is not the first!

In a year where the majority of people realized how screwed we've been by the Republicans, Tennessee once again showed how we always bite the hand that feeds us and went red. This news made my week!

I think Representative McCormick meant "bald-faced liar". No wonder Tennessee Republicans can't get organized.

Republicans define "political victory" as lowering taxes, reducing the role of government, paring down regulations and expanding freedoms.

Democrats define "political victory" as beating Republicans. And even then, since the debut of Bill Clinton on the national scene, Democrats have derived victory almost exclusively by co-opting "moderation" as their guiding principle. Republicans win elections when they are more "Republican," and Democrats win elections when they are more "Republican."

Ever since obtaining a majority in the Tennessee House the Republicans here have been claiming a "man-date." But they pissed off Kent Williams by funding his opponent in the last election. Now they're surprised that he didn't throw them flowers and kisses? Really.

The Tennessee Democrats aren't much better as a group, but at least they can count ... votes that is.

Republicans define "political victory" as lowering taxes, reducing the role of government, paring down regulations and expanding freedoms.

Yes, E-Man, we already know that Republicans like to pretend to stand for these things. The fact that they rarely do any of them -- and on those occasions when they do, it turns out to be disastrous -- means little to a party run by people who are afraid of facing the real problems of the real world and would rather fret about gay people getting married and imaginary wars on Christmas.

so they haven't had a victory in 20-some years. at least.

This is also not a surprise, given the well-documented dominance of the mainstream media by those favorable to Republican talking points. It's difficult for any real message to get out past the corporate propagandists, and unfortunately, the generation that has learned to get its information from alternate sources is still too young to have a sufficient electoral effect, though that will change in time. Try as they might to drag us back to the dark ages, the conservatives have been unable to prevent the gradual liberalization of the United States, and I have confidence we will one day be able to enter the 21st century.

Wow, the Tennessee Democrats just gave every right wing blow hard an actual example of how Democrats are power hungry and willing to use any trick available to get their way.

Explain to me how this is a good thing.

There's a lot that's great about this move, not the least of which is Democrat Lois deBerry was re-elected speaker pro tem, the No. 2 House leadership position. All of the Democrats and Kent Williams voted for her.

Considering this is Tennessee Republicans' first capture of the state house since Reconstruction, I'd say they aren't off to a bang-up start.

Even sweeter has been seeing wingnut heads explode, like TN GOP chairwoman Robin Smith who called Williams a "traitor."

The Republicans like to forget they pulled this same maneuver when TN Dems in the Senate tried to get rid of octogenarian Lt. Governor John Wilder. But the Republicans supported him and gave them some key committee chairmanships as a thank you. So, payback's a bitch.

There's some great blogging on this story, BTW .... A good place to start is http://politics.nashvillepost.com/

but maybe it's "bowled-face" liar?

this has been done. The Republicans pulled the same stunt in the Montana legislature in 2006.

"Republicans define "political victory" as lowering taxes, reducing the role of government, paring down regulations and expanding freedoms."

Just to follow up on Tukla's excellent comments, this statement reminds me of Cobert's classic line about Bush, how he has (paraphrasing) the same steadfastness on Wednesday as he had on Monday, regardless of what happened on Tuesday.

It's all about ideology, as the obstruction-minded republican senators demonstrated recently in blocking a bailout for the car industry. I don't know if that was a good thing or not but I do know that the only perspective republicans had on the issue was that it was a chance to crush organized labor.

I guess this approach should be admired for its simplicity -- if not its heartlessness. It's nice and neat to pursue the principals of ideology regardless of the potential outcome of that pursuit. Whether its economic catastrophe (paring down regulations), the inability to provide relief to a drowning city (reducing the role of government), needless wars (expanding freedoms), etc., makes no matter. All that crap is just "nuance." Victory is all about ideology and all that matters.

in Texas, where Democrats in the minority ousted House Speaker Tom Craddick by backing a more moderate Republican Joe Strauss, who got a few Republican votes from the ABCs (anybody but Craddick) and all the Democratic votes.

WDEF is located in Chattanooga, about 130 miles SE from the state capital in Nashville.