Governor Haslam Of Tennessee Wins The Shortest Memory Award: He Just Can't Seem To Remember Who His Constituents Are

Eventually, it seems they all forget. Elected officials, that it is. If we were to chart the phenomenon, we'd see a ramp-up of attention (or at least the appearance thereof) toward the voters about 90 days pre-election, followed by a drop, more or less precipitous, toward completely oblivious tone-deafness.

OS thinks of George W Bush (or actually, both George Bushes) at times like this. In 1988 Bush Sr. declared 'Read my lips--no new taxes!', until he decided it was better to have Teddy Kennedy like him than keep his word to his constituents. He really seemed stunned that his 1988 voters thought that raising taxes destroyed his credibility, and didn't vote for him in 1992.

In 2004, GW Bush promised his voter base that he'd be even more conservative, appoint the right kinds of judges, restrain that spending, defend the border, etc. etc. By May of 2005, it was clear he didn't mean a word of it. He put up a few judge nominations, and didn't advocate for them. He nominated a crony to the Supreme Court, for a few days, until the laughter got too loud. He let Bill-The-RINO Frist cut deals to allow the Dems to retain control of the Senate, even though they were in the minority. He opened the spending floodgates, and for his real coupie-day-gracie, he cooked up one real stinker of an immigration bill with Teddy Kennedy (him again!) and the RINO's like Lindsay Graham, and tried to ram it through in the dark of night just before Memorial Day of 2007. The whole thing blew up in his face, and he seemed stunned at the reaction.

That went over well! The donations to Republican National Committee ceased almost immediately. The RNC is still 20 million in debt from those days. Then, the banking system and economy melted down, and Hank Paulson attempted his coup in Fall of 2008. George Junior wondered why no one believed him, why he had no credibility with his constituents, or why people are mad at him for making Obama's election such a walkover.

Both forgot who the constituency was, whose interests should be served first. It ain't Teddy Kennedy and clan, it ain't the banksters, and it sure as hell ain't the Mexican gubbmint, or the Chamber of Commerce (who love that cheap illegal labor, while letting the states handle the insurance costs), or the Chinese.

So, here we go again, in the State of Tennessee, to borrow a phrase from The Gipper, who never forgot who he worked for.

A bill has been introduced with a modest goal: Require that all drivers taking the drivers license test actually take the test in (GASP!!! OMG!!!) English!

And, here comes Guh'vner Haslam, freshly elected, saying 'No-No-No-No', we can't do that! We might ruffle the feathers of the Germans and the Japanese who are locating their plants here. Huh? Those automotive engineers who work in English everyday need license exams in German and Japanese?

Really?

Lesee--all those negotiations with those firms took place in English, all the tax abatements for those firms were drafted and approved in English, and we can be damn sure that each and every employee brought here from Osaka and Heidelburg is bilingual. Hells-bells, ya'll! They probably speak better English than most of the natives here!

And to quote the bill's sponsor: There's not a road sign from Mountain City to Memphis printed in any other language other than English. What are we doing, administering drivers license tests in five different languages? It's insane. It's dangerous. It's detrimental to the citizens of the state, who overwhelming operate in....English!

Da Guh'vner sez he don't wanna send TheWrongMessage to anybody who might wanna locate their plant here. Fair enough. There's ways to do that. This is a state matter, to be decided by the state legislature, elected by (remember us, Guh'vner?) the citizens of the State of Tennessee. Not the execs of Volkswagen or Nissan, or any other firm from any other part of the world.

Who you workin' for, Mr. Haslam? Who elected you, Mr. Haslam? Who elected an overwhelmingly conservative GOP majority into both houses (the first time since Reconstruction), Mr. Haslam? The voters of Kyoto? The voters of Bavaria?

At the very least, you act like somebody who has already forgotten who his constituents are, and for whom he works. This approach always ends badly...just ask George and George.