Conservative Bloggers Happy to have Blogging (R) Legislator - When Will Democrats Wake Up and Blog?

Despite difficulty with the seemingly complex task of writing complete sentences, Republican State Rep. Stacey Campfield continues to blog. As the only blogging legislator in the state, Campfield is free to call it as he sees it.

Democratic lawmakers offer no competing views to the blogosphere.

In a compelling series of posts, entitled, “Dictator,” conservative blogger Bill Hobbs tells a disturbing story in which Democratic House Speaker Naifeh breaks all the rules in order to have his own way. In Hobbs’ words, “Naifeh showed himself yesterday as a proto-dictator who merely masquerades as a servant of democracy.”

This version of the story, complete with downloadable videos, is apparently the only version in the blogosphere. If there is another side to the story, I haven’t found it, and the media attention (see Hobbs) is simply too scant and too dull to compete with the voluminous documentation by conservative bloggers.

As the story is being told, a bill (which would permit licensed gun carriers to enter liquor-serving establishments armed and ready for a shoot-out) passed in a subcommittee only because Democratic Reps. Sontany and McMillan couldn’t manage to show up on time. Sontany and McMillan are women. (If the stereotypical view of women as 'always late' occurred to me as I read the various stories, well, I know others thought of it too.)

The view from the Right insists that Naifeh managed to override the vote with tactics best described as dictatorial. Basically, conservatives say that the Democrat broke the rules and sent the Wild West Bill back to said subcommittee where he expects his wishes to prevail next time around. TN’s only blogging legislator adds some interesting twists to the story:

"Speaker Naifeh flipped out! His people did not want to have to vote on this bill. Some might risk losing their perfect NRA voting record (0 for 0)."

Campfield may not be the best storyteller, but he tells enough to get the attention of conservative bloggers:

"Tennessee's only blogging legislator, State Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, blows the whistle on House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, who found a way to cheat the legislative system. Blake Wylie also has two must-read posts on Naifeh's shenanigans. .”

and:

"Rep. Stacey Campfield has a post up regarding the flagrant abuse of House rules today by Speaker Naifeh on HB 0887. Let's just say that my “conjecturing” earlier today was right on the mark... Head over read the entire post asap! There's lots more...especially regarding what I was reporting earlier. What started out as a firearms bill being sent to its death has now become a full blown case of abuse of power exerted by Naifeh."

Blake Wylie at Nashville Files makes a very good point:

“Back in the day, this thing would have probably just slipped by and no one would have been the wiser. However, today it's a different story. Because of the power of the Internet and blogs, we are able to call out such blatant abuse of power as it happens.

Oh, and we also have good memories come election time.”

But who needs a good memory when Google will produce an abundance of conservative stories come election year? Dominating the talk radio waves is not enough, conservative bloggers now flood the Tennessee Blogosphere with stories designed to shore up their 19th century vision.

Tennessee Democrats are far (very) from perfect, but so are the state’s Republicans. Can we please have a blogging legislator from the Democratic side of the aisle who will point out some of the many Republican imperfections? I can think of a number of Democratic legislators who can actually write in complete sentences.

Perhaps she, or he, might even offer an occasional defense of the state’s Democrats. Until that day, many will simply assume there is no defense.

Every story has two sides - unless Google says otherwise.