Correct me if I'm wrong, but Williams effectively switched sides in return for the Speaker position, did he not?

Oh lookit! Democrats with balls! Now if ONLY the Democrats in the U.S. Congress had grown some earlier. Imagine the scary excesses of the Bushies that likely wouldn't have happened as a result. Well, better late than never, I guess.

Cyan, I don't think you are right. I believe he is still registered as a Republican. Also, he is saying he will appoint both Republicans and Democrats to head committees.

Willie Brown managed to pull off a similar trick in 1994/1995. Even though the Republicans had a majority in the state Assembly, Willie managed to get several to support him as Speaker.

If anything, I think it's even more remarkable that Brown managed to pull off his own re-election as Assembly Speaker. The other amazing part of this is the sudden recollection that at one point during my lifetime, the GOP controlled the California state legislature. Wow!

Lieberman, the Sequel?

A very similiar switcherooni happened in Pennsylvania during the last session. Dems had a one seat majority, and a corrupt bastard as the favored candidate for House Speaker. That corrupt bastard had some serious internal caucus support issues, so a Republican was elected House Speaker to get around that minefield.

*All* the Dems voted *as one*? Anywhere? Blow me down with a feather... Whatever happened to cat-herding? And who was their "catherd"?

Willie Brown engineered the same sort of trick in the California Legislature back in the 1990s. Drove the Republicans out here crazy too.

I gather that the Tennessee Republicans complained that Williams broke a promise-- but in fact, all he pledged to do was for a Republican-- and he did!

He didn't switch parties but it screws Mumpower who was looking to ram a far right ideology through a razor thin majority. Williams, obviously in accepting the speaker position, will pursue a less reactionary agenda than Mumpower.

I'd love to hear more about this story and Williams' motivation. Did he dislike Mumpower's agenda? Was it personal? This is a great story the original reporting is terrible and kind of confusing, though.

This is possibly the only clever thing Tennessee democrats have done in years.

This same thing has been going on for a couple of sessions in the Montana State House, which has been split 50-50 or 49-49-1 for several sessions now. The repubs did this exact same stunt four years ago where they screwed the dems by voting for a conservative democrat for Speaker and disenfranchising the liberal front runner for the postion.

disenfranchising the liberal front runner for the postion.

They took about the liberal front runner's access to the ballot?

Good old-fashioned horsetrading. Now that's politics we can believe in. ;)

It was personal. The Tennessee Republicans did not like his moderation and were targeting him personally: urging a boycott of his business among other things.

Sounds like TN is turning purple - maybe some common sense legislation focused on sustaining the middle class can now be proposed, passed and put into effect instead of far-right cultural wars legislation that merely wastes our time, energy and future! -Kevo

Willie Brown pulled a similar fast one in a divided California House after the 1994 election left the body evenly split.

Oh lookit! Democrats with balls! Now if ONLY the Democrats in the U.S. Congress had grown some earlier. Imagine the scary excesses of the Bushies that likely wouldn't have happened as a result. Well, better late than never, I guess.

TN is not purple. It's conservative and one of the few states that's getting more so. This is just a reprieve.

That said, it was a smart move. The Democrats also manuevered in Texas to get rid of the reprehensible incumbent Speaker, Tom Craddick. THAT was amazing. This seems like a simple case of vote counting.

i'm impressed. maybe we should get these state dems into congress.

Wait, this is no good. If Republicans like Williams continue to rise in power, the party might have a chance of surviving.

We need more Republicans like Mumpower to make sure they are relegated to a minority party forever.

Here's more on the 2007 Pennslyvania story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Twenty-seven new Democrats and 25 new Republicans, all of whom won with promises of reform, are in place. But like so many audacious freshmen, they quickly were put in their place. Early on, the savvy old guard was able to return the same leaders who got so many of their brethren dumped.

At party caucuses in November, Republicans stuck with Philadelphia's John "The Maitre D'' Perzel. Democrats hung with Waynesburg's Bill "The Thesaurus'' DeWeese. The twist wouldn't come until it was time to choose House speaker.

Deciding between Messrs. Perzel and DeWeese was a bit like naming your favorite Menendez brother. Each was instrumental in the pay grab. Each is about as eager to reform secretive and self-enriching rules as a mafia don.

But when a Democratic turncoat declared he'd back Mr. Perzel for speaker rather than Mr. DeWeese, he reversed the 102-101 Democratic advantage and the backroom intrigue began. On the DeWeese-or-Perzel question, the final answer was "neither.'' Democrats and a handful of Republicans selected Republican Dennis O'Brien of Philadelphia as speaker.

I'm a bit surprised that the Tennessee Republicans kicked Williams out of their caucus. It seems to me that the appropriate course of action would have been to let him keep his position as chair of the Homeland Security committee, and made him promise to support the Republican agenda going forward.

I'm sure Williams was simply voting his conscience, after all. Haven't these people heard of a little thing called freedom of speech?
[/sarcasm]

It's about time, Democrats try this stuff like Repubs do or want to much more often.

Williams did not become a Democrat, and the Republicans' decision to boot him out of their caucus could really come back to bite them in their collective ass. If he winds up being an effective and popular speaker, it'll only serve to push the state back to purple. I look forward to the next election, see if Williams gets competition for the seat from within his own party, ala Lamont & Lieberman, and what he's prepared to do if that happens. Not often I'm proud of Democrats, but they did something right today.

Them Dems sho' nuff hghly intelljent critters, ain't they??

I love stories like this. And yes, the story of Tennessee Dems standing together should be required reading in the U.S. House and Senate.

And Another ... New Mexico
Richard Romero (D) did this in the New Mexico Senate in 2002, I think. He defeated the incumbent president pro tem by getting Republican support.

It effectively ended his political career. In 2004 (I may be off by a cycle), he decided to run for the US Congress against the incumbent Repub. Heather Wilson. He had good public support, but the Democratic Party could have done more, and there was one of the standard "voting machine malfunctions" in Bernalillo County. Overnight, his win was transformed into a narrow loss when 24,000 "votes" emerged from the bit bucket.

He hasn't been heard from since, until last week he up and declared he was running for Mayor of Albuquerque. (Him and everyone else...)

I sent this story to my delegate in the VA Gen. Assembly, encouraging Dems in the House of Delegates to do the same.

Willie Brown pulled a similar fast one in a divided California House after the 1994 election left the body evenly split.

Posted by: sjc

Willie was pretty slick and did outmaneuver the Republicans. That's why the state is now bankrupt. If I were a Tennessee voter, I'd want the rest of the story.

"And who was their "catherd"? Sounds like they imported a Republican to do that dirty work!

So the Republican Speaker will not caucus with the Republicans? THAT will really help their agenda.

LOL

The big target in all this the previous speaker, James Neifeh, who was the big boss of the TN House of Representatives. He was the one who regulated which bills hit the the floor for a vote and which ones died in comittee or wherever. He has been the boogyman of the Tennessee GOP'ers for a long time. Now it seemed that his time had come and they (the GOP'ers) were finally going to get their man, Jason Mumpower, in to the Speaker's chair and finally be able to get their Right wing-nut craziness in to law.
And now, by PO'ing Mr. Williams they have shot themselves in the foot and won't be able to get their way. To say they are dissapointed is an understatement. Look for Speaker Williams to be villified, slandered, run out of the GOP Party and so on. Check the local Tennessee Right-Wing blogs to see and hear all the heads exploding.
For me, it's pure schadenfreude!

Lulz! If only the Senate Majority Leader Harry "Whatever You Say, Mitch!" Reid could be half as clever.

The caucus promptly kicked Williams out of their next caucus meeting and are currently plotting their next move.

Oh, that's easy: Whine, whine, whine.

Wait, all this guy had to do to get kicked out of a caucus was vote for himself? He didn't have to campaign against McCain or make frequent appearances on liberal news programs?

Quick, somebody find out if Lieberman has ever voted for himself!

lol

After the resounding defeat of President Elect Obama in Tennessee, and the tepid (okay non-existent) support of the Obama candidacy by Gov. Phil "Democrat in name only" Bredesen (I got robo-calls from the Governor for some state representative, but I never heard a PEEP about voting for Obama), this sure feels GOOD!

Nice to know that there are a more people in the state who didn't vote for John "Czechoslovakia" McCain and Sarah "I Read EVERYTHING!" Palin.

There may be hope for Tennessee yet! :)

A classic case of Mumpower counting his chickens before they hatch! He was probably one of those GOPers who believed Bush had a mandate after the 2000 election.

Moral of the story is that whenever you have a slim majority, do not overplay your hand.

Don't get too celebratory. I'm happy this happened, but it ain't new here. In the last GA the Republicans were the beneficiary of a similar maneuver, when one Democrat crossed over to vote for the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor [Lt. Gov. here is the President of the Senate, elected by the members]. The previous Lt. Gov., furthermore, had been in office courtesy of a bipartisan coalition. In other words, crossing party lines in organizational votes isn't uncommon here [and, I gather from the comments, the same is true elsewhere] The General Assembly Democrats in TN have generally been dominated by rural West Tennesseans like Naifeh and his predecessor, Ned Ray McWherter--crafty pols, and not crazies, but definitely not "progressive." It's great to see signs that the hard-right agenda will get blocked, but it's no sign that TN is becoming liberal.

The Tennessee Democratic Party remains one of the most conservative D organizations in the country. But the Republican Party here is increasingly a captive of the Christian Right. This has not sat well with Republican pro-business social moderates, of which there are a number of in East Tennessee, including Williams. The main result of this move is that it keeps the Christianists from getting too much power. But Tennessee in general is as conservative as ever.

dr. sardonicus, I didn't know you were a Tennessean. I had it in my head that you were an Easterner. Good to get analysis from you guys on the ground there.

As a word-lover, I just can't stop chortling at the joke/pun possibilities contained in the name of the guy who got rolled. Mr Mumpower was all set to be a Speaker but, with his power to speak having been yanked, "mum's the word" for him now...

Only for the past fifteen years, shortstop. I'm an ex-pat of Blagojevich country. This place is sometimes too bizarre, but I have a good secure job, a nice house, and land, so I'm pretty much stuck here.

Well, we don't see enough of you around here, dr. sar. Don't be strange, as my grandma used to say.

Willie Brown didn't just get Republicans to support him -- he got Democrats to support Republican Doris Allen, adn after the GOP impeached her, a young Republican named Brian Setencich (who might also have been impeached). Doris Allen died of cancer a few years later, adn the pre-Red State conservative blogs were NOT nice about it.