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Grand Old Party Animals
Those wacky Republicans are at it again. The Knox County Republican Party is a strong and dominant organization that has enjoyed great success in getting its people elected and thereby controlling the courthouse and the patronage attached thereto. Nothing new there. But the party's success is not an undiluted blessing, and local Republicans are prone to be riven by cliques, factions, posses, and lynch mobs. This year is no exception.
Traditionally, the Knox County GOP reorganizes itself in February or March in a general meeting. This year, the current party chair, Sue Methvin, is stepping down, and the only publicly announced candidate to replace her is lawyer Chad Tindell, an affable young (but not too young) party activist with no physical deformities or criminal record. There is strong, mostly unspoken resistance to Tindell, who has been waiting patiently for the reorganizational meeting, which party bylaws say must be held by March 31. Some insiders say the objections are because of his ties to Lamar Alexander, others blame his past support of party bosses Richard and Lillian Bean. Official word was that the reorganization meeting was delayed because organizers were awaiting a Lincoln Day dinner commitment from Sen. Bill Frist, their desired speaker for the event (usually held around Lincoln's birthday). Frist, a busy dude, has finally penciled in March 29, which leaves two days for Knox Republicans to get legal. In the meantime, rumors and emails have been floating around insinuating wrongdoing on the part of everybody and their sister. Tindell is left wondering what the heck's going on.
High Energy, Low Profile
At the end of his first six months in office, County Exec Mike Ragsdale is getting high marks from most political observers for his ability to soothe long-festered political wounds. He's arranged truces between the likes of Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith and Sheriff Tim Hutchison; County Commission and the School Board.
He's been Rudy Giuliani-esque in times of emergency—putting in long hours last fall when west Knox neighborhoods were threatened by toxic fumes from a train derailment and working on the rescue line when a Karns doctor was trapped inside his condo after a catastrophic mudslide last weekend.
A muddy, tired Ragsdale was interviewed live after the rescue by a young, female TV reporter from WATE-Channel 6. After he gave his assessment of the situation, the reporter asked Ragsdale, to the amusement of bystanders, to give his name and connection with Knox County.
Ragsdale answered with aplomb, but his PR guy, Mike Cohen said his cell phone was ringing within minutes: "It was somebody from Channel 10, horselaughing about what she'd just said."
Equal Time?
The only point of holding a demonstration is to gain publicity for your cause. So after some 750 demonstrators (a figure we derived by averaging the widely divergent media estimates) stood out in the rain on Kingston Pike for two hours, some were more than a little miffed when WBIR-TV10's camera crew zeroed in on one lone pro-war heckler who materialized near the end of the demonstration. The party crasher, who declared his support for the president and for the war, ended up getting more airtime on East Tennessee's most-watched television station than any of the soaking-wet antiwar demonstrators.
It's clear that even at a peace rally, WBIR is bending over backwards to give equal time to air both sides of the volatile issue. We trust that at the next pro-war or pro-Bush rally, WBIR will give any antiwar heckler the same honor.
February 20, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 8
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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