LEGISLATING AND LOBBYING UNDER ONE ROOF

The issue of judicial selection got more interesting in Tennessee. Last week the TRP Weekly Report provided the contrast that State Republicans were working to uphold the Tennessee Constitution to elect judges in opposition to Democrats who prefer to than select them, as is the current process. This week, Democrat House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, continuing his push for the unconstitutional selection, was joined by his wife and lobbyist, Betty Anderson, who made appearances on behalf of the TN Bar Association.

Tennessee Democrats see nothing questionable about legislating and lobbying permitted from the same household.

IT HAPPENED AGAIN

After weeks of attempting to deflect the reality of the statements made by Senator Barack Obama that reveal an elite, condescending distance from the average working man and woman of Tennessee, the primary results of Kentucky verify the facts that are replayed in primaries in several states: Barack Obama is an inexperienced junior senator mouthing shopworn liberal clichés and promising policies of massive government expansion, increased taxes and bending over backwards before our enemies - views that are out of step with mainstream, heartland America.

Obtaining only 30 percent of the vote in Kentucky - after winning just nine of 95 counties in the Tennessee Democrat Primary - Barack Obama’s own words serve to remind Tennesseans that Democrats are no longer the party of the “common man.”

At a San Francisco fundraiser speaking of folks dealing with difficult financial times, Senator Obama remarked that “it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

THE ARCHIVE

Be sure to visit www.tngop.org for the back issues of the TRP Report to see issue comparisons that have been ongoing for months with Republican legislators in the State Legislature and Congress. The information serves as a resource to provide bright distinctions on issues like energy solutions, health care access and affordability, the Global War on Terror, etc…

Remember, the first tactic of Democrats is to change the subject and then to manufacture an indignant posture that they are being challenged on issues…Be prepared!

MCCAIN’S MARCH TO THE WHITE HOUSE

No Comparison on the issue of Life!

This past week, Senator Barack Obama was endorsed by a group devoted to keeping abortion legal, NARAL - founded as the National Association of Repeal of Abortion Laws and now the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.

First, let’s view John McCain’s stance on the unborn from his website, www.johnmccain.com:

John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench. Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states. The difficult issue of abortion should not be decided by judicial fiat.

However, the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents only one step in the long path toward ending abortion. Once the question is returned to the states, the fight for life will be one of courage and compassion - the courage of a pregnant mother to bring her child into the world and the compassion of civil society to meet her needs and those of her newborn baby. The pro-life movement has done tremendous work in building and reinforcing the infrastructure of civil society by strengthening faith-based, community, and neighborhood organizations that provide critical services to pregnant mothers in need. This work must continue and government must find new ways to empower and strengthen these armies of compassion. These important groups can help build the consensus necessary to end abortion at the state level. As John McCain has publicly noted, “At its core, abortion is a human tragedy. To effect meaningful change, we must engage the debate at a human level.”

Senator Barack Obama was praised for his 100% voting record on “choice” during his brief tenure in the Senate by earning the endorsement during the primary against Senator Hillary Clinton.

Senator Obama proclaims, “Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, it’s never been more important to protect a woman’s right to choose… Throughout my career, I’ve been a consistent and strong supporter of reproductive justice, and have consistently had a 100% pro-choice rating with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America.”

In a statement from Sen. Obama on Supreme Court Decision upholding Federal Abortion Ban, April 18, 2007, he made clear his commitment to abortion on demand: “I am extremely concerned that this ruling will embolden state legislatures to enact further measures to restrict a woman’s right to choose, and that the conservative Supreme Court justices will look for other opportunities to erode Roe v. Wade, which is established federal law and a matter of equal rights for women.”

What does NARAL say about Senator John McCain’s voting record in the U.S. Senate on Life?

“The REAL John McCain is not the ‘moderate maverick’ the pundits like to swoon over. The REAL McCain has spent the last 25 years amassing one of the worst anti-choice voting records in Congress.

NARAL continues “If elected president, he has pledged to be the (Pro-Life) movement’s most faithful ally, carrying their water and enacting their dangerous agenda: ‘If I am fortunate enough to be elected as the next President of the United States, I pledge to you to be a loyal and unswerving friend of the right to life movement.’ [Statement by Sen. McCain read by Sen. Sam Brownback at the March for Life in Washington, DC, January 22, 2008]“

IMPORTANT NOTE: Should the issue of abortion be returned to the states as hoped by Senator John McCain, Tennessee’s state House is dominated by pro-abortion Democrats who have refused for years to pass legislation that would allow Tennessee voters to amend the constitution to allow the legislature to pass commonsense regulations on abortion such as a ban on the horrific procedure known as “partial birth abortion.”

We need more Republicans in the State Legislature in order to provide this option.

TAKE THE HILL

Thank the Republicans in the State Legislature for preventing an additional $15 million in new taxes from being approved with the “technical corrections” bill. Democrat Gov. Phil Bredesen was pushing to remove an exemption impacting approximately 8,000 family-owned businesses. Specifically, the family-owned, non-corporate entities, known as FONCEs were being threatened by the governor who proposed removing the franchise and excise tax exemption on certain limited liability corporations and limited partnerships that derive passive income through commercial property.

While Republicans were having success defeating part of Gov. Bredesen’s tax increase request, the end of the 2008 legislative session means Democrats led by House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh have managed to continue to thwart good gun-rights legislation. While Georgia’s legislature passed and its governor signed legislation allowing Georgians with handgun carry permits to carry their firearms in restaurants, public parks and other public places, Naifeh engineered the defeat of similar legislation in Tennessee this session, and will continue to thwart such legislation as long as he remains in power.

Democrats also notched another “success” this session - they used the House Calendar and Rules Committee, whose membership is 21 Democrats and 4 Republicans - to kill House Bill 1652, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Mike Bell of Riceville, which would have reversed a decision by the Bredesen Administration’s Department of Education that invalidated the high school diplomas of thousands of home-school and church-related school graduates.

The Democrats’ defeat of HB 1652 means that, thanks to the Bredesen administration and Democrats who control the state House, anyone from a public school or a state-accredited private school who presents a diploma in order to be hired as a daycare worker, police officer, fireman or any other position which state law requires a high school diploma for will be automatically accepted, while anyone who presents a home-school diploma or a diploma from a church-related school which serves as an “umbrella” program for home-schooling parents, will be automatically rejected.

That’s just another example of why it matters who governs.

GROWING OUR PARTY…ONE PRECIOUS LIFE AT A TIME

The Tennessee Republican Party family congratulates Congressman Marsha Blackburn and her family on the birth of her grandson. Our prayers are with Ketchel family with warmest congratulations.