“We may just as well let Mumpower start presiding”
NASHVILLE, TN - House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, the West Tennessee Democrat who has ruled the state House with an iron fist for more than a decade, has finally said something we agree with.
After a few of his bare-majority Democrats broke ranks with the Speaker on a procedural vote - for the first time in anyone’s memory - Naifeh reportedly told his troops, “If we can’t stick together on that, we may just as well let Mumpower start presiding,” referring of course to Minority Leader Jason Mumpower, R-Bristol.
The procedural vote was part of an effort to bring Senate Joint Resolution 127 to the House floor for consideration even though Naifeh had already engineered its apparent demise in a House subcommittee. SJR 127 is a proposed constitutional amendment which, if passed by the legislature twice and then approved by voters in 2010, would amend Tennessee’s constitution to say that the right to an abortion is only protected under the United States Constitution as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court and that the people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal state statutes regarding abortion.
Republicans have fought to give the people of Tennessee the right to choose on the amendment, and a voice, via their elected legislators, on abortion policy in the state. Naifeh chose instead to let six pro-abortion Democrats kill SJR 127 in a House subcommittee, silencing the voices of 6 million. As a result, the five unelected justices of the Supreme Court are the only Tennesseans whose voices currently matter on the issue.
Despite having bucked Naifeh on the aforementioned vote, those same five Democrats continuously vote for Naifeh for Speaker, therefore undermining the pro-life cause due to Naifeh’s continued opposition to serious, effective pro-life legislation.
Naifeh’s comment about letting Rep. Mumpower preside over the House underscores the difference between the House under Naifeh’s leadership and how it would operate under Republican leadership.
With Naifeh in charge:
- A new anti-gun rights member is installed on a key subcommittee just in time to vote to kill common sense gun rights legislation that would likely pass under a Republican leader.
- Voters are denied a chance to vote on a constitutional amendment to give the people’s legislature, rather than unelected judges, the power to make laws about abortion.
- Ex-lawmakers convicted of serious crimes will continue to get state-funded healthcare coverage.
- Good legislation to curb illegal immigration is killed.
- Legislation to require a photo ID to vote is killed.
- A ban on gay adoption is killed.
- Legislation to expand school choice is blocked.
- Ethics legislation is watered down.
- Open government legislation is watered down.
Yesterday’s House floor action put Naifeh’s dictatorial style in public view, but less often seen by the public is how Naifeh uses the committees, which he appoints, to kill legislation, and how he controls which committees bills are assigned to, in order to ensure legislation is killed which he personally opposes or which is opposed by some powerful liberal special interest group.
“In the decades of Democrat dominance of the state House, state spending and taxes have skyrocketed, Tennessee has become increasingly a magnet for illegal immigrants, and the state Supreme Court has given Tennessee the most liberal abortion policy in the country,” said Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Robin Smith. “Speaker Naifeh is right – it is time for a change.”
Voters can create that change on Nov. 5 by electing at least four additional Republicans to the state House, where Naifeh’s Democrats currently hold a 53-46 margin.
