local politics as usual

This article gives a good summary of state politics here in TN. The 'platform', of course, is inseparable from the scandals of the moment. A few other contentious decisions of Bredesen's career include the startup of The State Lottery over vigorous Baptist opposition (which a local columnist described at the time as "a tax on people who can't do math"); and presiding over cutbacks in the state piggybank-for-painkiller-addicts: TennCare.

However, the interesting race this year will be for Bill Frist's Senate seat, pitting some Republican against Harold Ford, Jr. HFJ is the Barack Obama prodigy child of the Memphis Ford family, who are in turn a southern form of the Kennedys. And HFJ's Uncle John who looks like the pimp from a blacksploitation flick, is the chief renegade from this state's biggest contribution to political corruption in 2005: the "Tennessee Waltz" illegal kickback investigation. In all, the FBI nabbed 7 state legislators.