Tennessee Republicans set out to punish, silence and humiliate fellow lawmakers but mostly just made themselves look bad. (via MaddowBlog)
But at the same time, while the expelled Democrats have seen their visibility improve in beneficial ways, last week’s developments in Nashville have also helped shine a spotlight on Tennessee Republicans — and it’s not at all flattering.
Politico’s Natalie Allison, who used to cover the state Capitol for The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, wroteWhen I covered the Tennessee Capitol from 2018 to 2021, the family-values espousing Republican House speaker had to explain why his text message trail included discussions of pole-dancing women and his chief of staff’s sexual encounters in the bathroom of a hot chicken restaurant.
The same report went on to note a “famous peeing incident,” in which a Tennessee lawmaker’s office chair was urinated on in retaliation for some online criticism. “The actual identity of the Republican urinator is a closely-held secret among a small group of operatives who have bragged about witnessing it,” the Politico pieceWhat’s more, we’ve also learned quite a bit about the Tennessee GOP’s standards.
The resulting image is one of a Republican-led chamber that sounds like a caricature of an out-of-control fraternity house. The irony is striking: Republicans in Nashville set out to punish, silence and humiliate the Tennessee Three. But the trio have been turned into heroes, and GOP officials look vastly worse than they did before.
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