On the front end, let us stipulate that there is no reason to believe that the administration of Governor Don Sundquist is ÷ for all of its more than occasional mishaps ÷ anything less than scrupulously honest. On other matters, however, we are not so ready to confer absolution. For one thing, Sundquist himself has been all too eager to play hardball politics with matters of public policy. And he has progressively yielded to one of the more serious of gubernatorial sins ÷ the enshrining of an official administration Man to See, some domineering in-house personality whose influence is far and wide and whose word is, for all intent and purpose, law.
We are scarcely reassured that Sundquistās super-factotum happens to be a woman, gubernatorial deputy Peaches Simpkins. Not only has she made a habit of intimidating the media as well as her colleagues and underlings in the administration, but Simpkins, the wife of a Nashville publisher, has done much of late to invoke phrases like "the arrogance of power" and "conflict of interest."
She has, for example, thrown her weight around in the recent deposing of Bryant Millsaps, the executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), who was the toast of her husbandās Nashville Banner when Millsaps, like Simpkins a Democrat-for-Sundquist in1994, was first appointed. At Simpkinsā insistence, Sundquist prevailed on a specially reconstituted THEC Board to fire Millsaps ÷ for no better reason, it would seem, than his exercising independent judgement as director.
More ominous is Simpkinsā participation as investor in and potential officer of Womenās Health Partnerās, Inc., a medical-care provider which Tennessee hospitals must consider doing business with. Simpkins is no silent partner in the enterprise; sheās actually been soliciting business for WHP from her state office! Coupled with her simultaneous involvement as an investor with Corrections Corporation of America, which runs one prison for the state and plans to run a second, the WHP affair is more than enough reason to suggest that Simpkins has compromised herself.
If Don Sundquist wishes to avoid comparison with some of his more high-handed gubernatorial predecessors, he should compel Simpkins to disengage herself from her private-sector involvements or, even better, disengage himself from Simpkins altogether. As things now stand, sheās not exactly a peach.
There is no ultimatum this time. NFL owners wonāt care if the University of Memphis has a full house for its game Saturday with East Carolina. There are, however, good reasons for Memphis sports fans to attend this game. Reasons like Richard Hogans, Tony Williams, and Qadry Anderson ÷ all seniors and all heroes in the Tigersā historic victory two weeks ago against Tennessee.
It would be fitting for the seniors on this team to finish their careers in front of a stadium full of Memphis supporters, especially after their courageous performance against Tennessee. On Monday more than 50 business and political leaders, including Mayors Rout and Herenton, joined forces to push the cause of a Tiger sellout. It seems that the Memphis community, after years of flirting with the National Football League and the Southeastern Conference, has finally realized who the hometown team really is: the University of Memphis. It couldnāt come at a better time.