by Jackson Baker
Photo: Jackson Baker
ey, these are supposed
to be the dog days. A fellow can't even take a few days off
without all hell breaking loose. Brown vs. Colton and the world
on jurisdiction of James Earl Ray's case? Another chapter of Ford
vs. Herenton on the feds' turndown of riverfront development
money? Mayoral aide Reginald French in trouble again?
Lotta catching up to do.
Tennessee's Democrats
have some catching up to do, also -- with GOP Governor Don
Sundquist, who has a war chest approaching $5 million and
formidable numbers in such 1998 gubernatorial preference polls as
have been conducted.
Over the weekend, the state's Democratic cadres -- several thousand of them -- gathered on the grounds of the Hermitage outside Nashville to break bread and eat barbecue with Vice President Al Gore and wife Tipper Gore. And they gossiped about their so-far unchosen gubernatorial candidate.
Among those prominent Democrats who displayed fustian or oratory or sometimes both was state party chairman Houston Gordon, who afterward promised that Democrats would have a consensus gubernatorial candidate by Labor Day -- less than a month off.
"I guarantee it," said Gordon. "It will be one of three. I was hoping to get it wrapped up by August 15th."
Gordon did not divulge the names of the favored trio, but one of them is almost certainly former state House Majority Leader Bill Purcell, who pulled something of a shocker by not being on hand for Sunday's event.
Other possibilities are Nashville businessman Clayton McWhorter and Chattanooga photo magnate Olan Mills. State Sen. Steve Cohen is reportedly interested, and the hottest rumor at Sunday's picnic was that U.S. Rep. John Tanner of Union City may be asked by Gore to make the race, with a promise of a lofty federal job if he falls short against Sundquist.
n If at first you don't succeed walk across the Main Street Mall and try another building. The Flyer has learned that city councilman Joe Brown has been awarded a janitorial contract for the Shelby County Courthouse.
County purchasing director Ray Ryan said the contract, which calls for a fee of $9,800 per month, began on August 1st and was the result of Brown's low bid.
Brown, it will be recalled, was the cause of the current furor over a pending ethics code for city government after two janitorial contracts with the city were revealed in the wake of his being named to the council last spring.
Acting city attorney Ken McCown said that, unlike his now-defunct city contracts, Brown's current one with the county should clash with no city ordinances or accepted practices. Meanwhile, said McCown, his office is still wrestling with a new ethics code -- which he hopes to submit to the council next week.
n Sometimes Arnold Weiner -- like Bob Dole, the GOP presidential candidate for whom he served as a convention delegate last year -- must feel that he just can't win.
Though his politics are a little too far right for some Republicans (and a tad too eccentric or self-absorbed for some others), Weiner has amassed some more-than-respectable party credentials over the years. At this year's Lincoln Day Dinner in February, Weiner was awarded the local party's Republicanism award for his service in a variety of causes -- most notably in the sale of tickets to party fund-raising events, at which Weiner is tireless and proficient.
He is also an inveterate letter-writer on political subjects and the first cousin of David Kustoff, the Shelby County Republican chairman. Until this past June, Weiner was a state probation officer -- a fact which made him ineligible for some of the political posts he coveted, like membership of the Shelby County Election Commission.
Lately the arch-conservative Weiner has practiced what he preaches ideologically and has privatized his efforts, forming -- with partner Richard Heen -- a company called Mid-South Legal Services, which specializes in serving warrants and subpoenas and in overseeing probationers. Both activities may be performed either by public officials or by private contractors -- at the discretion of lawyers in the case of serving papers and of judges in the case of probationers.
Although warrants and subpoenas constitute "90 percent" of his company's business, Weiner says, it is his avidity in going after probation contracts -- which pay $35 per contract per week -- that has landed him in a bit of difficulty.
"I admit it. I was indiscreet. I was probably guilty of indulging in a fantasy," Weiner says about a letter he wrote to a rival company -- with whom he was hoping to join forces and to whom he bragged about his ability to "milk" his relationships with those Shelby County Criminal Court or General Sessions Criminal Division judges who have Republican affiliations.
The judges are empowered to choose their own probation agency.
Now the rival company -- which opted not to take up Weiner on his offer -- has taken umbrage because "we beat them out on a client" and has begun raising alarms in the media about the exercise of undue political influence on his part, according to Weiner.
A bit sheepishly, Weiner admits what outside observers have long known: He doesn't begin to have the kind of clout that could cause Republican-leaning judges to steer business his way. "The best I could boast is that many of them have worked with me before when I was with the state and know how well I do my job," he says.
Admittedly lacking the power to twist arms, Weiner is working on controlling his own limbs. The next time he tries to put his best foot forward, he promises that it won't go into his mouth.