• Mayor A C Wharton got a basket of goodies Monday from Green Bay, Wisconsin, while that city's mayor, Jim Schmitt (center), got dibs on the Zippin' Pippin from the famous ride's custodian, Steve Mulroy of Save, Libertyland!, Inc.

Only the famous roller-coaster ride that tested the mettle of innumerable Memphians since 1923, when it first showed up at the Fairgrounds, won’t be preserved on its home grounds. Rather, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a town heretofore more famous for football than for free fall.

As head of the ad hoc group Save Libertyland! Inc., Mulroy has been trying since 2006, the year he ran for — and won — his District 5 commission seat, to prevent the legendary attraction from going extinct along with the rest of the vintage Fairgrounds properties as the site’s amusement park core headed for shutdown.

After Mulroy, a University of Memphis law professor, and his fellow Pippin enthusiasts had done a good deal of shopping the Pippin out to various amusement parks in their spare time, the mayor of Green Bay, Jim Schmitt, got wind of what was going on and asked for a look-see. On Monday, Schmitt (who is surely used to inclement weather) braved the snow, ice, and slush of Memphis to examine the property, arriving in town along with other Green Bay officials.

He and they liked what they saw, and Schmitt announced at the end of the day that, upon returning to Green Bay, he would recommend to his city council that they buy the Pippin. In practice, that means the name, the ride’s basic architecture and physical plan, and its historical association will be sold — with new boards and other materials to be supplied by the Wisconsin city.

Tentatively, the transplanted Pippin would reopen in 2011 at the Bay Beach site in the Green Bay area, and Schmitt estimated the deal could be wrapped up within 60 days.

Helping to midwife the deal was Memphis mayor A C Wharton, who met with Mulroy and Schmitt on Monday — though the city itself had no claim to ownership over Pippin, which had become the sole property of Save Liberftyland!, Inc.

Though Mulroy estimates that millions will be lavished on the Pippin during its restoration at Bay Beach, he acknowledges that the purchase price was quite a bit smaller — maybe even a token sum, especially in comparison to Mulroy’s own fundraising efforts for his reelection bid, which, he wanted it known, are subject to no Pippin-like rise-and-fall but are going straight up, along with several key endorsements, and…..

But that’s another story, which — if the oh-so-bashful commissioner assents — may get told at some later point.

The incumbent sheriff, Jack Owens, had just created a vacancy by the most dramatic means imaginable: He had committed suicide, blowing out his brains with a handgun in a parked car.

Owens, who had been a dramatic innovator — most notably by personally leading “jump-and-grab” drug raids within the city limits of Memphis — had been considered a shoo-in for reelection that year (“One Good Term Deserves Another,” would have been his slogan) and a contender for the office of Memphis mayor in 1991.

Though various irregularities in the Sheriff’s department were subsequently pinpointed as possible causes of Owen’s mental discontent, the full and complete reasons for his suicide remain unknown. But the manner of his leaving office focused everybody’s attention on the question of a successor.

A large field of well-known public figures — including former sheriffs and politicians like then city councilman and current Circuit Court clerk Jimmy Moore — competed for the job, which was ultimately won by A.C. Gilless, who had been Owens’ deputy. Gilless would encounter scandal during his three terms and would retire under a cloud, embodying in his own way a position that is part law-enforcement and part old-style politics.

When Gilless’ successor, Mark Luttrell, announced last week that he would be seeking the office of Shelby County mayor this year, he professed confidently, “Eight years ago, Sheriff’s Department was a mess. The Sheriff’s Department is no longer a mess.” Now, opined Lutrell, the department required only “maintenance” to stay on the high side.

Be that the case or not (especially at a time when “functional consolidation” is the watchword), contenders for the job will shortly be lining up for the nearest thing to a full-scale donnybrook since that hotly contested, multi-candidate race in 1990.

Candidates for sheriff, a constitutional position, were expected to meet state certification requirements relating to law enforcement background as of last week. Among those who did so and are expected to file by the February 18 deadline are a sizeable number of former contenders,

One is Randy Wade, a former deputy who ran for sheriff as a Democrat in 2002 and who in recent years has been right-hand man locally for 9th District congressman Steve Cohen. Word is that Wade will announce by the end of next week.

Another Democrat running (and already announced) is Reginald French, well known as a longtime aide to former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton and the Democratic nominee in 2006, when he gave Luttrell something of a run for his money.

Yet another likely candidate is Bartlett alderman Bobby Simmons, who as a sheriff’s deputy had been one of Luttrell’s opponents in the 2002 GOP primary.

And current chief deputy Bill Oldham, a former interim police director, has also pulled a petition to run for sheriff as a Republican.

Others who have pulled a petition include: Floyd Bonner, Bennie Cobb, James Coleman, Larry Hill, and Elton Richard Hymon (Democrats); William S. Cash, Dale Lane, and Ernest Lunati (Republicans); and Erick Snyder (independent).

• JB

Such uncertainty as still existed concerning the reality of a congressional race by Willie Herenton seemed to go out the window for good Saturday, The former Memphis mayor kicked off his candidacy for the 9th district Democratic nomination before a sizeable — and almost entirely African-American — crowd at the University of Memphis-area Holiday Inn on Central Avenue.

In keeping with the composition of his audience — and with the reality of a contest that requires him to unseat a sitting incumbent, U.S. Representative Steve Cohen, whom he once supported — Herenton pitched his remarks squarely on the theme of “proportional representation” for blacks in the 9th District.

Noting at one point that there were eleven congressional seats from Tennessee — two in the Senate and nine in the House — Herenton said, “We just want one!” — the “we” being identified as “people who look like me.”

The event was in many ways a throwback to his first race for mayor back in 1991, when Herenton was regarded as an underdog in his challenge to incumbent mayor Dick Hackett and relied out of necessity on grass-roots blacks like those who predominated in the ballroom crowd on Saturday.

The ex-mayor reminded his listeners of that come-from-behind triumph in that first of his five victorious mayoral races and ended up telling them, “We will win this election!,” and like some terminator returned to “retrieve what we lost in representation.,” assured them, “I am back!”

Along the way he spelled out some of his mayoral achievements — $89 million in the city’s financial reserve when he left office as against $3 million when he was sworn in; the conversion of a “desolate and barren” downtown into a “flourishing” one; the “dramatic transformation” of dilapidated housing projects into vibrant new developments.

But the gist of his remarks dramatized his personal situation in ways he related to the history of blacks in America. “When Herenton arrived, black folks arrived in high places,” the first elected black mayor said. But:” I’ve been the target of people who want to dismantle what we’ve built...all because I’m a man, all because I served the people and broke barriers and have been independent.”

Herenton cited the lengthy legal jeopardy he had endured because of his role in a “private investment” involving the sale of Greyhound Bus property and the local terminal’s relocation, contrasting it with his well-publicized charges that erstwhile Beale Street entrepreneur John Elkington had misappropriated funds and with weekend news about the indictment of three former Animal Shelter employees.

“The FBI spent millions of dollars trying to send me to jail…but there are $6 million unaccounted for…and they’re trying to lock three black folks up about some dogs.” Herenton also referenced what he charged had been a blackmail plot by political enemies — one, however, that had not resulted in formal indictments. “I thought ‘criminal intent’ was a crime. It is for black folks, but it ain’t for white folks,” the ex-mayor said bitterly.

(Two members of Herenton’s audience Saturday were African-American entrepreneur Elvin Moon of Los Angeles, whose involvement with Herenton in the Greyhound transaction had put him, too, under investigation, and Marty Grusin, one of Herenton’s legal advisers. Both said they said been assured that Herenton’s legal jeopardy was at an end, though no explicit announcement to that effect has been made by Department of Justice authorities.)

At one point in his speech, Herenton gestured toward a group of children who stood behind him on stage, holding red-and-white “Herenton/Congress” campaign signs, The former mayor and would-be congressman said, “They ought to have opportunities in America. Every opportunity that African Americans have got to serve as leader, we’ve got to go after….They need to see people that look like them in positions of leadership.”

Herenton did not refer directly to Cohen but indulged in several dismissive statements meant to belittle the professed achievements of the congressman, who sponsored a congressional resolution apologizing for the former institution of slavery and who has actively sought to rename various public properties for eminent local African Americans.

After mentioning slavery, segregation, and discrimination, Herenton said, “The residual of those shames is still with us. I’m not going to ‘apologize.’…I’ll try to make conditions better.” Instead of naming buildings, he would “help black folks to own some buildings.” Instead of naming highways, he would get African American firms involved in the construction of them.

Herenton included in his speech an appeal to “fair-minded” whites to “understand us and join us” and made a point of saying that his mayoral administrations had been “inclusive” without regard to race and gender.

But in most regards Saturday’s kick-off event evoked the political atmosphere of 1991 when black and white voters were starkly divided along racial lines. One difference between then and now, as both Herenton and his longtime political ally, Shelby County Commissioner Sidney Chism, somewhat scornfully acknowledged, was that considerable numbers of blacks had aligned themselves with Cohen, who won reelection handily in 2008 with overwhelming majority support in black precincts.

(One of Chism's milder passages, when he took the stage to convene the kick-off, went like this: "We’ve even got some of our preachers saying, 'Well, he could be polka-dot, he could be anything.' Look at your church and see what they look like!...…What is disheartening to me is people who look like me who tell me it don’t make no difference.")

The look and sound of things Saturday was clear indication that Herenton intends to re-gather the 9th District’s black vote into his camp, as monolithically as possible. His success or failure in doing so will largely determine the outcome of his current race.

Other than via the presence of a few candidates seeking election or reelection this year — something characteristic of any large-scale political event — there was no noticeable turnout Saturday of well-known politicians or public officials, black or white, and no public endorsement of Herenton save the obvious ones of Chism and attorney Ricky Wilkins, who shared the stage with the ex-mayor.

Willie Herenton clearly has his work cut out for him, but it has to be remembered that he is still unbeaten in political races. A defeat in 2010 would be his first.

Herenton on His Legal Predicament::

Herenton Predicts Victory

• JB
• Jim Kyle; Ward Cammack

Nashville businessman Cammack said he had been afforded ample opportunity to examine Kyle during the many occasions when he, Kyle, and other candidates for the Democratic nomination had intersected on the campaign trail. “That really gives you an opportunity to see who’s managing a campaign well,” said Cammack of the Democrats’ leader in the state Senate.

For his part, Kyle said he was “thrilled” to have Cammack’s support, and both Democrats said they expected to be doing much campaigning together in advance of the August Democratic primary.

Cammack said that Kyle’s position on the economy, health care, and the environment were some of the factors that “won me over” and said that, on numerous issues of importance to the state, “Jim stepped up” as Senate Democratic leader.

Other Democrats running in the Democratic primary are Jackson businessman Mike McWherter and former state House majority leader Kim McMillan of Clarksville. Republicans running for governor are District Attorney General Bill Gibbons of Memhis, Knoxville mayor Bill Haslam, Chattanooga congressman Zach Wamp, and Lt. Governor Romsey of Blountville.

Financial disclosures last week indicated that the Republicans as a group had raised more money than the Democrats, but Kyle said, "This is still a very close state, D and R. It still comes down to issues and ability."

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• JB
• DLC chairmanFord (right)with RNC chairman Steele after the debate.

Former Memphis congressman Harold Ford Jr., now apparently an official New Yorker, came close to home Thursday night, appearing in a debate at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele. Ford was there in his capacity as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Conference. The two agreed that more dialogue should be occurring between the two major parties in Congress.

Among other things, Ford defended TARP, called for health care legislation that included both a public option and tort reform, and pronounced himself solidly pro-choice on abortion, although, in making an assertion on this point, Ford spliced it onto the same statement of religious background that he employed in 2006 when seeming to embrace the pro-life viewpoint. (See video.) The audience seemed divided fairly equally between Republicans and Democrats, but Ford appeared to get the lion's share of the cheers. He got his biggest hand when he mentioned the fact that he was considering a run for the Senate in New York.

• Cheri DelBrocco and friend

All the usual suspects have shown up. The Beckers, the Birthers, the Dittoheads, and their like minded posses of racists, xenophobes, homophobes, and other sundry phobic gangs in Winger World. And then there are the pro-lifers—who advocate for “justifiable” murder because it “saves innocent life which begins at the moment of fertilization.” Go figure.

According to recent reporting by the New York Times, and other media, there is trouble brewing in Tea Bagger Paradise. It seems as though the organizers who are charging $550 a pop to attend right wing fantasy weekend have chapped a few butts and raised more than a few eyebrows. Tension has mounted in the last couple of weeks, and while the rest of us are deciding between the Colts and the Saints, the Tea Baggers have been feuding like the Hatfields and the McCoys.

And it’s not just over money. Splintering and splitting is occurring over political identity. Libertarian factions who want a smaller government that stays out of personal life choices are sparring with religious groups who want a big government that uses its power to discriminate against people they don’t like.

Last week, Representatives Michele Bachman of Minnesota and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee both canceled appearances. No one in their camps are really explaining their sudden and last minute decisions as no-shows, although Blackburn reportedly felt that Tea Party brass had put guest speakers in an awkward position by extending an invitation to a for-profit convention.

Last minute switcheroos have also been made by several organizations who were expected to attend. Most notably canceling was a nativist group known as FAIR (for the Federation for American Immigration Reform). FAIR withdrew suddenly this week over concerns about the for-profit status of the convention organizers and the possibility of convention money flowing into unknown campaign coffers. The nativist slot is meanwhile being filled by a group known as NumbersUSA, founded by John Tanton, a retired Michigan eye doctor who’s written that to maintain American culture “a European-American majority” is required. The current head of NumbersUSA, Roy Beck, has made speaking appearances at the national conference of the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens.

But alas, there is that certain someone who will stop the bickering, however momentarily, and turn those sour grapes into red-state communion wine. She is the real reason most showing up have made their pilgrimage. They have come to honor their Madonna —The Lady of Perpetual Paranoia—-Saint Sarah of Alaska. She will reportedly receive $100,000 for her appearance and clearly, some in TPN are annoyed and have questioned the steep price tag. However, when Sarah shows up, merrily pouring verbal gasoline and lighting her book of matches by declaring that those in attendance are just like her—- misunderstood and disrespected Put-Upons who are picked on by a country full of “socialist” elites who don’t know what it’s like to live in the “real America”, she will wink her way right into their hearts. And their wallets.

Of course, horrified as we were by our parents' stuffiness and judgementalism, we all aspired not ever to be as uptight as they were about music, and so it was with a great deal of dismay that I recall my revulsion to rap and hip-hop as being an epiphany that, at least in that way, I had become my parents. I guess it's the same feeling we have when we realize that, in spite of our best efforts, we've adopted some of the less attractive aspects of our parents' methods of child rearing.

Of course, they were wrong about Elvis and the Beatles. As I watched the Grammy Awards the other night (mostly for the visual rather than the auditory experience), I was, once again, struck by how vastly superior my generation's music was to what passes for music these days. I asked myself whether Beyonce, Kanye West or The Black Eyed Peas are likely to have their music played thirty or more years from now, the way The Rolling Stones', Bob Dylan's or Paul Simon's still is. Will we remember, fondly, U2, the way we remember the Supremes or the Temptations? Will there be rap retrospectives as fund-raising vehicles on public TV decades from now the way doo-wop is? Will there be pilgrimages to hear Green Day the way there have been for the Grateful Dead? Forgive my skepticism in asking those essentially rhetorical questions, but what passes for music today is, as I saw one commenter on the Grammy say, frozen TV dinners trying to pass as real food.

So, is it fair to judge a musical genre by its ability to stand the test of time, or should we just accept whatever the latest thing in music is as a barometer of current taste? Whatever happened to New Wave and Punk Rock, anyway? Where are the Talking Heads and Devo, now that we need them (not)? Or, for that matter, disco? Were they just a tribute to our musical fickleness? I believe longevity is an absolutely appropriate criterion for quality. If that weren't so, symphonic music audiences, regardless of their sophistication, would prefer hearing Phillip Glass or Charles Ives to Beethoven or Mozart, which they overwhelmingly don't.

I'm no musicologist, but what is it about music that gives it a lasting quality? Take a look, or better yet, listen, to the music of the 50's and 60's and what you'll find is that the common thread is tonality. Harmony and ensemble were still important in that era—-not so much, anymore. Many of the singers of my day had something called a voice. The players also had something called musicianship. The singers understood nuance and modulation. Sure, we had some screamers even back then (e.g., Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis), but fewer of them saw the need to compensate for a lack of voice talent by cranking up the volume, as seems to be so prevalent today.

So, are rap and hip-hop the new rock 'n roll? I doubt it. Music must be, above all, musical, and it takes more than decibel levels, pulsating rhythms and rhyming verse to make music. Yeah, I know; our parents thought (hoped, really) that rock 'n roll was a passing fancy, just the way some of us feel about today's music. But, they were wrong, and we're right.

The issue was that of federal funds disbursed to the State of Tennessee for uncompensated care administered at The Med to indigent patients. Traditionally, the lion’s share of these funds has been distributed at gubernatorial discretion throughout the state’s medical-care system, with only a remnant returning to The Med itself. Of $84 million generated by Med activity in the last fiscal cycle, only $34 million was routed back to the Memphis hospital.

The institution is now in financial crisis. The commission last week approved emergency add-on funding of $10 million, but additional funding is needed to keep The Med operating at full capacity — or even, as Commissioner Mike Ritz, a longtime supporter of fuller funding for The Med, has suggested, to keep it open. During discussion of Flinn’s resolution Wednesday in the commission’s Legislative Committee, Ritz warned that TennCare cuts indicated in Governor Phil Bredesen’s State-of-the-State address Monday night might force The Med’s closure.

“Tennessee makes money out of our uncompensated care, and they put it in TennCare,” Ritz said. “Interestingly enough, if The Med closes, TennCare’s in trouble.”

Despite personal pleas in Nashville last week by Ritz, interim Shelby County Mayor Joe Ford, and other county officials, the governor included no additional funds for The Med in his budget.

“We beg the governor to send us money,” Flinn said. “Right now, at this moment in history, we have a chance to say to the gubernatorial candidates how to allocate that money. After the election we don’t have a chance to influence the vote.” Although Flinn is a Republican and will be running for Congress in the GOP primary, he said that the intent of his resolution was to reward or penalize candidates for governor regardless of party label — depending on how they responded.

Commissioner Joyce Avery was of like mind, suggesting that letters go out to candidates on April 1, with answers expected back on May 1. “I want to know who I’m going to work for as governor. If they wont’ support the Med, I won’t support them.” When Ritz pointed out that April 1 was the filing deadline for state and federal elections, the resolution was amended to mandate the send-out date to April 1, with candidates’ responses expected on April 15.

Further discussion resulted in strengthening the language of the resolution to specify, at Flinn’s request, that all uncompensated-care funds generated by treatment at The Med be returned to the institution itself.

Before the final unanimous vote, two commissioners had expressed tentative reservations about the Flinn resolution. James Harvey wondered if the resolution wasn’t a “cart before the horse” matter that might injure relationships with elected officials. And Henri Brooks appeared to minimize the effect of the resolutions, calling it “a little pledge” and “a good little thing to do” but suggesting a visit to Washington to discuss the issue with U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, head of a Homeland Security subcommittee, might be more fruitful.

“I do not appreciate this being seen as a little pledge — or a little anything,” Flinn responded heatedly, prompting Brooks to say she had not meant to “diminish or marginalize the content of the pledge.”

Wednesday’s committee vote will come before the commission’s full public meeting on Monday for final derermnation.

• Mark Luttrell

Bartlett banker Harold Byrd’s withdrawal from consideration last week presented a transformed electoral landscape, and it is onto that landscape that Luttrell, a proven vote-getter across party lines, will tread.

Presented with the news on Tuesday, blogger/activist Tom Guleff, who had announced for county mayor as a Republican candidate last week, would say, “The GOP is really excited with Mark and his entrance into the mayor's race. Back to being Joe Citizen.”

Local GOP chairman Lang Wiseman heralded Luttrell's decision with this press release:

A Major Announcement: Leadership you can trust: Mark Luttrell

Friends,

Our County faces tremendous challenges -- billions of dollars in debt, an under-educated workforce, lack of trust in public officials, and a sense that our best days are behind us.

Turning all of that around requires solid, trustworthy leadership. It requires someone who can heal our divides, bring honor to our government institutions, govern with fiscally conservative principles, and bring out the best in all of us.

For months now we have been searching for such a candidate, and today he stepped forward to stand in the gap.

Sheriff Mark Luttrell.

Mark has demonstrated unfailing integrity and an ability to earn the trust of a large majority of voters across partisan, racial, and geographic divides. He has kept his promises, including taking a county jail on the cusp of federal takeover and transforming it into a model institution. He was even recognized by his peers as THE best Sheriff in America.

If such a man can accomplish all of those things from the Sheriff's office, just imagine what Mark can accomplish as Mayor in these trying times.

This task won't be easy, and it will require all hands on deck. If you want real change, you will have to stand up and fight for it. So be ready. In the coming months, we will be asking you to organize your precinct, become a dues-paying member, join or start a Republican club, and contact voters to remind them about the election.

This is our moment – our opportunity to move this community forward – and we couldn't have asked for a better standard-bearer than Mark Luttrell to get the job the done.

UPDATE: In a conversation at a Tuesday afternoon “wine-tasting” reception/fund-raiser for him at Delta Wholesale Liquors, the sheriff explained that “no one factor, but several” inclined him toward running after many months of expressing reluctance.

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• JB
• At his Tuesday reception, Luttrell greets octogenarian Bobby Lanier, an aide to every county mayor since the '70s.

The first two factors he mentioned were “my skill set” and “my poll numbers.” The latter was a reference to a fresh poll showed him this week by Republican boosters. Apparently taken in the wake of withdrawal of Democrat Harold Byrd (“for whom I have great regard”) from consideration as a mayoral candidate, the reassuring numbers and “looking at the candidates out there” convinced him that he a good chance to win.

“Eight years ago, the sheriff’s department was a mess,” he said. “The sheriff’s department is no longer a mess.” He indicated that he relished the opportunity to tackle large problems like “poverty, education, public safety, the county debt, and school funding.” Asked if he thought that being mayor offered him a chance to redefine himself after a career largely devoted to incarceration and law enforcement, he answered, “In a sense,” and went on to say, “I’m looking forward to a new test.”

• George Flinn

"We'll be making an announcement about the race shortly. But let me be clear: this country is heading in the wrong direction, and I am going to be part of the solution. I am going to be part of a campaign to stop Nancy Pelosi's war on our economy and our conservative values. I will not sit by and watch the liberals shatter the American Dream and destroy our liberties, which so many people have worn the uniform to defend."

Flinn’s pending entrance into the race leaves Tom Guleff as the only announced Republican candidate for Shelby County mayor, and it may result also in a change of race by John Farmer, a local activist and blogger (“Blue Collar Republican”) who had previously declared his intentions to run in the 8th District.

The 8th District race became open late last year when longtime Democratic incumbent John Tanner announced he would not seek reelection.

Predictably, Tennessee political response to President Obama’s State-of-the-Union address varied by political party. Here are some of the reactions:

U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN):
“I had hoped President Obama would moderate his policies and his rhetoric, and while certainly there were aspects of the speech I agreed with, it didn’t seem to me that he’d learned a great deal from the past year. While that is disappointing, I do get the sense that my colleagues in the Senate HAVE learned a great deal over the past year, and for that reason, we have a far better chance to be able to work in a bipartisan fashion to implement good policies that will stand the test of time.”

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander R-TN):
“My hope is that the president now will focus on jobs, debt, and terror. And it would suit me fine if he would stop right there until he has all three headed in the right direction. On jobs, that means lower taxes instead of higher taxes, cheap energy instead of a national energy tax, reducing health care costs instead of increasing them, and ending TARP instead of spending TARP. And it means getting the government out of the automobile business. All of that would create an environment in which Americans could create more jobs.”

7th District congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-Brentwood):
“There is a piece of Tennessee wisdom the President indicated tonight that he may have learned, ‘when you’re in a hole, stop digging.’ Unfortunately, our economic condition requires more than just a freeze on spending. In the last year, Washington tried to punish the economy into health. Punishing profit and risk has only dug the hole deeper. It is time to shift focus to incentives. By incentivizing individuals, we can expand the economy.

“We need to take immediate action to repair the damage. That means cutting federal spending, not just freezing it. Additionally, we must ease the federal burden on taxpayers to allow them to invest and save. We must ease regulations to allow small businesses and industry to grow and hire.”

9th District congressman Steve Cohen(D-Memphis):
“President Obama delivered a great speech tonight that laid out a clear path to rescue, rebuild and restore our economy while offering a new foundation for the prosperity of our nation. At a time of great challenge for our country, President Obama reminded all of us that the real strength of our union is found in our boundless optimism and unending hope that tomorrow can, and will, be better than today.

Jobs and Economic Development
“I commend the President for making jobs the very first issue he discussed in the State of the Union address. The President is right when he says this has been a difficult year for some, especially in the Ninth District. The unemployment rate in Shelby County has remained unchanged for the last two months, and I know how desperately many people want a job that pays the bills, keeps the roof over their heads, and let’s them plan for retirement or their children’s future.

“I voted for the Main Street for Jobs Act which the House passed in December that makes investments in small businesses, green jobs, clean energy, and infrastructure projects. Over the last year, the Ninth District has received millions in Recovery Act funding to jumpstart job creation and save thousands of teaching, public safety and private sector jobs that would have been lost had Congress not acted so swiftly.

“I was pleased President Obama called for an even greater investment in our transportation infrastructure — not just to create jobs, but also promote economic development. Memphis is the distribution hub of the nation. Our roads, river, runways and rails roads keep people and commerce moving. These unique assets are some of the reasons why companies are becoming more interested in doing business in the Ninth District. As a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I look forward to working with the President on his ambitious plans — including his commitment to expanding high-speed rail across America.

“I look forward to working with the President to do even more in the months ahead to address the foreclosure crisis, help people keep more of their paycheck to save for their retirement, make the dream of college a reality for even more people, and finally make health care affordable for all those who need it. This is a solid path forward to increasing the cost of living and standard of living for all Americans.

Health Care
“President Obama reminded the nation tonight that the stakes are simply too high to abandon health care reform efforts. To do nothing means that health care premiums will increase, businesses will drop coverage for employees and people with pre-existing conditions will still be at the mercy of the insurance industry.

“An overwhelming majority of constituents in the 9th District want to see a health care reform bill passed. I am working with the Speaker and Democratic Leadership to see that the needs of the 9th District, including funding for The MED and programs to reduce infant mortality, are included in the final bill sent to the President for his signature.”

Ending the Cycle of Boom and Bust
“As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Subcommittee that deals with the nation’s bankruptcy laws, I commend the President for putting forth a financial regulatory plan that will provide consumers with the information they need to make important financial decisions so they can avoid foreclosure and the bankruptcy courts.
“Wall Street can not be allowed to go back to their business as usual ways of massive bonus payments, golden parachutes for top executives or creative accounting practices that pushed us to the brink of depression. The banks and financial institutions that received TARP money must repay every dollar. The regulations that President Obama outlined tonight will hold banks accountable and provide greater oversight of the financial sector so that the cycle of boom and bust can become a thing of the past.”

Education“The foundation of our long-term economic success won’t be found in the boardrooms on Wall Street, but in the classrooms of the Memphis City and Shelby County Schools. We must invest in education, and that means ensuring there is a qualified teacher in every classroom, 21st Century computers and technology in every school, a renewed commitment to foreign languages, and an emphasis on character and diversity.
“As Congress prepares to discuss reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Law, I will work with President Obama and Education Secretary Duncan to make sure that school children in the 9th District are able to compete and become employed in the global 21st Century economy.”

Civil Rights
“The President spoke passionately tonight about the need to strengthen our nation’s commitment to civil rights. At long last we have a Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department that is focused on prosecuting civil rights violations. Whether its hate crimes, violations of equal pay laws or simply ensuring equal justice for all, I look forward to working with the President to diligently pursue these aims.”

Foreign Affairs
“As the President said tonight, ‘our destiny is connected to those beyond our shores.’ President Obama has made great progress in turning around the tarnished image of our nation. Once again, the United States is a voice for human rights and leader in the world community on climate change and economic growth. I applaud the President for his commitment to do more to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa and for his leadership in responding to the earthquake in Haiti.

National Security
“I applaud the President for his efforts to wind down the war in Iraq and bring our troops home. However, I am concerned about the path forward in Afghanistan. I believe the President deserves an opportunity to implement his plan, which includes an exit strategy for our troops. The fight in Afghanistan can not be won by sheer military force alone. We must offer humanitarian and diplomatic assistance to create the foundation for a stable and long-lasting Afghan society that will be free from the Taliban’s influence.”

3rd District Congressman Zach Wamp (R-Chattanooga):
“Since controlling the White House and Congress for the past year, the liberal Democrats in Washington, D.C., have increased the deficit by more than 300 percent to $1.4 trillion. Simply implementing a budget freeze measured against last year’s record levels of spending will do little to curb the ballooning deficit. It is time to return to fiscal sanity.

“Our country can no longer accept these spending policies. House Democrats, in one year of reckless federal government spending, passed $787 billion in stimulus funds, two government spending bills totaling more than $855 billion and increased non-defense spending by 12 percent. This doesn’t include all of their new spending priorities for 2010 or expanding entitlement programs that impose additional mandates on state and local governments.

“The Congressional Budget Office has released its projections that the United States will have a $6 trillion total budget deficit over the next decade. The Wall Street Journal described this $6 trillion aggregate debt as, ‘a level that many economists worry is unsustainable in the long run, and could lead to a currency shock, inflation, crippling interest rates or other economic maladies.’

“The public rightfully has major concerns with the rapid growth of government. We should work to implement responsible policies that decrease our national debt and properly manage the entire federal budget, including mandatory and entitlement programs, and limit our debt in future years.”

Chris Devaney, state Republican chairman:
“Tonight, we heard more of the same from a President who has failed time and again to make good on his promises. President Obama has now been in office for more than a year and in that time Tennesseans have suffered the loss of nearly 90,000 jobs resulting in a statewide unemployment rate of almost 11 percent. Instead of working on real solutions that will help put people back to work, this Democrat Congress and Administration have used the economic downturn as an excuse to blow billions of taxpayer dollars on fiscally reckless policies that are burying our kids and grandkids under mountains of debt.
"Middle-class families are looking for more than empty promises. They want to go back to work. And they want the Democrats who run Washington to stop pursuing a big government, big spending agenda that includes a government takeover of health care, 'stimulus' bills, a new national energy tax and taxpayer-funded bailouts. The recent elections in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New Jersey have shown that voters aren't buying this Administration's rhetoric, and in November I think we'll see that Tennessee voters aren't buying it either."

click to enlarge

• JB
• Wharton and Gilliom put their heads together.

Under the worst of circumstances, Mayor A C Wharton is preternaturally smooth and gets credit for trying. How else could he have won last year’s crowded special election with fully 60 percent of the vote?

On Tuesday night at Hickory Hill Community Center, Wharton displayed enough charm and sincerity — and, most importantly, know-how — to keep a packed house happy. And never mind that the questions he got at this, the mayor’s second “town hall” since taking office last October, showed that the attendees considered themselves to be in woeful circumstances indeed.

Back to that question of know-how: When Wharton held his first Town Hall at Breath of Life Christian Center in the Frayser-Raleigh area on the last day of November, he had armed himself with members of his administrative team — as he did again on the other side of town Tuesday night — and, not far removed from his former job as Shelby County mayor, more often than not deferred to them for answers.

On that first occasion, Wharton even allowed himself several “I-don’t-know’s.”

The ratio of deferrals to answers of his own had dropped considerably on Tuesday night, and it’s difficult to remember if there were any disavowals of knowledge on the mayor’s part at all.

Wharton clearly has learned the ropes of his new job, and, though he still let, say, Robert Lipscomb, the director of Housing and Community Development, answer in depth to the issue of when and whether Marina Cove, former site of the old Cablevision complex, might be rescued from its present state of dilapidation, the mayor himself spoke convincingly and at length of the need to revive Marina Cove along with Hickory Ridge Mall as the twin pillars of the area’s redevelopment.

Like the one about Marina Cove, a good many of the audience questions Tuesday night concerned various states of dishevelment or decay in the larger Hickory Hill community. Several of them concerned dumping of refuse in public areas.

Wharton established a bond with his audience when he acknowledged that dumping was a problem in his own neighborhood, too. Looking at the refuse near his home digs, he said, was instructive. “I can tell what people ate last night. I can tell what they drank.”

Then Public Works director Dwan Gilliom spoke up to promise authoritatively that a call to his office one day would result in the offending substance being picked up the next.

Hearkening back to a matter that had come up during the recent cold spell (and which had an unsettling resemblance to issues that had precipitated the fateful sanitation workers’ strike of 1968) — namely, the arbitrary decision by some sanitation work crews not to work in sub-freezing weather — Wharton promised, “I’m not going to put up with people deciding when they’re going to work.”

That remark, delivered in an unusually steely voice, generated a roomful of supportive applause.

Not every prospect discussed Tuesday night was so bleak. Lipscomb was so salvific as to pledge a “ten-year plan” to end homelessness in Memphis. A C himself talked about a massive Whitehaven redevelopment promised by the current managers of the Elvis Presley empire. And he worked in an optimistic plug for is current pro-consolidation initiative.

But, given the stated concerns of those present, there wasn’t that much to be uplifting about. The mayor was bluntly candid at one point when asked about the area’s — and the city’s — stray-dog problem. Some 70 percent of the strays were pit bulls, he told the audience, and with funds low and with dogs packed three to a kennel at the Animal Shelter, confessed, “It’s either that or we kill them….We don’t have the capacity to pick up strays.”

Issues related to garbage and sanitation kept resurfacing. One woman, a postal worker in uniform, expressed her irritation at finding empty garbage pails left in the streets by sanitation workers, blocking her access to postal boxes. “I love my customers. I don’t know about your people,” she said.

Close to the end of his remarks, Wharton gave her — and the rest of the Hickory Hill attendees — something of an answer to that. He was recasting the whole city work force, he said. It was being instilled in all city employees, in big jobs and small, to regard themselves as “customer servants.”

And though he didn’t designate himself specifically, his implication seemed clear enough: That included the mayor. And people in Hickory Hill and elsewhere will surely be looking to see how that works out.

• U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. — early on

Most of these have been generalized background queries. Some have been more targeted, and, in a coincidence that is almost starling, today brings questions from more than one New York source about a single speech delivered by Ford, then a second-term U.S. representative from the 9th District, in Apriil 1999.

The speech, before a Memphis Rotary Club luncheon, showed 29-year-old Democrat Ford — who had months before been described by the New York Times as a "black centrist" — in a very, very conservative light, tending so far right as to sound almost like a traditional Republican.

The queries we received from New York reflected interest in the then-congressman's statements advocating a lifting of the ban on corporate contributions to political campaigns — something that has just this week been accomplished by action of the U.S. Supreme Court. But, in the retrospect of more than a decade, we ourselves appreciate being reminded of just how early Ford's turn to the political right had begun.

Herewith is the column, as it appeared in our issue of April 15-21, 1999 — or those portions of it dealing with Ford.

(The column's second half concerns an equally eyebrow-raising move to the political left by then Governor Don Sundquist, a Republican, and interested readers can read the whole column here via this URL:
http://www.memphisflyer.com/backissues/issue530/poli530.htm)

Crossing the Lines
Ford Jr. poaches on the GOP’s turf, while Sundquist heads in the other direction.
by Jackson Baker

Is this a pre-millennial phenomenon or what? Increasingly, influential public figures are departing their parties’ fixed ideological positions and grazing for new ideas over on the other side of the partisan battle lines.

Two recent examples, each happening in a different direction:

Left to Right: For the few hundred mainly moderate-to-conservative Memphians on hand last week at a Downtown Rotary Club luncheon, it was almost a throwback to the heady days of the Contract With America, circa 1995.

Up there was a fresh-pressed yuppie-looking congressman talking up the flat tax, charter schools, pay-as-you-go economics, and conditional tax cuts. He advocated a lifting of the ban on campaign donations from corporations, bragged on former congressman Bob Livingston, a Louisiana Republican who “would have been one heck of a Speaker” had he not resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct, and criticized the Clinton administration for the weakness of its foreign policy.

What spawn of Newt Gingrich might this have been?

Well, truth to tell, it wasn’t like that. This was Harold Ford Jr., the second-term 9th District Democratic congressman from Memphis, successor in the House of Representatives to his father and namesake, Harold Ford Sr., who could always be found among the ranks of liberal urban Democrats.

The son and heir — perhaps looking to a statewide race earlier than almost anyone expected, or maybe just taking pains to build his name throughout Tennessee — has been in East Tennessee of late and was in Nashville on Monday, preaching much the same gospel as he brought to the Memphis Rotarians on Tuesday, a message of moderation that, a few scant months ago, caused him to be written about in The New York Times Magazine and celebrated on its cover as a “black centrist.”

“I’m a ‘New Democrat.’ I like to spend money, but we ought to be able to pay the bills at the end of the day, and we ought to hold people accountable,” said Rep. Ford at Rotary.

And: “Some of us moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans are trying to find ways to heal and to bridge that chasm and to close that gap [between the parties].”

And (quoting John Maynard Keynes): “The difficulty lies not in developing new ideas but in escaping the old ones. We have a lot of old ideas to escape from.”

Some of those “old ideas” are those very dear to most Democrats — the sacrosanctness of the public schools, for example, and the clear distinction between them — as objects of governmental largesse — and private educational institutions. But quoth Ford Jr.:

“We need to look at alternative ways to teach kids. I’ve taken some hits even from friends of mine, locally. But the only loyalty I have, the only chips I have in the game are our children. If charter schools teach them, let’s go with charter schools. If public schools teach them, let’s go with public schools. If private schools can do it, go with private schools. We’ve got to move beyond the rhetoric that envelops this discussion and deal with the facts, deal with the reality.”

What about some of those basic alterations in the nation’s tax structure which Republicans insist upon? “I’m not opposed to the flat tax. I think that would be the way to simplify things considerably. I support tax cuts. I’m a New Democrat. I don’t want to pay any more than I have to pay.” The congressman adds a proviso, it should be said, that positions him against immediate tax cuts — namely, that obligations to Social Security and Medicare, as well as payments on the national debt (currently standing at $2.5 trillion), preclude any across-the-board reductions now.

Ford does, however, join in the Republican call for elimination of the so-called marriage tax, and he agrees that businesses are entitled to a 20 percent flat-rate tax credit for research and development. He also called for a presidentially appointed national commission to study revisions in the tax code.

Ford credits President Clinton with pragmatic policies that have resulted in the nation’s current sustained economic boom. But he does not shrink from criticism of the president, whether during last year’s Monicagate affair or with his current call for Clinton to make “a stronger, more forceful, more articulate case” for the actions in Kosovo.

Much of the congressman’s political sea change (if that is what it is) would seem attributable to his interest in making a statewide race — possibly as soon as 2000, against incumbent Republican Senator Bill Frist. Certainly, his recent travels seem designed to draw the attention of party activists and donors statewide.

Why else would a Memphis-area congressman make a point of touring the new Tennessee Titans’ stadium — now nearing completion in Nashville — as Ford did on Monday and then offer a defense of the team and its host city to an audience in his home city, still peevish about being so badly upstaged on the sports front?

“Let me remind you, Nashville went out and bought them a team. We shouldn’t be angry with them,” Ford told the Rotarians, arguably attempting to elevate himself above parochial jealousies and intra-state rivalries.

It may be that Ford — whose financial cupboard is bare just now and whose safe congressional seat is a fair launching pad in itself — means only to ensure that he keeps being talked about.

His new rhetoric won’t hurt in that regard....

(The column can be read in its entirely here.)

• Prospective Senate candidate Ford

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the incumbent whose seat Ford has declared an interest in, and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, New York’s senior senator and a close Gillibrand ally, are pressing the Bank of America on what they deem a workers’ rights issue, and the public employees union SEIU 32BJ, one of the nation’s largest, has tied the issue directly to Ford.

In a letter to Ford last week, only days before he announced his leave of absence from his vice chairman’s job at BOA, union executive vice president Kevin Doyle decried the recent laying-off of 30 security officers from their jobs at the bank and the loss of health-care coverage last year for 130 other employees.

Said Doyle:

“It is incredible many of these security guards have been left out in the cold while your firm is set to pay out one of its biggest bonus pools ever. Last year Bank of America paid out $3.3 billion in bonuses for 2008 performance, and Merrill Lynch paid out $3.6 billion. Merrill Lynch executives, including you, received these bonuses even though the firm lost $3.8 billion.”

Doyle continued:

“Officers who protect your employees and who live in one of the country’s most expensive cities should not be struggling to support their families while executives make billions in bonuses.

“As you contemplate a run for the Senate, it is time to show your commitment to improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers—not just the Wall Street elite. I hope that you will help correct this problem at Bank of America and ensure that the officers at your buildings are restored to their previous positions and have their full benefits restored. I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you and/or other Bank of America representatives to discuss this further.”

No response from Ford was received in the meantime, but days later, on Tuesday of this week, he announced he would be taking a 30-day leave of absence from the bank to begin a “listening tour” of New York State in advance of a possible Senate run.

And, as the New York Times then reported: “[Ford spokesman Davidson] Pollock noted that the timing of Mr. Ford’s leave coincides with disclosures that are expected in coming days from Wall Street banks about bonuses for employees’ performance in 2009. Mr. Ford has declined to discuss his compensation. At Merrill Lynch, he advises senior management on domestic policy, among other duties.”

In an online article last February the Flyer had been first to speculate on the question of Ford’s possible receipt of a healthy bonus from the Bank of America after the Merrill Lynch company (for which Ford had previously worked as a rainmaker) was absorbed by BOA. The Bank of America continued to employ Ford.

The nation’s taxpayers in effect subsidized the takeover of a belly-up Merrill Lynch by BOA, since the deal required some $20 billion in direct federal funding, plus $188 billion in protection against further losses.

Given that scenario, hackles were raised by the Merrill Lynch division’s payout in late 2008 of some $3.6 billion in bonuses to its executives — after losses for the year of almost $30 billion in the estimation of New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo, a figure considerably more than the $3.8 billion mentioned by Doyle in last week’s letter to Ford.

Cuomo, who invoked the specter of legal action, said the bonuses — ranging from $1 million on the low end to many times more than that for ranking executives — raised “serious and disturbing questions.”

The names of bonus recipients and the amounts paid them by Merrill Lynch have thus far not been revealed, and Ford has brushed aside direct inquiries about payouts to himself, other than to say his relationship with the Merrill Lynch division is “by contract,” with annual compensation estimated by the New York Post at $3 million.

In any case, the current full-court press from SEIU against Ford’s employer and Ford himself has been augmented by similar public pressure from Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, who, in widely publicized statements this week, have called on Bank of America to compensate the dismissed employees.

Given that SEIU has close ties with the two senators and that Schumer, who has publicly called on Ford not to run for the Senate, is well known to be colleague Gillibrand’s chief backer (and Ford’s current chief critic), further publicity linking likely candidate Ford to the bank, its alleged misdeeds, and the volatile issue of bonus payments is probably inevitable — and imminent.

Ford’s “Salary Is Set By Contract, Period” … “He Does Not Get A Bonus”. According to the NY Daily News, “Aides to Ford, a vice chairman of Merrill Lynch, said yesterday that his ‘salary is set by contract, period.’ ‘He does not get a bonus based on how well the bank does,’ spokesman Davidson Goldin said. Goldin refused to specify Ford's salary but said that ‘if he runs, he will disclose all appropriate financial information.’” [NY Daily News, 1/13/10]

His Spokesman “Declined To Say Whether He’d Received One”. According to Politico, “Ford arrived at the tail of the boom and stayed at Merrill through its absorption by Bank of America and through a controversial round of bonuses at the end of 2008. His spokesman, Davidson Goldin, declined to say whether he’d received one, but New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has requested information on the bonuses from the bank, which received federal support to weather the crisis.” [POLITICO, 1/13/10]

Salary “Set By Contract” According to the Washington Post, “When asked in the interview whether he himself had received a bonus from his employer, his spokesman, Davidson Goldin, interrupted, as he did on other topics not related to Ford's rationale for running, which the media handler understood to be the sole focus of the interview. At that point in the interview, Ford stayed silent, but Goldin later offered that Ford's "salary is set by contract." [Washington Post, 1/15/10]

In a press release Thursday morning announcing his withdrawal, Byrd declared, “I am …blessed with good health and to be a part of a strong and contributing community business,” thereby discounting as factors in his decision a bout with colon cancer some years ago or speculation in the business press concerning the effect of the recession on the Bank of Barlett.

Nor did Byrd, in his statement, mention a possible candidacy by interim county mayor Joe Ford as bearing on his decision.

Byrd was considered by many to be the favorite in the developing Democratic field. The remaining prospects are Ford and Shelby County commissioner Deidre Malone. No major Republican figure has yet declared for county mayor.

Byrd’s statement, in its entirely:

AFTER MUCH DELIBERATION, I HAVE DECIDED TO WITHDRAW MY NAME AS A POSSIBLE CANDIDATE FOR SHELBY COUNTY MAYOR FOR THE 2010 ELECTION.

MY LIFE HAS BEEN GREATLY BLESSED WITH A STRONG, LOVING & SUPPORTIVE FAMILY AND A LEGION OF CLOSE FRIENDS. THROUGHOUT MY YEARS IN ELECTED OFFICE AND COMMUNITY ENDEAVORS, MY FAMILY & FRIENDS HAVE SELFLESSLY, GENEROUSLY, AND CONTINUALLY GIVEN THEIR TIME, EFFORTS, AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT ON MY BEHALF. MY ELECTION AT AN EARLY AGE TO THE TENNESSEE STATE LEGISLATURE AND YEARS OF ACTIVE COMMUNITY SERVICE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE OTHERWISE. I AM ALSO BLESSED WITH GOOD HEALTH AND TO BE A PART OF A STRONG & CONTRIBUTING COMMUNITY BUSINESS.

THE ENCOURAGEMENT I HAVE RECEIVED REGARDING A MAYORAL CANDIDACY HAS BEEN HEARTWARMING & OVERWHELMING. THAT HAS MADE MY DECISION TO FOREGO A RACE AT THIS TIME AN EVEN MORE AGONIZING ONE. HOWEVER, THE PERSONAL & ECONOMIC SACRIFICES REQUIRED ARE NOT PRUDENT FOR MYSELF PERSONALLY OR MY FAMILY AT THIS TIME. IT HAS BEEN A LIFELONG PASSION & JOURNEY TO BE A COALESCING & PIVOTAL FORCE FOR PROGRESS IN EDUCATION, RACIAL HARMONY, & ECONOMIC PROGRESS.

THAT PASSION & JOURNEY WILL CONTINUE BUT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN RATHER THAN AS AN ELECTED OFFICIAL.