A Welcome
by Flyer StaffArticle Tools
Even as one Memphis entry in the still-young 2010 gubernatorial race, District Attorney General Bill Gibbons, struggles to stay on an even keel with his financially better-heeled Republican rivals, another homeboy, state senator Jim Kyle, a Democrat, announces for the governorship this week.
Kyle brings advantages stemming both from his own distinguished legislative record (he is currently the Democrats' leader in the state Senate) and his family connections (his wife Sara, a member of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority, is part of the still influential Clement clan). Yet Kyle will have it hard going against a field that includes such worthies as Mike McWherter, son of the best-remembered former governor from his party.
We are playing no favorites in either party's roster of candidates just now, but it would be disingenuous of us not to admit we're pleased to have two such worthy local specimens vying for an office that, perhaps increasingly in the austere times we're in, has such power to alter our destinies.
Time was when Memphis and Shelby County had a disproportionate influence on the governor's office, and state government in general, through the medium of former mayor "Boss" Ed Crump. Even in more recent times, our region profited from the proximity of longtime Senate speaker and lieutenant governor John Wilder and House speaker Jimmy Naifeh, who hailed from the adjacent counties of Fayette and Tipton, respectively. These days, though, Wilder is in retirement, and Naifeh is a back-bencher. Influence in the General Assembly has measurably shifted from West to East Tennessee.
So we'll be paying close attention to the races run by Gibbons and Kyle and to the attention each gives to legitimate local concerns.
A Benediction
Last week in this space we offered some observations on the struggle to rehabilitate himself faced by Paul Stanley, who resigned from the legislature following disclosures of a blackmail plot relating to his sexual relationship with a legislative intern. On Monday, his last official day as state senator from District 31, Stanley shared some of his thinking about the foibles of public life at a prayer meeting at the Crescent Club in East Memphis.
Stanley spoke on the theme that human conduct consistently falls short of Biblical ideals, but that it is important all the same to pursue those ideals.
Owning up to his own shortcomings, Stanley said that politicians as a group are all "only an eighth of an inch from ending up in the newspapers" for this or that moral imperfection. Interestingly enough, among those attending were two of Stanley's would-be successors in the forthcoming special election — state representative Brian Kelsey and financial adviser/county school board president David Pickler. Another was newly installed Memphis mayor pro tem Myron Lowery, currently a candidate for election as mayor in his own right.
Though it hardly excuses his own transgressions, we would agree with Stanley on the universality of human foibles and the incurability of same. Maybe, indeed, we're all an eighth of an inch away from corruption. Frankly, keeping that distance may be the whole point of public life.
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While the Flyer attempts to position itself as "playing no favorites", Lazy Bill Gibbons has been favored by this paper on any number of occasions. The question has to be asked, "Has the Flyer ever looked into the correlation between his inept administration as Shelby County District Attorney and the increase in crime in the area during his term in office?" This long time reader can't thing of a single instance.
Of course the Flyer "played no favorites" when it allowed Jackson Baker to write a lengthy mash note to Lazy Bill. While Baker's cover story alludes to the fact that Gibbons has benefitted from having "mentors", it never asks what these rich, older , more powerful men who Gibbons consistently sought out wanted from Lazy Bill in exchange. Nor does it question why they have abandoned him now that he is seeking a statewide office (e.g.,Why is Lamar Alexander's fixer running the Knoxville Mayor's campaign for governor?)
Nor did Baker and the Flyer ever ask, "How does a guy who positions himself as a small government conservative reconcile his fevered attempts to stay in a political office for the better part of his adult life -while consistently seeking to increase his support staff and budget?" Not to mention the fact that Gibbons' wife has fed at the public trough all her professional career as well.
Yes, the Flyer is "pleased to have ...(this)... worthy local specimen" running for office. But why?
Flyer Flashback
Flyer Flashback
To mark the Flyer's 20th anniversary, we're looking back at stories from our first two decades.
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