6/10/2005 08:20:00 AM|||Nathan Moore|||

Bill Hobbs notes that the governor is prepared to call the legislature back into session to discuss ethics reform. Better late than never, I suppose, but Hobbs is right to question Bredesen's motives.

The governor knows, as does everyone who is an incumbents in the general assembly, that ethics will be a prime mover in next year's campaign. Everyone is tarnished in the legislature to some degree (as the sage Lt. Governor noted, "persecuted because they are legislators", or some nonsensical tripe such as that), but Bredesen had the opportunity to rise above it all...until reports surfaced connecting him to some TennCare discussions with John Ford. Now the governor knows there is a campaign commercial somewhere out there starring him and Ford, holding hands, frolicking through fields of daisies together. He needs to head it off now to preserve both his second term and his national aspirations. But first things first - a one term Tennessee governor is not presidential material.

I just hope the GOP leadership counters the governor's plan, and Sanka-type leadership on the issue, with something much more far-reaching and transparent, and dare him and the legislative Democratic leadership to oppose it.

|||111840999222544889|||Bredesen and Ethics