Blue Collar Muse

Last week, Matthew Hurtt, a friend of mine and an excellent blogger, posted a story about Donna Rowland’s voting record and a portion of it he found curious. 173 times in 2009 Rowland had voted PNV or “Present, Not Voting”. He rightly wondered what that was all about.

The Rutherford County Democratic Party eagerly picked up on the story claiming Rowland was only working for them 17% of the time.  It doesn’t appear they even tried to contact Rowland.  They just rushed to print claiming “gotcha”. I left a rather snarky comment on their post which was promptly deleted.  (Can’t have anyone offering a dissenting opinion since dissent is only the highest form of Patriotism on Democratic bumper stickers … And, yes, in case you’re wondering, I have the screen-shot.  It’s OK, those guys are young and they’ll learn as we all did.  Until they develop the confidence to swim in the deep end with the adults, we’ll cut them a little slack.)

The RuCo Dems continued with their criticism by taking Rep. Rowland to task yet again. They didn’t seem to research this story either beyond, apparently, reading Tom Humphreys column on the matter.

They correctly note Rowland voted to support a resolution honoring The Rogers Group on its 100th anniversary. The Rogers Group is a donor to Rowland’s campaign. They malign her service to her constituents based on that.  But Rowland voted to honor 106 year old Mary Alice Gandy for casting her first vote ever in 2008 for Barack Obama.  Why did Democrats omit that?  I’m going to guess because it doesn’t paint Donna Rowland in a bad light.  They also omit Rowland’s PNV vote on SJR 65 to honor Bobbie Patray for her service.  That vote alone makes it unlikely Rowland is only about who supports her. Democrats are just playing political games.

Unfortunately, my friend Matthew Hurtt seems to be enabling them. An objective look at her record is helpful here.  Matt evaluates her voting record from 2002 to the present and finds the same hypocrisy the Democrats do. But Rowland doesn’t deny voting for such things in the past. It’s this year’s votes that need to be analyzed.

On January 14th and 15th, 2009, the opening days of this session, Rowland voted “Aye” for HJR 2, 6, 8 and 9 and HR 2 and 3. She has not introduced such legislation as best I can tell.  After that there’s a change of heart. She votes “Aye” on March 19th for HJR 49, the Rogers Group resolution and “Aye” on April 20th for the Cora Cline Memorial Highway and nothing more.  As compared to this!

Democrats say this means Rowland snubs regular Tennesseans but won’t provide you with all the facts. Further, they fail to defeat, or even address, the argument Rowland makes regarding wasting the money those regular Tennesseans entrust to the Legislature. Evidently, wasting the People’s time and money is OK if it can be used to score political points. And they say Rowland that doesn’t care about Rutherford County voters. Riiight …

Matt Hurtt’s observations are hard to accept, as well.  From my perspective, he got the facts right and the conclusion wrong.  He seems to like what Rowland has become but not that the process took some time.  Rowland wants to change but Matt won’t let her. He points prominently to HJR480, from 2007, to condemn her 2009 behavior. I cannot find where he observes that, even allowing for the votes on HJR49 and SJR65, Rowland’s behavior change is startling - and in a good way. Why are we so quick to shoot our wounded?  Perhaps they’re worth saving.

I think Donna Rowland ought to be commended, not crucified.  She’s made an about face for very principled reasons.  Is she perfect?  Nope.  Is she right on this matter?  Absolutely.  If I cannot let her change for the better, then I cannot expect that same grace to be extended to me.  But when did Real Life ever matter in politics?

Blue

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Anti Dictionary Democrats, Blogroll, Breaking News, Common Sense, Democratic Party, Greater Transparency, Leadership, Nashville Nuggets, Politics, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.