TNSenate Idol Show: Hedy Weinberg More Popular Than Michael Jackson!
A resolution honoring Hedy Weinberg for serving 25 years as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Tennessee has passed the state Senate after revisions intended to reduce controversy.
But the revised resolution, approved 26-0 in the Senate with four Republican senators abstaining and three members absent, has nonetheless drawn criticism. It is scheduled for a House floor vote Monday evening.
Sen. Joe Haynes, D-Nashville, sponsored the resolution with nine co-sponsors, all Democrats. He withdrew the original version (SJR708) after a Republican objected to it being included on a list of non-controversial items slated for passage with unanimous approval and replaced it with a second, revised version (SJR782).
"That's the only way I could get it passed," Haynes said of the watered-down version in an interview. "I think everybody over there (on the Republican side) was concerned about kickback from some of their people."
The revisions included deletion of references to the ACLU having "gay and straight" members - retained is a reference to having supporters who are "Democrats,
Republicans and Libertarians and religious and non-religious" - and a declaration of the ACLU's readiness to defend "the outcasts of society."
Also stripped from the original version was a paragraph hailing Weinberg's "brilliant direction" of the ACLU in opposing racial profiling and legislation to mandate that driver's license exam be conducted in English only while supporting efforts "to get Tennessee schools to end censorship of gay educational sites."
Traditionally, almost any congratulatory resolution has been approved automatically as a courtesy to the sponsoring legislator. A change in that attitude was reflected earlier with the Senate's rejection of a House-passed resolution honoring the late entertainer Michael Jackson.
(The historic roll call vote on the Michael Jackson resolution -- seven yes, seven no and everyone else dodging the issue as best they could -- is HERE.)
"Welcome to the Republican (controlled) General Assembly. That's the difference, in my opinion," said Haynes.
On the Senate floor, the revised resolution was approved without debate but apparently with considerable consternation on how to vote. Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey held the voting machine open for several moments, during which some members shifted their votes.
When the final vote was taken, there were zero no votes. The four abstaining, and thus declining to take a position, were Republican Sens. Mae Beavers of Mount Juliet, Diane Black of Gallatin, Jim Tracy of Shelbyville and Steve Southerland of Morristown. Black and Tracy are among six candidates seeking the GOP nomination for the 6th District Congressional seat.
Ramsey, who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, voted for the resolution along with Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris of Collierville.
When the resolution came to the House, Rep. Glen Casada of College Grove, who is House Republican Caucus chairman, "bumped" it from the list of measures slated for unanimous approval and thus set up the Monday House floor vote.
Meanwhile, Senate approval of the resolution had attracted critical commentary. The blog "Pro-Life In Tennessee," for example, focused on Weinberg's support for a lawsuit that led to a Tennessee Supreme Court ruling widely criticized by anti-abortion activists.
Andy Sere, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, meanwhile, used the situation to attack Democratic Sen. Roy Herron of Dresden, who is running for the 8th District Congressional nomination and who voted yes on honoring the ACLU leader."Weinberg and her organization support removing God from the public square; banning the death penalty; restricting the 2nd Amendment right of Tennesseans to keep and bear arms; and allowing abortion-on-demand & gay marriage," said Sere in an emailed news release to reporters. "But Roy Herron voted to 'honor and commend' that agenda."
Haynes said he sponsored the resolution as a simple matter of taking note of an fellow Nashvillian's involvement in the public arena; not as a political statement. Typically, such resolutions with their flowery language are designed to be framed and hung in a place where family and friends can admire.
"I haven't always agreed with Hedy... like when she was for the Ku Klux Klan marching (at an event in Pulaski years ago)," Haynes said when asked why he pushed a resolution praising Weinberg. "But I respect her. But she believes in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and has worked hard for 25 years for those principles."
Posted by Tom Humphrey on February 21, 2010 at 2:06 PM
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