Henry: Democrats Greater Enemy To States Than Republicans

Sen. Doug Henry, a self-described Jeffersonian Democrat, opened up the joint committee on sovereignty this past Tuesday, and made an interesting observation:

I can't help observing though that its an interesting committee, I've never served on one quite like it before. We have eight members, seven members belong to Mr. Lincoln's party and he [inaudible] the states on April 19th, 1865, one member of the committee is of Mr. Jefferson's party, and in recent years, they've been greater enemies of the states than the Republicans have..

The resulting letter from this committee hearing (which consisted largely of a back and forth with the head of the Eagle Forum over the notion of a Constitutional convention) was criticized by the Chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party:

A state sovereignty campaign in the General Assembly indicates how divisive Republican leaders intend to be during the next legislative session, Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester predicts.

"I hope they are not suggesting we fight another Civil War," Forrester said. "This is nothing short of lunacy. The Tea Party organizers and their ultra-right wing cronies began this ridiculous issue to disrupt civil debate about how to move this state and nation forward.

"It's unfortunate that Republican members of the state Legislature have jumped on this crazy train. Instead of focusing on real issues that concern most Tennesseans, these legislators are more concerned about grandstanding and how to divide us.