Naifeh and the Tennessee legislature?

[DaveTN]

Someone please explain to me how this works?

I’m not very familiar with the workings of the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:State>Tennessee </st1:State>legislature, but I see Naifeh being blamed for all the gun bills being shot down. How can the speaker single handedly shoot down a bill that has the votes to pass?

[Guest bkelm18]

Someone please explain to me how this works?

I’m not very familiar with the workings of the <st1:state>Tennessee </st1:state>legislature, but I see Naifeh being blamed for all the gun bills being shot down. How can the speaker single handedly shoot down a bill that has the votes to pass?

The problem is, these bills never make it out of the subcommittees to be voted on. When these bills go through all the subcommittees, the Speaker of the House has the power to appoint anyone to these committees as he/she sees fit. Since Darth Naifeh is our speaker, and is staunchly anti-gun, he appoints anti-gun people to these committees, thus killing any chance the bills ever had. This is just one of the few ways I'm sure that he exerts his power.

[cadillacdude1975]

welcome to the real world. the problem is that everyone want to bitch about how he deals with things, but we cant get together as a majority to vote his ass out of office.

[Guest ProguninTN]

The problem is, these bills never make it out of the subcommittees to be voted on. When these bills go through all the subcommittees, the Speaker of the House has the power to appoint anyone to these committees as he/she sees fit. Since Darth Naifeh is our speaker, and is staunchly anti-gun, he appoints anti-gun people to these committees, thus killing any chance the bills ever had. This is just one of the few ways I'm sure that he exerts his power.

Some here may remember the time when the restaurant carry bill made it out of the House subcommittee in 2005. When the antis realized this, a motion to send it back to subcommittee was made. Then-Representative (now convicted of corruption) Chris Newton made a speech about how the bill needed "corrections". Speaker Naifeh the ruled that it should go back to subcommittee despite objections from numerous representatives.

[Guest bkelm18]

Some here may remember the time when the restaurant carry bill made it out of the House subcommittee in 2005. When the antis realized this, a motion to send it back to subcommittee was made. Then-Representative (now convicted of corruption) Chris Newton made a speech about how the bill needed "corrections". Speaker Naifeh the ruled that it should go back to subcommittee despite objections from numerous representatives.

The Dark Lord Naifeh will do anything he can to kill any pro-gun legislation.

[Guest db99wj]

Just for clarification, Naifeh is not anti-gun.

Think about it.

Ok, he has guns, he has a permit, or so he says, he believes in the right to bare arms......notice all the "he's" which means "his", and not yours....so in summation, he is not anti-gun, he is anti-you having a-gun. He is an elitist, he considers himself as part of a special group...

Ok, just a thought!

[Guest bkelm18]

Just for clarification, Naifeh is not anti-gun.

Think about it.

Ok, he has guns, he has a permit, or so he says, he believes in the right to bare arms......notice all the "he's" which means "his", and not yours....so in summation, he is not anti-gun, he is anti-you having a-gun. He is an elitist, he considers himself as part of a special group...

Ok, just a thought!

Same difference from our side.

[Guest ProguninTN]

Same difference from our side.

Yeah, and not only does he have his own gun, he also receives protection from State Troopers. If I only had my own gun and my own bodyguards.

Edited July 4, 2008 by ProguninTN

[Guest GLOCKGUY]

Yeah, and not only does he have his own gun, he also protection from State Troopers. If I only had my own gun and my own bodyguards.

ya and when hes eating in a restaurant that serves alcohol ya he doesn't carry there his bodyguards do

[Guest dotsun]

Someone please explain to me how this works?

I’m not very familiar with the workings of the <st1:state>Tennessee </st1:state>legislature, but I see Naifeh being blamed for all the gun bills being shot down. How can the speaker single handedly shoot down a bill that has the votes to pass?

I think everyone has answered the original question, so your follow up would be how do we get rid of him. The repubs in the house are very close to having a majority. I think they're 5 seats away coming into this election. If they get a majority then we won't have a dem as speaker. ie. Naifeh. As far as I know all the seats are up for election every 2 years.

I plan on volunteering for the repub that's running in my district as I happen to have a democrat rep. I would highly recommend we all get involved to some extent, especially if you have a dem rep now.

[Guest GLOCKGUY]

I think everyone has answered the original question, so your follow up would be how do we get rid of him. The repubs in the house are very close to having a majority. I think they're 5 seats away coming into this election. If they get a majority then we won't have a dem as speaker. ie. Naifeh. As far as I know all the seats are up for election every 2 years.

I plan on volunteering for the repub that's running in my district as I happen to have a democrat rep. I would highly recommend we all get involved to some extent, especially if you have a dem rep now.

i was going to do the same until i found out their is no Dem running just to Repubs and both of them have a high ranking from the NRA so im going to try to help McCain

[dralarms]

I think everyone has answered the original question, so your follow up would be how do we get rid of him. The repubs in the house are very close to having a majority. I think they're 5 seats away coming into this election. If they get a majority then we won't have a dem as speaker. ie. Naifeh. As far as I know all the seats are up for election every 2 years.

I plan on volunteering for the repub that's running in my district as I happen to have a democrat rep. I would highly recommend we all get involved to some extent, especially if you have a dem rep now.

I may be mistaken but I thought it was 4. And all we really have to do is get our side to grow a backbone and not vote him for speaker again.

[Guest dotsun]

I may be mistaken but I thought it was 4. And all we really have to do is get our side to grow a backbone and not vote him for speaker again.

Yeah, but if they don't have a majority they'll have to convince several dems to cross the aisle. A worthy cause if we fail in Nov, but I prefer to work towards that goal first. And the only reason the pubs voted for him is they knew he would be elected with the house make up the way it is and Naifeh blacklists anyone who doesn't vote for him.

[Warbird]

Naifeh does appoint the committees true,. The gun bills have been seen in several house committees over the last few years, failing in each. However the reason he can always win is the speaker has the power to take 3 others into any committee he wants, himself and two of his leadership water carriers. This increases his chances of winning greatly, not to mention that he runs the house with an iron fist.

What happened several years ago with Newton was that Chris passed that bill out of committee at a time when he was acting chair despite being a repub. The committee had a quorum but not all of Naifeh's gun haters were there. Naifeh threw a royal fit and forcably told Newton he'd better get the bill back to committee, there was nothing wrong with the bill. Unfortunately the bill was sent back to committee because Newton allowed it to happen during a suspension of the session. Then he was arrested a day later for the Waltz scandal. If he hadn't been such a puss he should have let the bill stay on the floor where it would have passed. I think he simply despises any pressure on him from outside entities, like pro gun rights groups and he has drawn a line saying he is the dictator and it will be whatever his way is no matter what. He hasbecome like this with several of his colleagues as well, blocking anything of theirs because they had the gall to stand up to him on something. One of them Frank Buck finally had enough and retired. More and more are following suit. What Naifeh doesn't realize is that despite thinking he has strengthened his position he has actually weakened it.

As to the argument of Naifeh being a gun hater or opposed to you having a gun, I would point out that Naifeh, though with a lot of pressure did pass the carry permit legislation and the improvements to it in subsequent years. It has only been in the last number of years that he has become a speaker who is anti-gun and I don't know what happened to turn him. He certainly isn't anti gun like many others up there, but he is no longer supportive and he has gone out of his way to block anything good recently.

The repubs do need 4 seats, maybe only 3 as there are a couple of dems who would vote for someone other than Naifeh just to have him gone even if it meant 2 years of republican control. But, those 3 are going to be very very tough to get.

Edited July 4, 2008 by Warbird

[Guest JavaGuy]

For the general edification of all...

state Representatives in Tennessee serve two year terms.. state Senators serve four year terms. Senators in even numbered districts are elected in the same election; those Senators representing odd numbered districts are elected two years later for a term of four years. That ensures that the upper chamber (the Senate) always has a bit of a carry-over in terms of having experienced legislators.

Further, Tennessee's population is roughly 6 million and change. Divide that by 99 and you get the approximate number of people (roughly 61,000) each state Representative is elected to represent. Divide the state's population by 33 to get the ideal number of people (roughly 183,000) in a Senate district.

That's the general framework of the system... After the newly elected state Reps (even if they were re-elected after serving in the previous General Assembly) are seated and sworn in, they are responsible for electing their officers; the same is true for the Senate. The legislature also is responsible for selecting (electing) the constitutional officers of the state.

All of this information is available on the legislature's website...

www.legislature.state.tn.us

[Fallguy]

Someone please explain to me how this works?

I’m not very familiar with the workings of the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:State>Tennessee </st1:State>legislature, but I see Naifeh being blamed for all the gun bills being shot down. How can the speaker single handedly shoot down a bill that has the votes to pass?

I know some of this has been said, but he can because.

He appoints the committee and sub-committee members

He can sit in on ANY committee and sub-committee meeting and vote on a bill.

He also is the head of the committee that assigns bill to be heard on the floor of the house.

He controls practically all working of the house.

Sitting in on a sub-committee meeting is how he defeated several bills last time. His vote caused a tie 4-4 and therefore the bill did not pass out of sub-committee. Had he not sat in as an extra member of the sub-committee and voted the bill would have moved out.