Freed from the shackles of being House Speaker, and now facing the realization that he may never again occupy the senior position of leadership in the Tennessee House of Representatives, Rep. Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington) confesses that he thinks that the people of Tennessee should pay more in tax:
House Speaker Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh, after listening to a discussion on the need for continuing budget cuts in state government, urged consideration of tax increases as an alternative Thursday.
"No one has got the backbone or the guts to even talk about revenue enhancement," declared Naifeh during a meeting to brief House leaders on the status of the state budget as tax collections continue to fall.
Jimmy Naifeh, of course, may be the biggest income tax supporter in the State of Tennessee. It was Naifeh, after all, who famously kept the vote open on the income tax to try and get the votes needed to pass it, even though it had become clear that many Democrats weren't going to vote for it knowing it to be political suicide. History will record that the Republicans have had a long march to the majority in Tennessee, and that the GOP didn't have the numbers to realistically stand up not only to Naifeh or his predecessors, but to Democratic political domination in this State until Jimmy Naifeh tried to ram an income tax through the Tennessee House of Representatives (with the support of a Republican Governor). Jimmy Naifeh has probably done more to cause the Tennessee Republican Party to become competitive than any other Democrat in the history of Tennessee politics.
Knoxville State Rep. Stacey Campfield (R) attributed Naifeh's presence in his district in 2006 to campaign for his Democratic opponent Schree Pettigrew to aiding in his decisive re-election victory that year. "Please, send Jimmy Naifeh here again and again" Campfield said that year, "I'll pay for him to come to my district and campaign for Democrats."
Former Tennessee House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington)
Naifeh used strongarm tactics to get his way in the Legislature, convincing Republicans to vote for him with promises of plum committee assignments and projects for their districts they wouldn't get if they didn't go along with his plans for continued iron rule. The Republicans who voted for Naifeh were often labeled with the derogatory slur "the Naifeh boys" by those Republicans who continued to remain loyal to their own caucus leadership. Some Republican House members believed that in 2006, Jason Mumpower was propelled to the House Republican Leadership in part with the votes of "the Naifeh boys," as Naifeh is said to have had a personal hatred for Mumpower's predecessor as House GOP Leader, Rep. Bill Dunn of Knoxville. Naifeh was a man deemed so powerful that some believed he even controlled the leadership votes for the opposing party.
For his part, Strawberry Plains Republican Rep. Frank Niceley, himself long the subject of Jimmy Naifeh's derision, said some months ago to The Examiner that he was ready to move past any personal issues he might have had with "the Naifeh boys."
"I'll never use the phrase 'the Naifeh boys' again, I think the day is here when we can move on from Naifeh's era to other things," Niceley said in a phone call discussing progress in the last legislative session. Perhaps we now know why Niceley believes this, because Speaker Kent Williams and Knoxville Democratic Rep. Harry Tindell demonstrated Thursday that the "Speaker Emeritus" is finally and completely irrelevant:
House Budget Subcommittee Chairman Harry Tindell, D-Knoxville, who was presiding over the meeting, said Naifeh's remarks were out of place.
"The purpose of this meeting is not to pave the way for such action," Tindell said. "It is to educate and inform members."
Naifeh's successor as House speaker, Kent Williams, said "our whole country is in a deep recession and I don't feel this is the time to try to increase our revenues with any type of higher taxes."
"I think the Legislature has done a tremendous job, along with the administration, to control our budget and try to spend our dollars wisely," Williams said. "I think that's what we need to continue to do."
The day Harry Tindell and Kent Williams (a Republican who voted for Naifeh for Speaker in 2006, and who Democrats elected Speaker partly at Naifeh's urging) give Jimmy Naifeh the polite beat-down is the day Jimmy Naifeh doesn't matter anymore, and we know that his reign is truly at an end. We might even see Naifeh announce in the coming year that he won't run for re-election.
We'll turn out the lights for you Jimmy, the party's over.
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