As Promised, a Re-examination

I was chastised both publicly and privately for this post where I took a moment late on Thursday to scan a few Memphis and Tennessee blogs for reaction to the unfolding events of the Tennessee Waltz scandal. (It's good to see that label is taking hold. The only holdouts have been a couple of television news programs.)

At the time I looked, Dark Bilious Vapors, LeanLeft and South Knox Bubba had no comment on the Tennessee Waltz. All three are blogs that post multiple times each day, often all day; two have multiple authors. I noted it was odd.

Since that post, I've both read and been told more. LeanLeft did post that evening, to link to the Commercial Appeal's take and note the political fallout for several Democrats. Nothing condemning the allegations or the legislators.

Over the weekend, LeanLeft has posted two more times on the TW. One wonders if more arrests are to come (but doesn't seem aware of the connections between the arrested legislators) and seems to partly blame the alleged low pay of Tennessee legislators. The other seeks to divert attention by pointing up an Ohio Republican scandal. It's the old "Look! Over there!" and "Well they do it too." dodges conflated.

South Knox Bubba has a perfectly good explanation: he's been out of town, travelling in the Southwest. He was able to post, but it's all travelogue, except for this brief note. I await his return and his response. As Tennessee's highest traffic Democratic liberal progressive blog, his take carries some weight. I'll report his response when it comes.

Dark Bilious Vapors' response seems largely to be pique at Half-Bakered! (More here.) I'll plead guilty to jabbing them for their initial silence, but will accept their various explanations for that silence without further comment. Real life is always the best defense.

One of the three Vaporians (Darkies? Bilii?) has curtailed all his blogging of late and the second lives in Illinois, where Tennessee politics obviously don't mean much. Len points out quite clearly his less-than-disinterested feelings for Tennessee politics over national concerns. OK, then. Fair cop.

I should point out that I like all three of the bloggers at DBV. Len and I went to a Redbirds game last year and passed an enjoyable evening. We regularly post and comment on each others' blogs. I've talked with Brock at a couple of bashes and he's cool too. Karen I only know from DBV, her comments on my blog and some email conversations. She's a sweety! I'm sorry not to have met her when she came to Memphis last week.

I didn't expect to read anything at The Flypaper Theory. He's the kind of Democrat who views Representative Harold Ford Jr. with suspicion for his centrist moves, but he's also a corporate media whore (I kid! I kid!) who was nostril-deep-and-rising in work that day. Still, he managed to find the time to track down and examine the "website" for E-cycle Management, then report it on his blog. I'm sure we'll be seeing his TW posts after the holidays.

For contrast, here's a Democratic activist's initial response and his later emotional response. No dodges, sidesteps or awkward silences, just anger focused at the transgressors. There's also autoegocrat's blast. Both are something like what I had expected to find elsewhere.

So I make this offer: Give me names of and/or links to Tennessee bloggers of the Leftish persuasion who did blog on the Tennessee Waltz, or posted their reactions that day. I'd like to read them.