A Brilliant Southern Strategy

It's being called the Political Play Of The Decade ...

After almost 140 years, Tennessee Republicans finally got a chance to hold power in their state's General Assembly. Thanks to some crafty manuevering by their Democratic colleagues, however, the GOP's moment in the sun was all but over in a matter of hours.

One of the first matters the new session had to take up was the election of a new Speaker. The Republicans had their candidate, Rep. Jason Mumpower, and by dint of their one-seat majority, they would have been right to assume -- as is normally the case in these matters -- that Mumpower would win the job. The Democrats had other ideas. They nominated a different Republican, Rep. Kent Williams.

49 Republicans -- including Mumpower -- voted for their chosen candidate. Then 49 Democrats voted for Williams, then he voted for himself, and lo and behold the minority party had elected the Speaker. Williams also helped the Democrats re-elect one of their own to the number two position in the body.