The House Democratic Caucus hosted a bunch of TN Progressive bloggers to meet and chat with several legislators about the sun the moon the stars. My bottom line conclusion is that TN Dems haven't yet figured out how to play the role of the minority opposition party as a whole, but some of them know exactly what they should be doing. Cookeville's Representative Henry Fincher got it right when he said, "When Republicans are driving their car off the road into the ditch, don't grab the wheel out of their hands. People need to see who these people are!"

A round of blogger applause followed even though we were supposed to be quiet in the back of the room.

My thanks to Representative Ferguson who waved me down from the gallery and carried a chair for me so that I could sit beside him at his desk and watch the goings on from the floor of the House of Representatives.

Thanks to Mike Turner, house Democratic Caucus leader for his hospitality in hosting us in his office after we ran overtime with the questions and got kicked out of the Committee room we were in. Representative Turner took some hard questions from us.

And all Roane County owes Representative Mike McDonald, Sumner County, a special thanks for being the point man in trying to stop the Yager/McCord( "Will legislate for money") selenium bill. McDonald has invited the scientist whose research was misrepresented by a political appointee to the EPA in 2004 to speak with the Enviroment committe tomorrow. McDonald pointed out that Dr. Dennis Linley (I think that's right) stated that the McCord bill will kill 50-85% of all the fish in the state of Tennessee. While I would like to see Yager and McCord crucified ( figuratively speaking only) for this corrupt act, in which they turn their backs on, not just their own constituents, but every citizen in Tennessee in order to help National Coal Corporation out of a lawsuit for poisoning Zeb Mountain's water supply.

Representative McDonald...Thank you, sir! You are a true public servant.