The Legislative Antics of Stacey Campbell

Well . . . . shoot! I move away from Tennessee and things start to get interesting. Politics and theatre do a wicked dance together that makes the National GOP Forever Debating Tour look insipid by comparison. Dignity, like Baby, gets put in the corner of this Show of Shows in the Vol State!

State Senator Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) seems to make a continuous one-man show of amusement for Volunteer State residents and ex-pats. This, dear folks, is the fella who introduced legislation to allow any full-time faculty member or staffer at a public university to have a concealed weapon on campus if they have a handgun-carry permit. Wow, just what is needed: armed profs loaded for bear or reluctant freshmen. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the bill was lost in the process.

Not being content with doing this fine legislation, he introduced the "Don't Say Gay" bill, prohibiting the teaching of any form of sex in elementary school classes except for boy-girl sex. He also downplayed possible bullying of gay and lesbian children, declaring that "that bullying thing is the biggest lark out there."

He gave a radio interview in which he is quoted "most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community -- it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall.... My understanding is that it is virtually -- not completely, but virtually -- impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex...very rarely [transmitted]." What a mixture of strange conjectures and luridness. I am not sure of his sources of information, but they're quite unrelated to the true facts.

His radio remarks produced a firestorm of criticism nationwide; some quite deservedly pointed. He succeeded in making Tennessee the laughingstock. One irate restaurant owner refused him service at Brunch. Good for her!!!!

His saga gets stranger. A few years ago he was thrown out of UT's Neyland stadium because he came to a football game on Halloween wearing a Mexican wrestler's mask, despite explicit warnings by UT not to wear masks to the game.

Hey, what's going on? Republicans are supposed to be white bread sticks on the mud; looniness is the perogative of the Democrats. Can this being a State Senator be some form of cosmic joke on the state? I noticed that his senatorial district includes the University of Tennessee in it. Could mischevous university students have elected him as a prank on the State? This serves as a comfort to me to know that the State is not completely insane, and that undergraduates are still capable of doing strange things that shock adults.

I'm in a great mood today. I was gloriously laid by my boyfriend last night and I had a wickedly sinful hearty breakfast. I have a grin on my face as big as the Bitteroots!