The fascist whine-machine that is the TNGOP produced this fascinating op-ed today. Not only do they forget that the "good ol' boy" network is code for the Republican Party, and that Sarah Palin's eBay transaction never actually happened, but they also provide some eye-opening contrasts between Alaska and Tennessee!!!...
IT’S TIME FOR PALIN-STYLE REFORM IN TENNESSEE
NASHVILLE, TN - Tennessee’s Democrat governor and the entrenched “good ol’ boy” Democratic machine in the state House might want to pay attention to the surging enthusiasm across America for the reform agenda of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as she campaigns along side Sen. John McCain in the race for the White House.
“At about the same time Gov. Palin was putting the Alaska state executive’s luxury jet up for sale on eBay, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen was plotting to spend millions of tax dollars to add a luxury underground party room to the governor’s mansion,” said Robin Smith, Chairman of the Tennessee Republican party. “We can’t put the ballroom on eBay, but the governor could do something about the excessive use of state aircraft."
Some comparative travel-distance facts about Alaska and Tennessee:
At 656,424 square miles, Alaska is 15.5 times larger than Tennessee (42,169 square miles)
Alaska’s two largest cities, Anchorage and Fairbanks, are separated by 360 miles; Tennessee’s two largest cities, Nashville and Memphis, are separated by 200 miles
The distance from Alaska’s capital, Juneau, to its two largest cities is 732 miles to Fairbanks and 848 miles to Anchorage. By contrast, Tennessee’s capital city, Nashville, is the largest metropolitan area in the state and the rest of the top five- Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Clarksville - all are located within 200 miles of Nashville.
Despite its massive size compared to Tennessee, Alaska has far fewer miles of public paved roads than does Tennessee- 14, 441 versus 87,259.
“Alaska is nearly 16 times larger than Tennessee and yet Gov. Palin has found it is possible to get around the state just fine without the state owning an airplane,” Smith said. “Tennessee taxpayers have had to pay to fly Gov. Bredesen and his people around the state and to their beach vacation destinations because Tennessee doesn’t yet have a reform governor and because the state House is run by a do-nothing-Democrat, save-the-status-quo good ol’ boy network that likes it that way.”
