This past Monday, LT Governor Randy McNally survived an unofficial “no confidence” vote of his fellow Republican senators, 19-7. I say unofficial because there was not a gathering of all the senators in one location and the ballot was secret. As I understand, it was more of a straw poll initiated by McNally and was not an official action that could have removed him. It was a way for McNally to see where he stood with the other Republican members.

This all came about a couple of weeks after it was discovered that, for the last three years, McNally, a 79year-old married man, had been posting regularly on the Instagram page of a young homosexual man. In one post, McNally enthusiastically compliments a photo of the nearly nude young man. When initially confronted over the issue, McNally responded that he was just “encouraging” the young man.

So, our Republican LT Governor thinks “encouraging” a young man in a blatant homosexual lifestyle is OK? And apparently, he also thinks it’s OK to use a state government-issued computer to do so while using his official title. Saturday Night Live even did a skit on the situation. LT Governor McNally disgraced the decent people of our state.

You would think after embarrassing himself, his family, and the state – especially fellow Republicans -that McNally would step down in shame. You would be wrong. He has no shame, and he is not stepping down.

He is a perverted old man and probably has been for years. Odds are at least some of his colleagues in the Senate knew this about him. Who knows with what else he may have been involved or who else he has, in his words, “encouraged”. It is also widely reported that he has declined mentally over the last few years – not surprising given his age, but not an asset for our state given his position.

Yet even more disgraceful is the fact that only seven of our state senators had the decency to indicate that they have lost confidence in his ability to carry out the responsibilities of LT Governor. Nineteen of our state senators thought he should remain as our LT Governor! That means in a state that is considered the buckle of the Bible Belt, nineteen of our state senators are fine with having a LT. Governor that encourages homosexuality.

Translation: Those nineteen senators just gave the finger to the majority of our citizens that have traditional moral and religious values. And while the ballot was secret, some have come forward and publicly stated their support for McNally. For the most part you could say it’s the usual suspects like Haile, Johnson, Gardenhire, and Reeves. It was disappointing to see Senator Nicely supported McNally as well, making the statement that, “We can’t let a little vocal minority run us off.”

I won’t cover the ridiculous comments of Gardenhire and Haile, but I encourage you to read them from an article in the Tennessee Lookout (Lieutenant governor captures vote of confidence amid Instagram scandal), which is by no means a conservative publication, however, that is where the quotes were reported.

After confirming that the majority of the caucus was as perverse as he was or just too cowardly to act, the very next day LT Governor McNally is reported to have instructed the members of the State and Local Government Committee to kill SB 0841 – a bill designed to prohibit public, private and commercial establishments from allowing persons under the age of 18 to attend a performance featuring adult cabaret entertainment (Bill To Ban Drag Shows For Tennessee Kids Dies In Senate Committee). This bill, sponsored by Senator Joey Hensley, would have included drag shows in the definition of adult cabaret entertainment and was designed to protect our children. Senator Pody made a motion for the bill to be heard, but no other member of the Republican-dominated committee gave a 2nd so the bill has failed for this year.  In addition to Sen. Pody, Republican members of that committee include Sen. Briggs, Sen. Jackson, Sen. Stevens, Sen. Lowe, Sen. Yeager and Sen. Walley.

The same committee also killed SB1092 by Senator Bowling – known as the Sovereignty and Nullification Act – by the same method (Senate Committee Kills Bill To Protect Tennessee’s Sovereignty). Once again, Senator Pody made the motion for the bill to be heard, yet none of the others gave a 2nd to the motion.

The bill failed.

Governor Lee was also on record as opposed to this legislation. At a time when federal overreach needs to be addressed more than ever, this bill needed to at least be discussed. Ironically, in October of 2021, McNally sponsored SJR9005 which dealt with federal overreach, state sovereignty and nullification. Sen. Walley and Sen. Stevens were cosponsors of that legislation. The other Republicans on this committee that were serving at that time supported SJR9005. SB1092 just created processes for nullification, a right and responsibility identified in SJR9005.

This tactic of McNally killing bills by telling committee members not make a motion or second a motion is nothing new and has happened in the House, as well. Members are threatened with loss of committee positions or with having their legislation flagged and killed in a like manner if they don’t go along. It is often used if the Governor doesn’t want something to pass.

This is wrong, and it doesn’t matter how long it has gone on. It’s another type of perversion in our legislature, a perversion of our Constitution and a perversion of the citizens’ right to actually be represented by the people they elect. This coercion takes away the power of individual elected officials to represent the concerns of their constituents in order to satisfy the preferences of the LT Governor and/or the Governor.

Nothing in the state constitution gives the LT Governor, the Speaker of the House, or the Governor the right to diminish the ability of individual senators or representatives to represent the interests and concerns of their constituents. Unfortunately, that is exactly what is occurring and the cowardly members of this committee and others are facilitating it when they go along.

Our senators need to hear from us on these issues. We also need to look now for replacements to this current sorry lot in upcoming elections.

We have to clean out the swamp that is the Tennessee Senate. It’s time to send the perverts packing.