by Roy Exum
posted May 13, 2008
 Roy Exum |
The way to do that, in my shallow way of thinking, is to put our best foot forward by having a collection of our finest in the batting order when they send in the big people to give us a look. Curiously there are some who want to know who I’d put in the line-up and while I don’t want to embarrass anybody, I know enough people to know who can hit the home run.
This could be big and these VW guys are heady so we’ve got to guard against the pretenders, those who are all bluff and no swagger. We’ve got to put those who can sell, those who can become the friends they’ll want, in the game real early so here’s my idea of a crowd that could make it happen.
Obviously politicians are important but, far more important, are the right ones. There is too much Toyota blood still on the ground after they took that plant to Podunk, Mississippi, because we scared them to death so we can’t let either of our mayors, Claude Ramsey or Ron Littlefield, into the game until much later.
Gov. Bredesen just announced a $468 million reduction in the state budget, which was a gutsy thing to do, but VW will look at that as a weakness. You saw where Toyota is waffling on the Mississippi pact because of the economy so a quick way to beat that is to take the $100 million the state has put aside for “economic incentives” and immediately give that back to the people of Tennessee.
It is absolutely nuts to deprive state employees of raises and make them pay more for health care, as the governor now suggests. Gas is almost $4 a gallon! So if we sell the 16,000 acres of Enterprise South for a dollar, not only are “economic incentives” handled, but – by plowing the $100 million back to those who are already struggling - VW sees that we are dedicated to taking care of the people who’ll make their new plant glisten. This isn’t brain surgery.
Sure, we’ll need Gov. Bredesen in the early stages, but, far more, we’ll need Thunder Thornton to stand by his side to keep him from selling Clarksvile or somewhere else in the state because of another political crony. Thunder’s one of the greatest stand-up guys in the entire country and the “Guv” won’t dare buck him.
Leave both Senators out of it. Sadly, Alexander’s heart isn’t in this town and Corker’s now on his own tear. Bobby will play into things a little later and then Lamar will then do whatever Bobby wants to do in a “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll rub mine” kind of way that is now pretty obvious. Listen, if we get those two in a news photo a little later that’ll be enough.
So the state legislators will be led by Richard Floyd and Bo Watson, who are winners. It still early to know much about Andy Berke, who is scary but still has his youthful exuberance so we’ll need to have him coached pretty well. Yeah, bring Andy but put Bucky Wolford on him tighter than chewing gum so he‘ll be covered if he talks dumb.
The County Commission will only be allowed to send Freddie Reece Skillern, Curtis Adams, John Brooks and Bill Hullander. Bill Knowles and Bill Bennett are definites and Carl Levi is, too, if he doesn’t talk about the war and such because Germany …er, lost.
From the City Council will be Linda Bennett, Manny Rico, Duke Franklin, and Jack Benson. There are some other nice people, but, lordy, if they hear about the fight in the back of that patrol car, we might as well start telling Bismarck jokes.
Again, I am not trying to hurt or shame anybody, but if somebody isn’t a winner they don’t need to be in the mix. We’ll got some local officials who, in one way to put it, don’t try as hard as they should. It was embarrassing the other day when Commissioner Warren Mackey got caught trying to slide some totally-unqualified candidate onto a committee. We don’t need anybody there asking VW to hire their friends.
This is serious and – quite simply - we need to get Nelson Bowers and Brad Cobb, probably the best two automobile people in town, to put together a team of our brightest and best and do whatever it takes to shake the tree. Brad sells Audis and VWs here – the “big people” already adore him. You don’t think he’s a treasure?
Jeff Rachor, the Lookout Mountain whiz-kid who was just picked to head up Dell’s mega-automobile group, could also sell the VW people and he’s one of the top dealership in the country. Do you think he could help, just a little? Puh-leeze!
Again, this isn’t brain surgery, but, just the same, it is a delicate procedure and if those VW guys find out why Toyota drew a line through our city in the final stages, you are going to need Nelson and Brad and Jeff far more than any politician with two years left on his term.
We need to play this one for keeps!
royexum@aol.com
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