Lincoln Davis was one of 10 Democratic members of the House invited to the White House last night, as President Obama attempts to sway their votes on health care reform.

Davis voted against the health care bill in November. However, he has made it clear that he was opposed to the bill, not health care reform.

The Jim Bunning hoopla in the U.S. Senate is a perfect example of why Republicans aren’t ready to be the party of fiscal responsibility.

Republicans destroyed their ’90s reputation of fiscal responsibility during six years of hand-over-foot spending by a GOP-controlled Congress and a president who never saw a spending bill that he didn’t like.

After Democrats retook Congress in 2006, however, Republicans suddenly began to distance themselves from Bush, heaping the blame for rising deficits onto his shoulders. They redoubled their faux outrage at out-of-control spending in 2008, after Democrats strengthened their hold on Congress and won the presidency.

But let’s make no mistake: As a whole, the Republican Party isn’t interested in fiscal responsibility. The Republican Party wants to be in power. It’s as simple as that.

Republicans had their chance. The Kentucky Senator gave them their chance to show that their feigned mad-on over out-of-control spending was sincere. Here’s a guy who said, “Enough is enough. No more. Another $10 billion spending bill? Pay for it. Then we’ll do it.”

And Republicans said, “Shut up, Bunning! Get out of the way! You’re going to ruin our re-election chances.”

Not all of them—there were exceptions, like Utah’s Orrin Hatch—but many Republicans were either critical of Bunning’s one-man stand or refused to support him. Because Democrats seized on the opportunity to paint Republicans as unsympathetic to the plight of laid off workers.

And that’s what it boils down to: Republicans don’t have the spinal fortitude to stand up to fiscal irresponsibility. None of us do, really. Because all spending proponents have to do is paint it as being beneficial to struggling workers, and we say, “Okay! Let’s do it. What’s another $10 billion?”

Well, here’s a reality check: It may just be $10 billion—a drop in the bucket, really—but $10 billion here and $10 billion there quickly add up to a $1.6 trillion budget deficit.

Just look at us in Tennessee for a classic example. As a state that is fairly conservative, Tennesseans have been hollering and screaming for months about out-of-control spending in Washington. Yet, all someone had to do was write a story that work on a road in Cades Cove was being stopped because of the Bunning Blockade and the loop would be closed for the near future, and the resolve of thousands of Tennesseans dissolved in an instant. Suddenly, Bunning was viewed as an obstructionist who needed to STHU and sit down.

Fact is, every spending bill from here to eternity is going to benefit someone, somewhere. It doesn’t feel good to stop spending. If we’re to cut spending, there is obviously going to have to be some sacrifices. It doesn’t have to be to unemployment benefits; Bunning’s proposal was that stimulus funds be used to fund the bill. Couldn’t we have cut $10 billion in green technology initiatives to fund this measure? But regardless of where it comes from, you don’t cut spending without cutting something. And that’s why, to a lot of people, fiscal responsibility sounds good in theory but not in practice.

So there’s your reality: Republicans don’t care about fiscal responsibility. Democrats don’t care about fiscal responsibility. And now, apparently, neither do any of the rest of us.

That shouldn’t be a surprise, really, given that Americans invented the credit card.

But as we continue to spend $10 billion here and $10 billion there that we don’t have, there’s something else that Americans invented—or at least perfected—that we should sit up and take notice of. It’s called a foreclosure.

I’m confused. Exactly how are my rights being violated if the Sevier County Commission recites the Lord’s Prayer at their meetings? If I go to that meeting, and I’m not a Christian, and the county mayor stands up and begins reciting, “Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,” how am I being inconvenienced? The county mayor would merely be saying something I don’t agree with. I doubt I’ve ever been to a government meeting where someone didn’t say something I disagreed with. If I don’t agree with the prayer, why can’t I just ignore it?

This concept of separation of church and state has gotten way out of hand. One could argue that there’s no point in the County Commission in Sevier County reciting the prayer. Maybe there isn’t. But it appears to be tradition that goes back more than 30 years. And it certainly isn’t causing any harm, contrary to what folks like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State would have us believe.

Good on Mayor Larry Waters for taking a stand. It won’t matter in the end, but at least he refuses to kowtow to a civil liberties group attempting to force its will on a community (the irony of which never ceases to amaze me).

After much speculation, (former) Tennessean Harold Ford, Jr. has decided not to seek election to the U.S. Senate in New York.

State Sen. Ken Yager (R - Harriman) confirms this morning that he and state Rep. Les Winningham (D - Huntsville) are working with Gov. Phil Bredesen and the state labor department on some job growth initiatives in Scott County.

In a telephone conversation while en route to the Legislative Plaza this morning, Yager said that he and Winningham broached the subject with Gov. Bredesen 10 days ago and that he hopes for an announcement in the coming days.

“Les and I talk frequently about what’s happening in Scott County and we’re very concerned about the [jobless] situation there,” Yager said. “We’re going to make sure we do what we can to help.”

Winningham also indicated Friday during a visit to the Oneida Municipal Services Building that an announcement might be forthcoming.

“Not everyone will get their jobs back and not everyone will have a great job, but there will be some opportunities,” Winningham said.

Local unemployment is near 19%, with more than 300 layoffs looming over the next six weeks.

On a related note, local and regional officials are meeting in Scott County today for a “brain-storming session” to explore job growth opportunities.

Al Gore’s op-ed in Saturday’s New York Times laments the recent events that have led to renewed attacks on the global warming theory, even while acknowledging some “mistakes” made by proponents of climate change science:

It is true that the climate panel published a flawed overestimate of the melting rate of debris-covered glaciers in the Himalayas, and used information about the Netherlands provided to it by the government, which was later found to be partly inaccurate. In addition, e-mail messages stolen from the University of East Anglia in Britain showed that scientists besieged by an onslaught of hostile, make-work demands from climate skeptics may not have adequately followed the requirements of the British freedom of information law.

But the scientific enterprise will never be completely free of mistakes.

Mistakes? Mistakes?! It’s fraud, Al. Fraud. And it cheapens the climate change issue. Because, for all we know, global warming might be happening. But the efforts to rhetorically strong-arm the idea into acceptance at any cost, even by manipulating the data, drive folks away and prevent us from having an honest debate on the issue.

State Sen. Jim Kyle has dropped out of the race, which virtually assures McWherter of the Democratic nomination. AC Kleinheider sounds off on Kyle’s forfeit:

So now what for a while threatened to be an exciting nomination fight is now back to what it started as: a boring contest for a sacrificial lamb.

The only side benefit to this is that Kim McMillan may now finally get the attention she deserves as a serious candidate.

McMillan was the first one in the race, announcing before the year 2008 had even finished, but her candidacy has never caught fire. Now she represents the only hope to stop the coronation of a boring, conservative legacy case.

Conventional wisdom says that a Republican is going to win the gubernatorial race this fall. Whether it’s Bill Haslam or Zach Wamp or Ron Ramsey, the candidate who emerges victorious in August will find the November general election a mere formality. So says conventional wisdom.

But I will add this about Mike McWherter: Don’t count him out just yet. Before this morning, I hadn’t had much exposure to McWherter, apart from reading the materials distributed by his campaign and reading the Nashville blog scene. As I arrived at the Oneida Municipal Services Building this morning, I overheard a local Democrat say that he felt McWherter has a decent chance of winning. I figured he must be talking about the primary, because everyone knows that the GOP nominee will be the heir apparent to the Governor’s Mansion. Right? But after listening to McWherter speak, I know where the guy was coming from when he says he has a chance. McWherter has a strategy that, in my opinion, will resonate with voters. All candidates talk about creating jobs, but few have a clear plan. To put it bluntly, I was impressed with McWherter.

My thinking is that when McWherter gets the opportunity to begin taking his message to the people, he may win over a few voters who have no plans of casting ballots for him. And if McMillan’s candidacy is indeed going nowhere fast, and McWherter isn’t forced to go through a bruising primary battle, he can go forward with that message while the Republicans are busy trying to out-spend and out-last one another.

Whether that can translate to success in November is another story. Clearly, the Democrats face the biggest uphill battle in Tennessee that they’ve faced in some time. But this thing just might get interesting.

Tom Hayden, communications coordinator for Rep. Lincoln Davis, emails to set the record straight on this post:

Davis voted against both bills, but voted for the bank bailout earlier.

“I wouldn’t have minded seeing a few of the big banks go out of business, but I didn’t want to see our community banks fail,” he said.

Says Hayden: “Lincoln voted AGAINST the bank bailout every time it was on the floor for a vote.”

And he’s right.

I’m disappointed that I made a mistake and Brandon or Quirky didn’t comment to let me know about it.

Is help on the way for struggling Scott County? Les Winningham thinks so.

Winningham, long-time state representative from Huntsville, says to “expect some announcements” from the state in the coming days about jobs help for Scott County.

“It won’t put everyone back to work and not everyone will have a great job, but there are going to be some opportunities,” Winningham said, as he escorted Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McWherter to Oneida.

State Rep. Les Winningham and Oneida Mayor Jack E. Lay look on as Mike McWherter introduces himself to supporters at the Oneida Municipal Services Building Friday morning.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McWherter visited Oneida this morning, where he met with party operatives and supporters at the Municipal Services Building.

McWherter, 54, is a businessman from Jackson. He also just happens to be the son of former Tennessee governor Ned McWherter. A well-spoken gentleman who comes across as sincere and confident in his plan to put Tennessee back on the path to economic prosperity, highlights three main areas of concern: Jobs, education and health care.

On jobs: McWherter speaks about the state of Tennessee employment, he talks infrastructure early and often. From good roads to a good broadband Internet backbone, the way to sell Tennessee to prospective employers is to have good infrastructure in place. “When we have infrastructure in place, we can go out and sell, sell sell,” he said. Gov. Phil Bredesen has laid the foundation by recruiting three key corporations (Volkswagon, Hemlock and Wacker), he added, and the focus now can turn to suppliers of those plants.

On education: Tennessee needs higher standards in education—more than half the state’s schools don’t have a physics instructor, he pointed out—to help prepare students for higher education, McWherter said. He pointed out that when it comes to graduating students from higher education, only Louisiana and Arkansas lag behind Tennessee. “That means Mississippi graduates more students, per capita, from higher education than we do. That is totally unacceptable.”

On health care: McWherter lauded his father’s accomplishments with the TennCare program, and blamed the burden that the program become on the state’s resources a result of mismanagement by the Sundquist administration. The Bredesen administration has gotten the program back on track, he said, but it’s impossible to say what the exact future of TennCare is until it’s determined what Washington is going to do on the subject of health care reform. However, he said, Tennesseans “have a need for affordable health care and accessibility to preventative medicine.”

McWherter also said he’s opposed to an income tax, saying the state’s current budget woes cannot be blamed on a malfunctioning tax code. “Just three years ago, we had such a surplus that representatives and senators were given block grant money to distribute in their districts,” he said. “When we get our people back to work, they will start spending again, and we’ll have the revenue to move this state forward.” He added that the lack of an income tax is “attractive” to prospective employers looking to establish business in Tennessee.