by George Scoville, The Daily Caller - Tennessee has many quirks that
have become the standards by which I have judged society at large over
the course of my life. From the cool misty mornings in Smoky Mountain
National Park in the east, to Monteagle Mountain atop the Cumberland
Plateau in the mid-state area, right down to the dry-rub smoked ribs at
Rendezvous in Memphis, these experiences unique to Tennessee have helped
me define beauty, majesty, and what I consider to be “the good life”
after spending almost all of my natural life as a resident of the
Volunteer State. I am certainly glad to be living here again after
almost five years in the nation’s capital.
As a political observer,
though, I’m troubled by a peculiar function of state government:
Tennessee is the only state in the Union whose Supreme Court selects its
Attorney General. That’s not by accident, either; Article VI, Section 5 of the Tennessee Constitution directs
the Supreme Court to appoint the AG to an eight-year term. By
comparison, 43 other states’ attorneys general are elected by popular
ballot, five states’ governors appoint their attorneys general, and
Maine’s legislature elects its attorney general. What separates
Tennessee from all those other states, aside from procedural differences
and constitutional mandates in selecting the attorney general, is that
ours has the lowest relative level of accountability. (continue reading)
Top Stories
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment