Phil, Phil, Phil...

I don't know what to think about Phil Bredesen. He's been getting tons of press lately, with a cover piece over at The New Republic. People are talking about a run for the White House in '08, because he's a moderate southern democrat who might play on the national stage.

I don't get it.

I'm involved in politics because I want the world to be a better place, not because I want to win. I understand that winning is a necessary part of effecting change, but it isn't the final goal. What's the point if your guy won't change things for the better once he's in office?

We were all excited about Phil when he was first elected. As Bubba indicates, many of us had very high hopes:

I was looking forward to responsible management of the state budget and reasonable approaches to getting spending under control, followed by a reevaluation of our priorities, educating the public on the issues and the needs, and getting to work fixing some of the serious problems in our state.

Unfortunately this has not happened. His two significant accomplishments so far are worker's comp "reform", which amounts to a handout for big corporations at the expense of reduced benefits for working people injured on the job, and his "reform", i.e. dismantling, of TennCare, which will put more than 300,000 out on the street in terms of health care.

These are not the progressive reforms Tennessee Democrats are looking for.

Phil showed some promise, but before he even got out of the starting gate, he caved on tax reform and his first couple of years in the governor's office have him looking a lot like just another republicrat. Our schools continue to languish and hundreds of thousands of people have just seen their health care coverage disappear. Even his supposedly progressive initiatives don't stand up to scrutiny very well. In this patchwork of recent Bredesen news, there is also this tidbit:

Gov Opposes TBR Amendment
Well, the predictions were right. It turns out that Governor Phil Bredesen is not a fan of an amendment that would permanently ban a state income tax and fix state spending to growth levels of the private sector. Bredesen also said he wouldn't actively oppose an amendment banning gay marriage, even though he didn't think it was necessary [...].

Maybe the TBR thing is just an attempt to keep us progressives on board by tossing us a bone, but actions speak much louder than words. Opposing a ban on a state income tax is lip service. Actually enacting tax reform is something else entirely, and we're still waiting on some move in that direction. And finally, his lame response to the right-wing's attempt to write discrimination into our state constitution is sheer cowardice.

Bottom line, I'm still waiting for some reason to even get excited about Phil's reelection campaign in '06, much less a national campaign in '08.