I think Washington pundits and the Obama administration may be surprised by Sen. Alexander’s votes. Alexander was a two-term governor, a cabinet secretary, a presidential candidate, and has served in the Senate. He’s accomplished all that because he is politically ...

It was a fascinating prospect, after a hundred years of Democratic dominance of the state Legislature, to watch it change to a Republican majority.

So if we can appoint people to office without an election, then why can’t we have the Legislature at least appoint the candidates for office?

You may have followed the controversy last week when a minister in St. Louis objected to a restaurant tacking on an 18 percent tip for a large dinner party. The bill had the tip crossed off and the minister customer ...

Consumers would like the convenience of picking up a bottle of wine the same place they buy steaks and potatoes. That convenience would lead to increased wine sales and a corresponding increase in state tax revenue

You might wonder why it was necessary for legislators to introduces thousands of bills each session—before House Speaker Beth Harwell put a stop to the practice this year with a limit.

Using that specious logic, the money for education belongs to the parents. But it doesn’t.

Being speaker of the House is the most difficult job in politics, whether you are presiding over the state legislature or the U.S. House.

Are people happier with the present structure, or have term limits and turnover made the difference?

You would think the murder of 20 Connecticut school children and a national debate on gun safety would prompt the gun lobby and its legislative allies in Tennessee to reconsider spending the upcoming session pushing another gun bill. You would ...

Knoxville has fewer hospitals than it did, but the city remains the health-care center for Middle East Tennessee, and the health-care industry here is one of our largest employers. What’s looming in the health-care industry is important for us all ...

Anytime we try to discuss state’s rights and federalism, some moron on one side starts screaming about seceding from the union and the other side dismisses the issue as just a right-wing fantasy.

Critics argued that these liberalizations of gun laws would lead to a “wild West” atmosphere. Considering the thousands and thousands of gun permits that have since been issued across the country, there have been remarkably few instances of these concepts ...

It used to be said that the Tennessee electorate consisted of one-third Democrats, one-third Republicans, and one-third independents. If that is still true, the independents have been spending a lot of time in the Republican camp of late.

Highway projects never die, they just move down the list. Decades ago, Knoxville billed itself as the Gateway to the Smokies and the James White Parkway would deliver tourists through Knoxville to Gatlinburg and the park.