On this date in 2014, 2015, as well as 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, who has expressed a desire to pass anti-immigrant laws in his state similar to Arizona’s controversial SB1070, tried to prevent a single Syrian refugee from being resettled into his state, and has signed a myriad of insane bills that have hit his desk from Republicans in the Tennessee state legislature, including ones to legalize firearms being carried in state and local parks (because we need headlines about playgrounds being turned into battlegrounds), prevent sex education teachers from discussing “gateway sexual activities” like touching of the thigh or buttocks, ordering welfare recipients to be drug tested (which proved again to be a failed policy where they only found 1 person out of 812 until a judge overturned the law), and legalizing the use of the electric chair for executions in his state again. Gov. Haslam also spent some time arguing with a federal judge that same-sex marriage should be allowed in his state, filing an appeal because the decision was “frustrating the will of the people of Tennessee”.
It has been a mostly quiet year for Gov. Haslam, as he has gone into full lame duck mode now that he’s term-limited as governor… and the federal fraud scandal surrounding his family’s trucking company has apparently made him think twice about running for U.S. Senate to replace the retiring Sen. Bob Corker. So this very well will be our last entry about Bill Haslam, who we hope will spend his future trying to hide from federal investigators, and watching his brother’s NFL team, the Cleveland Browns, continue to be the laughing stock of football.