My current favorite viral celebrity was featured on one of the most prominent cable television shows.

We all know these whackadoodle politicians. They exist in every town across this country and serve to remind us how awesome democracy is. Before the Sex Poodle’s great invention, we couldn’t share them. They just got old and annoying because they won’t go away and run for some office every election. However, the wacky politician in your hometown is hilarious in mine. Bless the interwebs.

Also, if you want even more Basil action, follow his Twitter feed.

When South Carolina hasn’t been in the news, Alabama candidates have filled the void of interesting political stories this cycle.

Tennnessee, here’s your chance to share some of that glory. I’ve briefly mentioned Basil Marceaux, a Chattanoogan who appears to run for something every election cycle. For the first time, I present Mr. Marceaux in his own words.

I’ve previously stated that Dale Peterson needed to have a cable news show with Alvin Greene. I take that back. I think Mr. Marceaux here is a better match for the dark horse candidate from South Carolina.

H/T Nathan at Holding Down the Fort via email.

The head basketball coach endorsing a candidate from the family that collectively serves as single biggest donor in the history of the University certainly has the appearance of quid pro quo. I’m in no way accusing wrong-doing here, but it looks suspicious.

Pearl is an extremely popular figure, especially in East Tennessee. Since arriving at UT in 2005, he’s worked a miracle with our men’s basketball team. Prior to his tenure, men’s basketball was viewed as hopeless. In order for Bill Haslam to win the nomination, his support is going to have to turn out in East Tennessee. It’s also the only part of the state where he has high name ID.

The Haslam family’s relationship to the University is too close for one of its high-profile leaders to make an endorsement. This should be seriously questioned. However, the Knoxville media has a long-history of looking the other way when UT does something wrong.

For those outside of Knoxville, the Haslam family essentially runs everything in the area. They own Pilot Travel Centers, the chain of gas stations and convenience stores in the Southeast. Given their vast oil fortune, they’ve made considerable philanthropic donations in the Knoxville area. By all accounts, the family is very generous and philanthropic. Close friends of mine have worked for Pilot and attest that it is a good, family company.

When I volunteered or interned for various nonprofits in college, the general attitude was not to do anything that upset Daddy Haslam, as James Haslam, II is known. The same friends, who were former Pilot employees, also quickly jumped on the Bill Haslam for Governor bandwagon, explaining that the company wouldn’t look fondly on employees supporting another candidate.

The Haslam family is also very Republican. Bill Haslam is currently mayor of Knoxville and is running against Congressman Zach Wamp.

My dislike of self-funding candidates is noted here, and Bill Haslam is about as self-funded as you can get.

Why is it questionable that Pearl endorsed Bill Haslam?

The Haslam family is the single largest donor in  University of Tennessee history. In recent years (I believe it was 2007), they gave an unprecedented $32.5 million to the University with 30% going directly to the athletic department. Since Haslam is the only gubernatorial candidate who refuses to release his tax records, this endorsement appears questionable.

The overall gifts of the Haslam family can be tracked, but since Bill Haslam won’t release his financial records, there is no way of proving that this endorsement is not in return for donations. The donations that are on the record paint a very cozy picture between the Haslams and the UT Athletic Department and the larger University system.

Daddy Haslam served as a Trustee of the University of Tennessee system for decades. He is also the chairman of executive committee for the UT Athletics Board, the body that directly oversees Coach Pearl. University athletic departments are notoriously secretive about donations, so it is impossible to know exactly who and how much in the Haslam family has contributed over the years.

According to current records, Daddy Haslam and his son, James A. “Jimmy” Haslam III (president of Pilot) are members of the Torchbearer Society, the elite group of donors who have given more than $10 million. Two family-operated foundations also contribute to the University: the Haslam Family Foundation, which is listed as donating between $5 million and $10 million, and the Haslam 3  Foundation, which gave between $100,000-$500,000. Jimmy Haslam and his wife, Dee, also established the Haslam Scholars program.

Per their IRS 990s, Bill Haslam is a director of the Haslam Family Foundation. In2008(the latest year a 990 is available), the Haslam Family Foundation gave the University nearly $1.2 million. As a director of the foundation, he would have signed off on that contribution.

Shouldn’t it raise eyebrows when Bruce Pearl, a direct beneficiary of this family through his job at the University, endorses one of the sons? Remember that enormous gift of $32.5 milion? The chunk of change from Daddy Haslam alone gave $9.2 million to the athletic department, which in turn pays Bruce Pearl’s salary of $2.4 million each year.

It could be argued that all of this is Daddy Haslam and brother Jimmy. Knoxville is a smaller city. Prominent people always know each other. There is not necessarily quid pro quo in this situation.

However, Bill Haslam hasn’t operated a transparent campaign. He should release his tax records, which contain a paper trail of his charitable giving. If there was no wrong-doing, they would clearly exonerate him from any misgivings or inappropriate endorsements earned through high dollar donations to the University.

The UT Athletic Department also doesn’t have the best reputation. The football program is currently under investigation from the NCAA for recruiting violations. Like most major athletic universities, rumors have always churned about less-than-honorable activities.

Given Haslam’s reluctance to run a transparent campaign and a long history of questionable actions by the University of Tennessee Athletic Department, shouldn’t this endorsement be questioned?

The subject of conservative women emerging in politics is one that I’ve covered for more than a year. Since the infamous Mama Grizzly remarks by Sarah Palin, I’ve refrained from commenting* and watched the debate evolve. The role of conservative women in feminism is another, much-needed blog post, but I’m excited to see the discussion. On the right, this is a subject that no one has ever wanted to discuss. On the left, it engages a decades-old debate on how to exactly define feminism. Among feminist circles, this is still a messy internal argument. In the coming months, expect a lot more from me on this subject.

With a number of upcoming primaries with female Republican candidates like Robin Smith in my home district of TN-03 or Pamela Gorman, the game continues.

Update 6/10/10: Even more stories via Google alerts.

WaPo: Can Sarah Palin Claim Credit for Last Night?

New York Daily News: GOP primaries: Sarah Palin helps South Carolina’s Nikki Haley and Calif.’s Carly Fiorina win big

CBS: GOP Women Dominate in Tuesday’s Primaries

The round-up so far today. First the feminists.

Jezebel has a fair round-up posted. Well, as fair as Jezebel (i.e. Gawker) folks get. Since two Democrats were on the list, they couldn’t do hatchet jobs on the rest.

Double X gets a few points wrong about the Mama Grizzly endorsements. Orly Taitz is a birther. I don’t know if even the radical fringes of the Tea Party would accept her. To use her as an example of a Palin loss is inaccurate since Palin never even touched that race. Claire Grossman wrote:

Though they’re just as extreme as their female counterparts, male candidates affiliated with the Tea Party like Rand Paul are shown (in a far less head-scratching spirit) as Ayn Randian, spear-carrying individualists. Whatever you think of their political beliefs, mama bears don’t deserve to be hit with the tired “hysterical woman” stereotype.

I agree with Grossman’s sentiment. Women should be discussed and debated on the same terms of men. If you’re going to do a fashion story, look at male candidates too or refrain from style all together. However, I wish Grossman had used better examples. Birthers are crazy and deserve to be ridiculed.

Debra Medina also waded birther territory. She also ran against an incumbent with high name ID who ran a stellar campaign in Texas. Palin also endorsed Perry, Medina’s opposition. Birthers are so far to the extreme of conservative politics, that pushing them aside and calling them crazy is the only option. To given them any serious consideration would only hurt the entire movement. Grossman doesn’t look at coverage of male birther candidates. They’re viewed just as nutty as the women are.

This cycle does prove that women are treated differently. Much of the coverage of these women did result in mud-slinging and name-calling. Haley’s campaign should enter the record books for new lows in public life, but the race in Nevada also got ugly at times. The California race was largely fair. Neither Meg Whitman or Carly Fiorina seemed to be attacked or held to double-standards, despite Fiorina releasing the most bizarre campaign commercials ever. I’m disappointed in Fiorina’s victory,* but both women held their own in a tough state while running against men who were positioned further to the right.

EMILY’s List is scared of Carly Fiorina, which is a silver lining for me personally. Bwhahaha!

Stephanie pointed out that Fiorina is already going on the attack against Barbara — no great shock, since she’d been lobbing attacks on TV at Barbara before she even won the party endorsement. Already, choice is becoming a top issue in this race, and we can’t afford to lose Barbara’s leadership on women’s rights in the Senate.

Fiorina’s got a war chest filled with money from the $21-million golden parachute she received after being fired from her job at HP. We’ve got to help Barbara fill her campaign coffers now and make sure she’s ready to fight back!

Given EMILY’s List struggle to adapt to younger feminists and raise money, good luck with that one.

The Right-of-Center Folks:

Independent Women’s Forum. (Great post, which I completely agree with!)

Regardless of their reasons for running, and regardless of the outcome of the November elections, in my book the primary results have at least one absolutely terrific outcome. Women and girls have a great new set of role models to look up to who aren’t afraid to step up and speak out for what they believe in – and that kind of positive encouragement is good for the whole country. For too long, sitting officials have overlooked the wishes of their constituents in order to advance their own agendas – and the American people have had enough.

Susan B. Anthony List (I encourage them to not use “conservative feminism.” That’s a loaded label, but that’s another blog post.)

What an amazing night for pro-life women across the country! Without a doubt, last night victories were the greatest affirmation of the Susan B. Anthony List mission since our organization’s founding and truly telling of the resurgence of authentic, pro-life feminism–feminism true to our foremother’s belief that the rights of one group can never be advanced on the broken backs of others.

Hot Air via Ed Morrissey:

Why so many women in the GOP? One has to give at least some credit to the Tea Parties. In my experience with the activists behind Tea Party events, most have been women who have become determined to steer the course of the American political agenda back to the Right. The two national politicians most associated with the Tea Party movement? Powerful Republican women: Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN).

I agree with Morrissey here. Tea Parties are largely driven by women. Also, consider the fractured state of the GOP since 2006. With incumbents out of favor, and voters angry at “establishment” politicians, this opened the door for women. There’s a larger post here, but the media doesn’t recognize a trend until a figurehead emerges. Love or hate Palin, she motivated a lot of women who identified with her.

It also takes a much bigger commitment for women to run. Dee Dee Meyers explains in her book that it takes asking a women 5 or 6 times before she’ll consider running. With the GOP out of ideas and fresh blood, they were much more willing to woo female candidates than in previous years.

Red State via Erick Erickson

The Republican Establishment is declaring this their year of the woman. There are five in particular that I want to aggressively support: Nikki Haley running for Governor in South Carolina, Karen Handel running for Governor in Georgia, Sharron Angle running for the Senate in Nevada, Robin Smith running for Congress in Tennessee, and Pamela Gorman running for Congress in Arizona.

More from me on these awesome women later.

Other media:

Blogher: Don’t Get Mad. Get Elected.

I mean, really — isn’t it time to change the all-male South Carolina state senate or the Ohio state senate’s GOP male-female ratio (19-2) (Dems total of 11 are split 6-5)? The SC senate doesn’t even have an election until 2012 — plenty of time! Come on, ladies. Don’t get mad — get elected.

Christian Science Monitor: Women Shine in Tuesday’s Primaries, Especially GOP

The GOP still has plenty of catching up to do in recruiting women candidates – even if many of those candidates play down their gender. (Palin herself refers to an “emerging, conservative, feminist identity” in the party.) These latest primary victories for women show that the party is gaining ground and perhaps that will help bring gender equity in US politics closer to reality.

Politico: Palin’s Backing Pays Off for Pals

Some of Sarah Palin’s riskiest endorsements scored major victories Tuesday for the former Alaska governor, showing off her power in Republican primaries.

Palin had four primary endorsements in play – Carly Fiorina, Nikki Haley, Terry Branstad and Cecile Bledsoe – and three won or moved on to a runoff.

Palin served different roles for each candidate – sometimes spotlighting conservatives not well known to the national scene while at others validating conservative credentials to an unsure grassroots and even stepping in to deflect nasty attacks.

Fox News: Tea Party Candidates, Women Roar on Primary Night

The primary elections Tuesday amounted to a night of messages — from the Tea Party, from female candidates and for the Democrats.

With hundreds of primaries held across 11 states, a number of candidates made history while others pulled out come-from-behind wins. The elections helped set the stage for a November general election
in which incumbents are girding for a series of hard-fought battles.

Hannity’s Great American Panel will discuss this topic tonight as well.
*Disclosure: I worked on the Chuck DeVore campaign, which opposed Carly Fiorina in California.