By Erik Schelzig | TNJ
This week’s print edition of The Tennessee Journal includes an obituary of Roy Herron, the former longtime state lawmaker who died in a boating accident at age 69. Here are some quotes of the Dresden Democrat that appeared in the pagers of the TNJ over the years:
— “I’m a truck-driving, shotgun-shooting, Bible-reading, crime-fighting, family-loving country boy.” — Herron in an ad for his unsuccessful Democratic bid for Congress in 2010.
— “The gospel singer didn’t tell the gospel truth.” — Herron in 2011 about a Federal Election Commission finding that winning Republican congressional candidate Steve Fincher had misrepresented the source of a $250,000 loan during the campaign. But the FEC deadlocked on how to punish Fincher, so the matter was dismissed.
— “To put it simply, the scripture teaches us that the church is to be the bride of Christ, not the prostitute of any political party.” — Herron in 2006 about a new website launched for Cristian Democrats that he said would help dispel the notion that “God is spelled G-O-P.”
— “You’re all in the same kettle, but some of the fish don’t smell as bad as some others.” — Herron questioning the District Attorneys General Conference in 1992 about some local prosecutors struggling to stay within their budgets.
— “If they want nuclear waste in West Tennessee, they will have to dump it over my dead body.” — Herron in 2010 about a proposal to convert the Milan Army Ammunition Plant to a storage facility for depleted uranium.
— “I voted for the president. I announced I was for the president. I told anybody who asked me that I was for the president. I support the president, I support what he’s trying to do for the country, and I support the United States of America.” — Herron, when challenged upon his election as Tennessee Democratic Party chair in 2013, about whether he supported President Barack Obama.
— “Help me get the cookies on a low enough shelf so I can eat them.” — Herron to the state Medicaid director Manny Martins in 1992 about intricacies of the latest funding proposal.
— “I’m reluctant to encourage people to break each other’s noses, especially at this point in the legislative session.” —Herron about a 1992 bill covering simple assault.
— “I would say to my friends who are not attorneys that The Tennessee Journal wrote of this bill, ‘Lawyers hate the bill.’ And I would encourage those of you who would like to vote against lawyers to vote for this bill on that basis.” — Herron during a 1996 House floor debate about his bill seeking to crack down on “ambulance chasing.”
— “By the grace of God, I dodged a bullet. . . . I am especially grateful that I am not one of the 320,000 Tennesseans who, because of the indifference of the Tea Party-dominated legislature, do not have access to health insurance.” — Herron after undoing a stent procedure for a blocked artery in 2014.
— “When someone vigorously pursues the truth and really examines the problems, that’s going to naturally create some opposition from those responsible for administering the programs you are overseeing.” — Herron on losing the chairmanship of the TennCare Oversight Committee in 2001.
— “He can preach, and he did today.” — Herron about President Bill Clinton’s speech at a burned-out church he helped rebuild in Gibson County in 1996.
— “When I think the bill has enough votes to pass without my vote, I vote against it. The thought in my mind is, ‘If my vote isn’t necessary, then there’s no reason to give any opponent a campaign issue to distort against me next time.’ So, today I vote wrong.” — An excerpt of Herron’s diary from his first term in office about a vote on sex education bill published in Southern Magazine in 1988.
— “If the state’s the mama, BlueCross is the daddy.” — Herron in 2000 about the role played by BlueCross BlueShield in the creation and development of the TennCare program.
— “Thanks to that helmet, there’s not anything wrong with my head after the wreck that was not already wrong with it before.” — Herron crediting a bicycle helmet with saving his life in a 2011 bike crash Sunday in Obion County, where he was training for an upcoming triathlon. Herron sustained a broken collar bone and multiple broken ribs.
