Roy Exum: 'Neigh!’ To Diane Black

  • Friday, August 4, 2017
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

There was a crowd of Tennessee Walking Horses gathered at the barn when I got there because the rumor was I was bringing some big news. So I looked at the horses and said solemnly, “Diane Black has announced she is running for governor,” and there was instant pandemonium. Suffice it to say Diane Black is easily one of the most wretched politicians on earth as far as Tennessee Walking Horses are concerned.

Lordy, it was worse than the “USA! USA!” when our hockey team beat the Russians in 1980 in “The Miracle on Ice.” The horses went crazy.

“Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!” screamed the horses in unison. It is widely known Black is quite involved in Tennessee’s scandalous “Dirty Lick” segment of the horse industry and has taken thousands of dollars in “campaign contributions” from the seedy Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration.

All of Tennessee’s Republicans have. That’s why not a one has endorsed the federal PAST Act (“Prevent All Soring Tactics”) in a state believed to be the worst in the country in abusing the beautiful Tennessee Walking Horses. There are 50 (of 100) Senators that have endorsed the federal legislation to further prevent the illegal soring of Walking Horses and 251 (of 534) members of Congress who have co-sponsored the bill.

But isn’t it odd that not one of Tennessee two senators nor the state’s seven members of Congress have co-sponsored the bill? The reason is the “Dirty Lick,” this is what the repugnant segment of the Walking Horse industry is aptly called, has “lobbied” the greedy politicians hard. Worse, they’ve given so much to Senator Lamar Alexander and Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell there ain’t a chance the bill will ever be called to the floor. That is real politics.

But now the real people have a say, this at the ballot box, and the view here is that it’s jolly past time to pay the piper. Diane Black needs to be held accountable. You can bet sound horse lovers across the state of Tennessee will take a strong look at those we have elected into office … and should not be there any longer.

In Black’s video she used to announce her candidacy on Wednesday, she claims “I wasn’t afraid to stand up to the weak-kneed people in my own party when I had to.”

Excuse me? The woman is kidding, right? This “public servant” also had the audacity to claim, “We believe in absolute truths. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. Truth is truth. God is God and a life is a life," she said in her glamourous announcement video, adding, "We don’t back down from any of it.”

I don’t know who the ‘we’ is who Black refers to, but it is a foregone conclusion the “Dirty Lick” is deep inside her pocket and how she can speak of right and wrong, truth, and God, when she ignores the screams of tortured horses in the infamous ABC Nightline video is beyond all belief. I’m not calling her a hypocrite but, my mercy, “disgusting” fits like a tailored suit. I’ll look her straight in the eye and call her out.

How can Black know such depravity still exists in the state she wishes to govern, and live with the fact she has had repeated opportunities to confront it but turned her back with every other Republican from Tennessee? Hollywood can’t make this stuff up and no Tennessee voter should dare fall for it. Vote all the bums out of office. The evidence is painfully clear.

Black likes to play herself as this tender heart who “still keeps my nursing license current.” Oh my goodness. Worse, she claims she was once as a single mother of three living in Maryland public housing, working the night shift, when the more telling fact is that it is reported she and her husband now have a financial worth of $150 million.

Please! This woman is one of 268 millionaires now serving in Congress. Keep those political contributions coming if you need favoritism. The only way Diane Black could milk Tennesseans any worse is to have three hands.

If ever there was a text-book example of chicanery, the “Dirty Lick” and Tennessee’s Republican Party love fest is enough to make a Democrat cry. Before the last election a reception said to be worth $30,000 was held for Jasper’s Scott DesJarlais at the “Sore-abration” in Shelbyville. Chattanooga’s Chuck Fleischmann is another who has stood in goose-step tandem with the Republicans in blatantly shielding the Dirty Lick’s misdeeds. It is absolutely disgusting.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn is said to be the Dirty Lick’s centerfold and Steven B. Smith, the Grand Imperial Wizard of the Dirty Lick, just happens to now be the campaign manager for another candidate for governor, Randy Boyd from Knoxville. The charade is endless and I’m saying the voters can play a role in pest control next May.

The experts claim this will be the most expensive election in the state’s history, far richer than the reported $16.7 million Bill Haslam spent to win the last GOP primary. But it doesn’t matter how much is spent, it all comes down to how each person uses their vote. We, the people, can make a difference.

Horse sense decrees Diane Black needs to be ushered out to pasture in 2018.

royexum@aol.com





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