City Voices
Hobbs too big to fire
It wasn’t 24 hours after Chris Devaney
was elected GOP Chairman two Saturday’s ago
when the inevitable speculation began. Surely,
the consensus seemed to be, Bill Hobbs’ con-
troversial stint as communications director of
the Tennessee Republican Party would now be
coming to a close. No longer a matter of if, but
a matter of when.
Putting his tumultuous tenure, the departure
of Hobbs in the near term would not be an un-
safe bet. New party chiefs like to bring in their
own people. That’s the way political jobs work.
Leaders like to have people who they trust. A
loose cannon holdover from a previous regime
is not an incoming chairman’s ideal candidate
for his message man.
And Hobbs is no ordinary loose cannon.
Ever since he was installed as communications
director in October of 2007, betting pools have
been organized around predicting the end of the
controversial blogger’s tenure at the TNGOP.
Yet, through controversy after controversy,
Hobbs has remained. After his most infamous
episode, the Anti-Semites for Obama press re-
lease, where Hobbs referred to Obama by his
full name while displaying a picture of him in
6 June 8, 2009
CITYP_6a BP.indd 6 6/4/09
John McCain won a landslide against
POST POLITICS
native Somali garb, more than
a few media outlets wrote of
Hobbs’ eventual demise as a
virtual certainty.
Yet Hobbs persevered. He
was not fired after producing a
video about Michelle Obama
A.C.
which caused the now-Pres-
KLEINHEIDER
ident to call out the TNGOP
on national television.
But after each and every
controversy, the rumors would begin anew.
“He’s got another month,” they’d say. “They are
gonna wait until the end of session,” you’d hear.
But after each incident, he was still standing in
charge of the party message.
“That was then, this is now” is what those
constantly prophesying Hobbs’ demise will say
now. With this new chairman, they say, a skilled
pragmatic operative with ties to the moderate
faction of the party, Hobbs is certain to fall.
Maybe he does fall this time. But, after all
that has happened, can you really bet against the
man?
Obama in the state in 2008. The GOP took a
numerical majority in both houses of the state
Legislature. With a strong Democratic tide
against the party nationally, TNGOP came up
smelling like a rose. Where Republicans across
the country could do no right, Hobbs and the
TNGOP were golden.
Now, it’s possible all that would have hap-
pened regardless of whether Hobbs was at the
party or not. But in politics, you get the blame
when things are bad and the credit when it’s
good. And things were very good for Republi-
cans in 2008.
It happened on his watch. He gets the credit.
Deserved or undeserved.
Does Devaney have the power to fire Hobbs?
Sure, he does. The question is: Does he want all
that goes with it?
While Devaney can take Hobbs’ title and his
paycheck, he can’t control him. As many inside
and out of the TNGOP have learned, Hobbs
is not one who plays “the game.” Most people
in politics, when their number is called, they
go quietly. They take the opportunity to resign
without incident.
Does Hobbs strike you as that kind of per-
son? No? Me neither.
If Hobbs doesn’t like the way he is taken out,
he could make things very messy for this new
chairman. A chairman, as it happens, stands ac-
cused of being the puppet of the party’s moder-
ate faction. How comfortable will the ideologues
be with the new chairman if one of his first acts is
to put the right-wing, new media communica-
tions director out on the street?
You think that’s not gonna make Red State,
National Review Online, Politico and Instapun-
dit? Devaney will have it hard enough convinc-
ing folks he is not in the back pocket of Tom
Ingram, Bob Corker and Bill Haslam. Firing
Hobbs is a mess he doesn’t need.
Just like only Nixon could open up China,
only an ideological conservative can fire Hobbs.
The establishment may not like Bill Hobbs but
the man is wearing a bulletproof vest embla-
zoned with the year 2008.
TNGOP would do better to hire a Press Sec-
retary to deal with the media and let Hobbs pur-
sue various strategies online at his leisure if they
have a beef with his media relations skills. Going
to war with Bill Hobbs in the blogsphere is just
not an option for the TNGOP as they prepare to
add the governor’s mansion to control of both
houses of the legislature in 2010.
You can start up your pools again and place
your bets, if ya like, but my money is on Hobbs
leaving the party voluntarily — or not at all. CP
4:07:03 PM