Bill, we hardly knew ye

Gov. Phil Bredesen wins again. Damn.

Potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Purcell says he is going to Harvard University. He has a great gig in heading the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Alas, he is needed more here to redirect and revive the Tennessee Democratic Party. But the party sadly belongs to Bredesen and his deep pockets. And with Purcell's departure, the governor now will (unofficially) pick the Democratic nominee to run against former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in 2010.

Heaven help this state's most vulnerable citizens.

I listened to Bredesen speak Monday to the Nashville Rotary Club as penance for my sins. I did, however, get to meet a hero of mine, attorney Gregg Ramos. Yet Bredesen's speech was that of a myth-maker for his own persona than a real leader for all. I'll blog later on his incredible claims about little impact to the poor from his TennCare cuts and his claim to be a champion of education.

O.K., I can't hold it. Does anyone remember his failed Core Curriculum initiative in Nashville Public Schools that forced children to keep up or fall out? I know Sister Sandra Smithson does. We talked constantly about it and lamented the price being paid by young minds already disadvantaged by the circumstances of their environment. Now they became political victims. Bredesen's eight years as mayor of Nashville are a big reason why the public schools are one year away from falling under state control through President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.

His bragging about his Pre-K program as governor may reassure his conscience. But we lost a whole generation of children at risk during Bredesen's eight years as mayor. We can't really go back and rescue them all as today's single parents and prisoners. And the cruel cycle goes on. That analysis is not liberal or conservative. It's just reality.

Yet no one on Monday or any other day was going to tell the emperor he had no clothes. I don't blame folks. Bredesen wouldn't have believed it anyway.

Purcell -- Bredesen's successor who had to clean up a lot of fiscal and public policy messes in Nashville -- deserves the great opportunity at Harvard. He is the kind of leader who should be training this nation's next generation of politicos to look first to the needs of the people and not those of Michael Dell and Bud Adams.

His gain, however, is our terrible loss. And the Democratic Party in Tennessee will become even more unrecognizable for its lack of values, passion and ideals compared to the national one.