[A southerner, whom I stayed with in 2019, sent me this article with the comment below about the Republicans. Bedford Forrest was a magnificent White man. He was a legend during and after the Civil War. It is disgusting what these low life scum are doing to US history. Jews and the treasonous US elite are at work. Jan]

Will the Republicans never learn?

Natalie Allison

Nashville Tennessean

The statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest — the early Ku Klux Klan leader [sic] whose bust has been on display in the Tennessee state Capitol since 1978 — can now come down.

That’s according to the process Gov. Bill Lee’s office is following — one that has been discussed for years as activists, legislators and other voting parties have debated removal of the controversial memorial outside the Senate and House chambers.

"We are working to determine next steps and will provide updates accordingly," Lee spokesperson Casey Black said. "Our plans have not changed."

Lee announced in July 2020 that it was time for the bust to be moved from the Capitol to the Tennessee State Museum, a decision that marked an evolution in his position on the issue.

The bust "represents pain and suffering and brutal crimes committed against African Americans," Lee declared last summer, though on the campaign trail two years earlier, the future governor said he was against removing Confederate monuments.

July 9 marked the end of a mandatory 120-day waiting period that followed the Tennessee Historical Commission’s authorization of the bust removal in March. The Historical Commission’s approval came after a vote by the State Capitol Commission last summer, at Lee’s urging, to relocate the Forrest bust and two others to the Tennessee State Museum.

Black noted in her response that while the Lee administration is moving forward with removal, Friday was "the earliest anything can happen" with regard to moving the bust.

House, Senate speakers continue to push back on current removal process

But Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, a staunch opponent of relocating the Forrest bust from the Capitol, and House Speaker Cameron Sexton have argued for months that the governor and his cabinet members on the Capitol Commission did not follow state law by failing to get a vote of concurrence from the State Building Commission before proceeding to the Historical Commission.

While the Building Commission step was never previously publicly discussed by McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and Sexton, R-Crossville, in conversations about the proper removal process, the two speakers after the July 2020 Capitol Commission vote pointed to a section of state law that indicated a third commission also needed to be involved.

Adam Kleinheider, a spokesman for McNally, on Thursday said the lieutenant governor expects the State Building Commission to vote on the matter at its next scheduled meeting July 22. The makeup of that commission is similar to the Capitol Commission and probably would result in the same outcome, barring the unexpected.

McNally "continues to stand by his assertion" that the Building Commission needs to concur with the Capitol Commission vote — despite the fact the Historical Commission already has approved removal, Kleinheider said.

Sexton supports McNally on the issue, said Doug Kufner, spokesperson for the House speaker, and believes the Building Commission must vote on the matter.

"We anticipate that vote taking place later this month, but we will not speculate on how it will turn out," Kufner said.

Lee’s office has maintained it followed the proper process. An opinion issued in May by Attorney General Herbert Slatery stated both sides’ argument for the proper protocol are valid.

Slatery opined that the speakers, who argued the Capitol Commission should have taken the issue to the Building Commission before the Historical Commission, and the Lee administration, which went straight to the Historical Commission, each had legitimate interpretations.

The speakers requested the AG opinion in February.

McNally has long been opposed to removal of the bust, the creation of which was spearheaded in the 1970s by the late Sen. Douglas Henry, D-Nashville, a close friend of McNally’s.

Neither speaker’s office responded to a question about whether they plan to take any additional action to attempt to stop the Lee administration from relocating the bust.

In addition to the bust of Forrest, the busts of U.S. Admiral David Farragut, who remained loyal to the United States during the Civil War, and U.S. Admiral Albert Gleaves, who served during the Spanish-American War and World War I, also will be relocated to the state museum.

All three men were Tennesseans. The addition of Farragut and Gleaves to the removal process last year was a compromise offered by former Comptroller Justin Wilson, who served on the Capitol Commission at the time of the vote.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.