Martin RingstaffBe proud of Cleveland again
Most of East Tennessee has been relieved not to live in Cleveland for the last few years.
That's because an unseemly number of officials - in positions of public trust - in Cleveland have been accused and toppled from office of late under a cloud of crazy sex scandals. It's all a bit hard to understand, seeing as this is a town (population 41,285) that is home to the international headquarters of the Church of God and the religious-minded Lee University.
Until recently, the most prominent and lurid case was that of a police chief who carried on a tryst with a local nonprofit director in a "love nest" in a climate-controlled storage unit, replete with pillows, blankets and half a bottle of brandy. Within months, the replacement police chief was caught in an affair with a subordinate's wife and lied about it to investigators. Thereafter, several other Cleveland officers were accused in still more sordid tales.
Then came the recent bombshell news that Cleveland Schools director - ex-director now - and Tennessee 2015 Superintendent of the Year, Martin Ringstaff, was caught with his pants down.
More specifically, he was found to be sexting graphic messages back and forth with a woman who is not his wife. The affair came to light when an anonymous person posted screenshots of his messages and pictures on Twitter. One message contained an image of his penis.
Ringstaff first claimed it was a faked and fraudulent account, and he asked police to investigate. He later admitted to investigators that he had made "mistakes in his personal life."
Yes, that would be a mistake - with a wide-angle lens.
Just the week before, the Cleveland Board of Education had extended Ringstaff's contract through 2019, and on Thursday he reportedly agreed to resign if given 18 months' salary - about $210,000.
But on Friday, the board fired him, with no severance, citing a morality clause in his contract.
This week, Clevelanders can be proud of being from Cleveland: No buy-outs for flame-outs.
Democratic debate was real
The first one-on-one debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Thursday night had a clear winner: Democrats.
It's true that the first five minutes of whiny, petulant conversation about who was more progressive was almost so Republican-like that this viewer came close to changing the TV dial.
But the two presidential heavyweights finally settled down.
And when they did, they began an incredibly interesting conversation - yes, substantive conversation, not food-fight insults - about the most important issues facing Americans and our nation. Wall Street, ISIS, health care, leadership.
The MSNBC stage held two real leaders Thursday. Together, they would be amazing.
Haslam unplugged on leadership
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam also is shaking his head over Republican politics. (To be fair, he also lumps the Democrat spat last week into the category of over-staged game shows.)
Asked here Friday for his view of this year's presidential campaigns, he shook his head and shrugged.
"Can bafflement be an answer?" he responded.
"There's obviously a lot of frustration right now - on both sides, he said, becoming serious.
For one thing, he said, the topics facing the country and politicians are complex. ISIS, for instance, doesn't have an easy answer. And he added that we live in a divided country that doesn't look for compromise.
"There's no reward for building coalitions that actually come to an answer and solution. The reward now is for people who can express their anger," he said.
But the answer can't just be about your, our, or any politician's feeling, he continued.
"It's got to be about a solution," he said.
It's too bad Gov. Haslam can't get our Tennessee lawmakers and our nation's congress members to drink his Kool-Aid.