Oh, lord, I was prepared for Governor Haslam to be Republican (obviously) and I was prepared for him to be pro-business on some things and wishy-washy on others. After he was kind of blind-sided by that gun crap, I had even steeled myself for him being woefully unprepared.
But I never considered that he might be stupid.
Until now.
Now he’s claiming, possibly in all sincerity, that he didn’t know that implementing a rule freeze would affect Pilot, even though said rule freeze keeps them from having to update some of their fuel tanks.
One wonder who’s being played for a fool here? Are the people of Tennessee supposed to believe that an astute businessman didn’t have any idea what kinds of rules and regulations were affecting his family’s business? Or–and let’s have some sympathy for the people whose livelihoods are tied up in Pilot. Maybe they just learned that the guy who was President of their company doesn’t have any idea about the basic issues facing said company.
I mean, I don’t mean to belabor this, but I worked at a gas station one year right out of college (it was back in the 90s, kids, when we thought the economy was in the shitter because, when you graduated from college, you had to move home and work at a gas station. We had no idea there’d come a day when you graduated from college, moved home, and couldn’t find a job at all.) and I didn’t do anything more than work the register and I knew how big a deal the state of the tanks was and how you were constantly checking for water in them because god forbid you have a leak and have to replace those tanks.
And we’re all supposed to believe that a guy who was the President of the company didn’t constantly worry about the possible expense of having to replace those tanks? That he didn’t realize, even after he left the company, that this would be an ongoing concern of the company? And that, when he was elected governor, he didn’t realize things he does might affect that company?
I mean, is “I’ve been an idiot my whole adult life” really supposed to be more comforting than “Hey, I’m rewarding my family for helping me get to this office.”?
Tiny Cat Pants 
Maybe instead of not knowing what kinds of regulations might affect his family business, he didn’t know what kinds of new regulations he was announcing a freeze on?
i seem to remember him being compared to JR on Dallas, in terms of his REAL role in the family business. As we southerners say, “bless his heart.” – maybe he IS just dumb as a post???
Ann-
You hit it on the head.