William “Bill” Renick, Sr., of Ashland is a solid choice by President Joe Biden to represent Mississippi’s interests on the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors.
Like
Richard Howorth and Glenn McCullough before him in that role, Renick
brings a quick, analytical mind to guiding the fortunes of the nation’s
largest public utility.
But Renick’s life experience in rural Mississippi and his extensive
Mississippi political resume should make him effective on Day One.
Renick,
68, has a unique 50-year background in public service – holding
elective office in municipal, county and state government – winning
election as an Ashland alderman
at the age of 18. He also held appointive office as an economic
development leader and as a hospital administrator. After serving in the
Mississippi Legislature, he served both former Mississippi Gov. Ronnie
Musgrove and former Lt. Gov. Eddie Briggs as chief
of staff.
Renick even did some lobbying in Jackson as president of the Mississippi Retail Association.
Quick
with a joke or a story and possessed of an authentic gift for putting
people at ease, Renick also displayed throughout his government service a
willingness to engage
on behalf of causes he supported and to give as good as he got in
political combat. Those qualities made him effective both in partisan
battles and in struggles over the division of the governmental resource
pie.
Renick
was a trusted source during my time covering state politics. He came
close to making a gubernatorial bid against incumbent Republican Gov.
Haley Barbour in 2007 but
wisely dropped out of that race before the ballots were printed.
Whether in a legislative vote or in sizing up the potential for
political success, Renick is a master of reading the tea leaves.
I
remember getting an earful of the famous Renick temper while he served
as Musgrove’s chief of staff. Like a lot of my favorite politicos over
the years, Bill’s vocabulary
in profanity when angered allowed him to paint rather vivid imagery.
But there has always been far more laughter than confrontation in our
interactions over the years. He will do a marvelous job on the TVA
board.
For
me, it’s challenging to think of the TVA and its impact on the South
without returning to the lyrics of an old Bobby Bare country song made
famous in the late 1980s
by the country music supergroup Alabama.
Bare wrote a piece called “Song of the South” and the lyrics tell the tale: “Well, somebody told us Wall Street fell, but we were so poor that we couldn’t tell, cotton was short and the weeds were tall, but Mr. Roosevelt’s gonna save us all.
“Well,
Momma got sick and Daddy got down, the county got the farm and we moved
to town, Papa got a job with the TVA, he bought a washing machine and
then a Chevrolet…
.”
The
TVA initially brought jobs to the impoverished South in the teeth of
the Great Depression, but in the long view, it brought decades of
economic development that spurred
a greatly improved quality of life. In short, it brought hope,
progress, and gave isolated rural communities a puncher’s chance to grow
and thrive.
At
inception in 1932, the TVA was designed to bring electric power to
those who had none when only about ten percent of rural American
households and only two percent of
rural Mississippi households had electricity. TVA, now the nation's
largest public utility, today supplies electric power to about 10
million people in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia,
North Carolina and Virginia.
In
Mississippi, municipal and cooperatively owned utilities sell TVA
electricity in the counties of Alcorn, Attala, Benton, Calhoun,
Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, De
Soto, Grenada, Itawamba, Kemper, Lafayette, Lauderdale, Leake, Lee,
Lowndes, Marshall, Monroe, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola,
Pontotoc, Prentiss, Quitman, Rankin, Scott, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tippah,
Tishomingo, Tunica, Union, Webster, Winston
and Yalobusha.
Despite
a lifelong affiliation as a “yellow dog” Mississippi Democrat, Renick’s
demonstrated abilities as an economic developer and public
administrator saw his nomination
win the sincere praise of both of Mississippi’s Republican U.S.
senators as the nomination moves to the Senate confirmation process.
The preponderance of the leadership of the state’s planning and development districts is also supportive of the nomination at the grassroots level.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com
17 comments:
Sid you have stooped to a new low.
You really have to be ignorant of Ashley’s diary, and Hunter’s laptop and iCloud account to try to put a positive spin on anything this dementia Joe says or does.
Sid, why aren’t you writing columns about why Hunter called his dad “Pedo Pete” on dozens iMessages. Or how Pete was also his pseudonym for discussions of kickbacks from the ChiComs and Ukrainians?
A Democrat-nothing else need be said.
Salter is such a symp for socialsm, doesn't realize FDR prolonged, not shortened, the depression.
"A Democrat-nothing else need be said. "
Yep. A lifetime of government "jobs" on his resume.
"...a solid choice by President Joe Biden..."
Biden is a busy man. I'm pleased that he could break away from his schedule to make such a solid choice. Roosevelt would be pleased.
"FDR prolonged, not shortened, the depression."
Never shorten a crisis when to lengthen it will bring political favor.
Sack Salter and bring back Tulp.
Tulp is smarter and a better writer.
@10:10-10:23 am
As an independent thinker, I'm so sick of the GOP catering to and enabling Proud Boys,Neo-Nazis and violent militia wannabe vigilantes, hypocrists, pathological liars. The Trumpsters changed the GOP into a party that admires criminals, has total disregard for the law, and supports those as clinically insane as Taylor-Green and Hershel Walker and dingbat Palin.
I'm sick of those who think insults and baseless claims are a substitute for wit or intelligence.
What they are is proof you are poorly educated and have no manners and no consistent moral or ethical code at all!
But, worse, you have so little common sense that you actually believe the GOP has no corrupt, immoral jerks and that everyone in the other party must be.
As someone who actually worked in government and literally accomplished things that should have improved your worthless life had you bothered to apply yourself, I saw no angels in either party and more arrogant and lazy people just " showing up" and attending parties. They couldn't tell you why they were for or against anything with any credible argument because they never bothered to learn the job you elected them to do.
YOU and those LIKE YOU are responsible for those "do nothing but holler" politicians.
I did see a few honorable men and women who tried. I saw a few party members and Sid is one, who actually studied an issue before picking up a pen.
One Democrat, Mabus did a lot of good for Mississippi while an auditor. He was less effective as a Governor as his party choices did him no favors.
Doesn't matter about experience and qualifcations,if he doesn't parrot the line that the election was stolen he will be viewed by the Trump supporters as factually wrong,morally repugnant,and deeply offensive.
11:25 CVS has your meds ready for pick up.
Thank you 8:29 AM. I have been trying to post a similar post for some time but KF will not post it. He will probably not post this one.
11:25 AM, What would you call Hunter, Joe, and their family? Criminals would be a very good way to describe them. Some people will just close their eyes and pretend it isn't happening. Do you even believe what Joe and Hunter are saying when you can read it and listen to their own words?
Because y’all usually try to post those comments where it has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject of the post.
You have never had an independent thought in your life. Everything you said that described one political party, is the same description that fits the other political party.
We don't have a two party political system. It is one system playing two parts. Washington, D.C. is a city state sitting over 50 vassal states, and the decisions being made there are to benefit the Federal Reserve Board, or international bankers. They are one and the same.
Illegal taxes being collected to pay interest on a debt that can never be settled, while portions of those taxes were/are being used to fund the infrastructure of the vassal states.
The TVA was/is part of the infrastructure that was built to supply the required power for the bankers to exploit the rich natural resources they had swindled from the American people.
Those bankers intend to foreclose on that debt that can't be settled in the very near future. You really don't own anything now, you only have possession of it. When the foreclosure is made public, you won't even have that.
An independent thinker, huh. An independent thought would frighten the hell out of you.
HUGE Bill Renick fan, and we have worked on opposing campaigns. He is a great representative for Mississippi!
You idiots are all over the place as usual, with your unrelated rantings.
July 13, 2022 at 8:29 AM What an irrelevant and rather sick response.
July 13, 2022 at 9:26 AM "A Democrat-nothing else need be said." What a narrow little uninformed brain you have. Same for you, 10:10!
Congratulations, Bill!
Renick is apparently a really nice old guy, but what does he know about the energy industry?
When will people in power learn it isn't enough to be just a nice guy or a friend or family member? When there is a job opening the first thing that is checked is if they know anything about what the job is about. A man may be a saint but it he knows nothing about energy it makes no sense to put him in charge of the energy dept.
We have too many people in charge that knows exactly nothing about what they are in charge of. Nice guy or a thug, it does not matter.
@11:25, what the hell are you babbling about/at? Your panties and your logical fallacies are showing..."Oh yeah...well...you republicans..."
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