
Coup
The Day the Democrats Ousted Their Governor, Put Republican Lamar Alexander in Office Early, and Stopped a Pardon Scandal
Keel Hunt(Author)
Vanderbilt University Press
Published on 2. August 2013
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-0-8265-1932-0 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
The behind-the-scenes story of an abrupt political transition, unprecedented in U.S. history. Based on 160 interviews, Hunt describes how collaborators came together from opposite sides of the political aisle and, in an extraordinary few hours, reached agreement that the corruption and madness of the sitting Governor of Tennessee, Ray Blanton, must be stopped. The sudden transfer of power that caught Blanton unawares was deemed necessary because of what one FBI agent called ""the state's most heinous political crime in half a century"" - a scheme of selling pardons for cash.
On January 17, 1979, driven by new information that some of the worst criminals in the state's penitentiaries were about to be released (and fears that James Earl Ray might be one of them), a small bipartisan group chose to take charge. Senior Democratic leaders, friends of the sitting governor, together with the Republican governor-elect Lamar Alexander (now U.S. Senator from Tennessee), agreed to oust Blanton from office before another night fell. It was a manoeuver unique in American political history.
On January 17, 1979, driven by new information that some of the worst criminals in the state's penitentiaries were about to be released (and fears that James Earl Ray might be one of them), a small bipartisan group chose to take charge. Senior Democratic leaders, friends of the sitting governor, together with the Republican governor-elect Lamar Alexander (now U.S. Senator from Tennessee), agreed to oust Blanton from office before another night fell. It was a manoeuver unique in American political history.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Tennessee
United States
Illustrations
41 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 177 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
830 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8265-1932-0 (9780826519320)
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Keel Hunt | Lamar Alexander
Coup
The Day the Democrats Ousted Their Governor, Put Republican Lamar Alexander in Office Early, and Stopped a Pardon Scandal
Book
11/2017
Vanderbilt University Press
€28.50
Withdrawn from sale