Transmissions

Joe Lance editorializes on the importance of Congressional staffers - Chip Saltsman specifically: Tennessee's political observers have reacted in varying degrees of mystification to the non-announcement. Some wondered just who's in charge here. "Who's the real congressman? Did we elect Chip by proxy?" worried one e-mail writer. Others were nonplussed. "Yeah, the people on the ballot are rarely the ones in charge," read a direct message on Twitter. It was followed by a hashtag, #governortomingram -- a tongue-in-cheek implication that Tom Ingram, a veteran political adviser who worked in the Bill Haslam for Governor campaign, is really the deciding force behind the incoming administration.

But even if one is not a shadow-government conspiracy theorist, there is still the double truth that congressional staffers typically serve in anonymity and that they are responsible for much of the activity for which the elected official gets credit.