Coup by Keel Hunt

The late Lt. Gov. John Wilder once described it as “impeachment, Tennessee style.”

Keel Hunt’s new book calls the events surrounding Sen. Lamar Alexander’s swearing in to the Tennessee governor’s office in 1979 “the coup.”

John Seigenthaler, chairman emeritus of The Tennessean, hosted a panel discussion of Hunt’s book, which is titled “Coup,” at Vanderbilt University’s John Seigenthaler Center. The panel included Alexander, Hunt and former U.S. Attorney Hal Hardin, who was the first to advise Alexander to take office early on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 1979.

The recently released book tells the story of the cash for pardons scandal that compelled Alexander, who would go on to serve two terms as governor and eventually be elected to the U.S. Senate, to take the governor’s oath of office three days early. Government officials, namely Hardin, learned that then Gov. Ray Blanton, a Democrat, planned to pardon dozens of criminals in his last few days of office.

“It was a stunning moment in the history of this state,” Seigenthaler said on Friday night to the more than one hundred people who attended the discussion.

“Coup: The Day the Democrats Ousted Their Governor, Put Republican Lamar Alexander in Office Early, and Stopped a Pardon Scandal,” the book’s full title, focuses on the bi-partisan collaboration between Alexander, a Republican, and state Democrats to keep the criminals Blanton intended to pardon, which included murderers and rapists, behind bars.

Hunt conducted 163 interviews over more than five years to piece the story together.

Several days before Alexander and his collaborator’s unprecedented actions, Blanton had already pardoned 52 men.

Hardin called Alexander on Jan. 17, informing him of the existence of a second list of men the governor intended to pardon. By 5:55 p.m., Alexander was the new governor of Tennessee.

Saturday July 20, 2013
The Tennessean
Written by Caleb Whitmer

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