Today's Knoxville News Sentinel editorial [1] says "Plan to bum-rush appointments is outrage":

Since the appointments run only until the 2008 elections, Moore and some other commissioners evidently don't want to be bothered with the niceties of public forums, open discussion and candidates making their cases before an open meeting.

Instead, what Moore and the others want is the same system they have had for too long - a political country club where the members say who can be admitted and who is excluded.

That would be a serious mistake, not only for the commission but as well for the credibility of county government.

Lots of folks are not going to have a chance to have their voices heard. Will it come back to haunt the sitting, non-term limited commissioners? Probably not. Most people just don't seem all that interested. But it will be interesting to see who goes on record in support of an open process at today's meeting.

I was talking to some folks at the News Sentinel and they said the controversy isn't generating much reader interest. There was speculation on why this is. One reporter noted that it's complicated, and it may be that people simply don't understand it. (Which may have prompted this primer [2] in Sunday's paper.)

My theory is that most people see it as a lot of inside baseball they just don't care. As evidence, look at the 20% turnout in local elections. Or the fact that voters (and those who don't bother) keep electing the same people they voted to term limit twelve years ago.

In other term limit news, over at the Halls Shopper Sandra Clark has a farewell love letter [3] to Sheriff Tim, and Betty Bean has this backgrounder on his presumed successor [4].