How on earth does that man sleep at night? Has he no conscience?

Those may very well be the questions on many Tennesseans’ minds as we learned that Dr. John Shumaker, former president of the University of Tennessee system, has filed a breach-of-contract grievance against the state to claim some $423,000 in severance pay.

The funds that would have been paid out of the original agreement were ordered frozen by Governor Bredesen as more and more questions arose about the extent of the wrongdoing that Shumaker may have committed.

In the days of the Old West, he would have been run out of town on the first train. It is ludicrous to say that he has any right to take money from the Tennessee taxpayers after what he did.

The fact that he was left off the hook has done enough damage as it is.

Will John Shumaker ever be brought to justice? No, probably not. But we believe that no jury with a conscience would allow him to continue this charade of being “misunderstood” by the public.

We call on state legislators and UT officials to be solid in their resolve to keep this scoundrel out of our coffers.