Peeler, who claimed to have been contemplating retirement and almost didn't run, called his loss Nov. 6 the “happiest day of my life, I kid you not,” adding in an interview with our sister paper, the Lenoir City News-Herald, that “it felt like a big ton of weight got lifted off my shoulders.”

Then he started acting like a petty child throwing a temper tantrum.

Birchfield says the mayor without explanation canceled the regular Nov. 13 meeting of the Greenback Board of Mayor and Aldermen, at which the new mayor expected to be sworn in. That forced Birchfield to wait another week and take the oath outside the confines of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, one of four of whom is Peeler’s daughter, Robin Blankenship. Meanwhile, Peeler’s wife, Norma, is Greenback’s only administrative employee, serving as recorder, treasurer and director of human resources.

Neither the mayor nor his wife and daughter would comment and explain their rationale for keeping Birchfield out of his rightly earned office.

The nepotistic triumvirate started slinging mud at Birchfield and any would-be supporters, including businesses, well before Election Day, however. Blankenship, who according to Facebook managed her father’s re-election campaign, posted on the social media site that she was boycotting the Corner Market after owner Kathy Brooks signed Birchfield’s petition for candidacy. (Brooks told The Daily Times she also would have signed Mayor Peeler’s petition, had he only asked.)