WE’LL MISS CORKER IN THE SENATE
Bob Corker reminded us Thursday why we’ll miss him in the U.S. Senate when he returns to private life in Chattanooga in January.
Even as Vice President Mike Pence was in Dalton beating the ridiculous “build the wall” and “stop the caravan” drum to elect as Georgia governor a man who’s done everything he possibly can to stymie the likely Democratic votes of legalized immigrants and blacks, Corker spoke his conscience.
The focus by President Donald Trump on the migrant caravan from Central America heading to the U.S. border “is more political theater than a significant threat” to America’s security, said the Tennessee Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“I have never met, seen or known an immigrant that I am angry at because they want to come to the greatest nation on Earth to escape Central America where people are being raped, necks are being slit, people are being tortured and there is unbelievable corruption,” Corker said.
The packed luncheon hall at the Chattanooga Convention Center where Corker was speaking to the Rotary Club of Chattanooga erupted in applause.
“Much of this is theater. This has turned out to be an issue that obviously revs up the base,” Corker continued. “We do, in fact, need to make sure that our borders are maintained, but I would suggest that nowhere near that number [originally 5,200 U.S. troops Trump is deploying to the Rio Grande, but now, in true Trump hyperbole, has grown like the size of a bass in a Tennessee River fish tale to 10,000 or 15,000] ends up happening.”
Corker — who’s spent more than 20 years in public service in Chattanooga, Nashville and Washington — has had his share of differences with Trump: In May 2017, Corker said the White House was “in a downward spiral” after reports that Trump had revealed sensitive intelligence to Russia’s foreign minister and U.S. ambassador.
Three months later, after Charlottesville, Corker told the Chattanooga Rotary Club that the president “has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence … to be successful” and “has not demonstrated he understands the character of this nation.”
Just over a year ago, and a few days after he announced he would not seek re-election to the Senate, Corker said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly “help separate our country from chaos.”
Then after a series of tweet insults and retorts from Trump, Corker’s Twitter rejoinder was: “It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.
We have wholeheartedly agreed.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we have agreed with all of Corker’s dedicated Republican policies and votes — especially his votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and his final vote to give huge, deficit-raising tax cuts to the richest of the rich.
But at least our senator hasn’t completely turned a blind eye to GOP madness — or the Democratic party’s foibles, either.
Again speaking of immigration on Thursday, Corker acknowledged that Trump alone hasn’t kept a comprehensive immigration reform package from passing in Congress.
“Both sides of the aisle have used immigration as a political football,” our senator said. “We know what we have to do. It’s almost like we attempt to not solve the problem so it can be used for political advantage.”
He noted that 40 percent of the illegal immigrants in America are here by overstaying their visas: “These people have passports and we know who they are, so there just hasn’t been a real desire to solve this problem,” Corker said.
He recounted that a friend recently told him he understood a wealthy Democrat was financing the caravan moving thousands of emigrants from Guatemala.
“I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Corker recalled. “If anyone is funding this it is probably a wealthy Republican, because it has turned out to be an incredible base-arousing issue.”
Doesn’t it all make you wonder what has happened to the Republican Party?
How can the party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, Howard Baker, Fred Thompson, George H.W. Bush and John McCain chew up and spit out good people like Bob Corker, yet nominate, blindly follow and kiss the feet of someone like Trump?
Maybe there will come a day when all of America will see Trump for the corrupter he is.
If that happens, perhaps Corker — who says he hasn’t yet decided exactly what his future life pursuits will include — will make a return to public service.