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June 27, 2006
Endorsing Bob Corker: Roger and me
Via Volunteer Voters, today I read the most reasoned arguments for supporting Bob Corker in his bid for the United States Senate that I've seen.
I don't claim the conservative heritage that Roger Abramson has. I'm coming at this from a different angle. However, statements like "I think we need some people up in Washington with the skills and real-life (and real-government) experience to help right the ship" and "I subscribe to the notion that conservatism is, at its heart, non-ideological, in the sense that it deals with the way things really are rather than how we might want them to be" make me appreciate his particular take on conservatism (and it's one that I think is shared by more people than is often realized).
I could go through my own personal political history and how I came to be a Corker supporter, but I would have more explaining to do than Roger did. Suffice it to say that I concur with Abramson's conclusion that Bob Corker is the candidate, of those running, who possesses the most comprehensive set of qualifications needed for the job. You weigh the practical matters and decide on the best fit, just as with any job interview.
And there has to be something to the fact that Corker can appeal to appraisers with as wide a band of political difference between them as is flanked by Roger and me. (Another perspective is that either this band is narrowing on both our accounts, or that each extreme keeps moving further in its respective direction, or both.) Would I love to see a viable progressive candidate for this office? Sure. Would that candidate, provided she were able to get elected by the Volunteer State, face six years of stone walls in the form of 98 other Senators (the exception being Sanders)? Absolutely. What real good would it do, then? Be honest.
I'm counting on Bob Corker to go to Washington and get things done like he did in Nashville and in Chattanooga. Nobody's perfect, and I will flatly disagree with him on several points. I do so right now. However, most of those points deal with issues that are very removed from the business of practical governing, and I'm aching for real change in what gets put on (more importantly, what gets taken off) Congress' to-do list. Somehow I don't have the confidence that Ed Bryant, Van Hilleary, or Harold Ford would contribute to that change. I can only cast my vote and hope that Bob Corker will.
US Senate Elections | By joe lance | 11:46 PM