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Sen. Corker announced his independence from the White House and the Republican Party early on, and several times, during his talk. Unlike R. Neal, who wrote about Corker's recent appearance in Knoxville, I'm not going to speculate too much on his reasons for that, but it is interesting. His three main topics today were the situation in Iraq, the nation's energy policy, and health care.

[not enough time in the day...see links at bottom of post for others' elaborations on those topics]

The most eye-opening part of the day came at question time. First, a man wanted to know if, when Corker stated that he was "underwhelmed" by White House approaches to Iraq, he meant the President, or just the staff. After all, as the questioner began, "everyone in the room" loves George W. Bush and thanks the President for protecting us from the "Islamo-fascists." Corker artfully gave proper respect to President Bush, but then frankly admitted that his statement referred to "all of the above" (meaning, the President and his staff). Corker had earlier displayed a fairly informed understanding of the consequences that will come from failing to pair a military success with a political one.

Then, and I really think this is due to the inverse ratio of the intelligence/relevance of one's question to one's propensity to lunge for the roving microphone, a man at the table in front of me brought up something he called the North American Union and his fear that large portions of our nation's sovereign territory were being ceded to "socialist" Canada and Mexico. So, he didn't really have a question at all, but grabbed the mic for a bit of paranoid rambling. Senator Corker calmly stated that he has seen no evidence pertaining to the erosion of American sovereignty, and referred the gentleman to a key staffer for follow-up.

I've gotta tell ya, folks, I've never been prouder of Hamilton County than I was after those two displays.

Senator Corker, only slightly fazed, bravely took one more question. This time, a woman at one of the reserved tables (I think it was the wife of UTC president Roger Brown, but I'm not sure) asked about the delicate balance Corker must exhibit as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and of the Energy Committee, when it comes to dealing with petroleum-powered Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.

Finally, there was a decent (albeit far from easy) question, and Bob Corker, though he stumbled through it a bit, showed that he has somewhat proved his critics wrong — critics, that is, who said that his businessman background would not serve him well in a deliberative body like the United States Senate. He ended up basically saying that the way to work with Chávez is to get countries that are our friends, and are friendly with Venezuela's current leadership, to help us negotiate toward common goals.

While I will continue to disagree with Corker on a number of issues, I get the sense that he is taking this role seriously, and is doing what he feels is best to represent Tennesseans in Washington. Judging by the bipartisan (if heavily Republican) attendance, I get the added sense that many of our local and state elected officials and civic leaders feel similarly.

By the way, how I got invited is a bit of a mystery, but I won't complain. I would probably have gone anyhow, but more as a member (give or take) of the press. As it was, with an official invitation and a seat at one of the tables, I wasn't about to roam around the room with a camcorder, as is my wont. It is a strange life, this mixture of citizen and journalist. I think I'm more comfortable hanging out with the reporters and camera operators than I am rubbing elbows with the city's elite set, but I am nonetheless very thankful to whomever it was that decided I should be there.

Links to additional info:

Chattanooga Times Free Press (I) (II)

WDEF

Chattanoogan.com

NewsChannel9