Senator Corker held a breakfast this morning at Boxwood Bistro in Williamson County. The format of the event after a nice breakfast buffet was Senator Corker gave a talk about life in DC. Then he took questions from the group.

The Senator spoke about his 3 committee assignments which are Foreign Relations, Energy and Banking. When Trent Lott resigned from the Senate there were openings in the Banking and Commerce committees. In trying to decide which committee he wanted he asked 10 senators their comments on Banking and Commerce. Nine of ten senators told him to choose Commerce because that’s where the media was attracted. Commerce affects professional sports, movies, television, telecomunications etc. They all said Banking was BORING! So, Senator Corker chose banking. That got a laugh out of the group.

The first question was regarding Obama’s takeover of GM and firing of Rick Wagner, why there was no congressional outrage or action over the unconstitutionality of Obama’s power grab.

First the Senator mentioned that Larry Summers was the best bet the Administration had since he’s one of the few advisers who actually has experience in the private sector. An example he gave of working with Summers was this story. After the House passed a bill to tax AIG executive bonuses, Corker said “he was appalled to see the House vote a 90% tax on AIG bonuses” and he called Summers at 11:30 at night telling Summers that this was mob rule which was being fueled by the President and he can’t think this was right to do. Shortly thereafter the Administration backed off on the fueling of this mob rule and he doesn’t think this was an accident. Corker attributes this to Summer’s influence.

Corker believes that the takeover of GM was a huge threshold that has been crossed in our country. He doesn’t believe there is any congressional action that can be taken. In a conference call with Steve Rattner, the “Car Czar”, the direction was given that Fiat was to buy Chrysler and the administration would dictate what cars were to be produced. That along with the Administration not seeing anything wrong with their dictating which cars are to be produced or in their firing of GM CEO Rick Wagner and members of the GM board, the threshold has been crossed.

With this Corker realized that the Spring Hill GM plant could be in jeopardy. The Administration was going to be deciding which GM plants would be closed and this decision was not going to based on business metrics but on the political sphere. He does think Rattner will try to the right thing but could easily be overruled by the Administration.

The other question I’ll cover is one which addressed Presidential appointees. Senator Corker was asked how he would vote on the Harold Koh nomination for State Dept Legal Advisor and Kathleen Sebelius as HHS Secretary. The Senator responded he hadn’t decided as of yet but he assured the group that prior to voting he would be reading extensively on both nominees. The questioner followed up by emphasizing Koh’s transnationalist legal views and how detrimental this could be to the country. She also mentioned Sebelius’ status in not paying her taxes and also her failure to report all donations received from one of the nations most infamous abortion doctors.

Senator Corker responded that generally speaking (not exactly a quote but it’s close) I feel that when a President is elected, that has consequences and unless there’s something extreme or criminal in a nominees past, I will give them a pass.

That question brought another question from Walter Strickland who is the Williamson County Republican Chair. I am summarizing here, but Walter wanted to let Senator Corker know that Williamson County was one of the major reasons for the Senator winning his election and Williamson County is also very conservative. We in Williamson County do expect Senator Corker to represent our values and vote our values. We do expect Senator Corker to vote our values in appointments for these nominees and for judges. There was applause from the group in response to Walter’s question/statement. Senator Corker responded that he sees a difference between judges who are nominated for life vs department appointments which are not.

There were other questions regarding FDIC and banking, healthcare, tort reform,debt and the leadership of Pelousi and Reid.

On leaving the restaurant Senator Corker was chatting with the group. I asked what he thought the Democrats and Administration’s real reaction was to all of the Tea Parties that took place yesterday. I said it appears that they seem to be thinking if they put their head in the ground then the Tea Parties didn’t or don’t exist. He responded that he believed the Tea Parties had hit a major nerve and were making the Democrats and the Administration very nervous.

I also thanked Senator Corker for this townhall type of forum. I may not agree with many of Senator Corker’s votes but at least he will come out and meet with his constituents and take the difficult questions. We all know that we have another Senator (Lamar Alexander) who never will do a townhall. He will not take questions in a group and keeps himself out of reach of his constituents.

Senator Bob Corker, Williamson County TN, Senator Lamar Alexander,