Hmmm. . . that Bob Corker?



Image result for bob corker donald trump
Now there's an image you won't see anymore (Boston Globe).
This article is in response to my friend Alex Ioannidis' piece in tribute to the recently announced retired Sen. Robert Phillips Corker, Jr. (R-TN). 

 If not for the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal, the continuing meltdown over the NFL anthem protests, and the chronic saga with North Korea, the main issue this past weekend would have probably been the blow-up between President Donald Trump and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee may have crept into the top of the news feed. As it so happens that person happens to be a member of his own party and had traditionally been identified with the right wing of the GOP. If you have seen my material before, you can probably imagine that those details don't mean much to me. Bob Corker in my mind represents about as much to do with conservative principles as. . . well, Donald Trump. Trump and Corker have traded insults this weekend, but let's examine perhaps whether Corker even has a record to defend.

The main yardstick for determining a politicians commitment to a certain topic is his or her voting record and beyond that the bills that they sponsor. In some cases the votes in question are purely symbolic as indicated by some senators that voted to repeal Obamacare in 2015 but have since switched their votes. Corker and others of his ilk like Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Jeff Flake of Arizona, have mounted the altar of self-promotion by claiming that Donald Trump is ruining the Republican Party and the conservative movement. Here are some actual pieces of legislation with which he has been associated.

S 743 - Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013 (Co-Sponsor)

 This bill passed on a bipartisan 67-27 split, and it requires online sellers to collect and remit sales and use taxes to the state in which the sale took place. Does a bill that further shackles online commerce to the tax structure sound like a "conservative position?

S 160 - Washington DC Voting Act of  2009 (Voted No)


I get the counterargument from some conservatives: "But this would have added just one more extremely liberal district". So let me defuse tht first by adding that this would have also added one more district to ultra-conservative Utah. Although some would say that this only increases government by adding one more congressional seat, let's remember that the Founding Fathers built this nation off of the grievance of "No Taxation Without Representation"? See image.

Image result for DC license plate
S Amendment 279 - Removing the Buy American Clause of 2009 (Voted Yes)

This may be an issue that falls along the fault line of protectionism vs. free trade. However, let's remember that the only thing this measure would have done is allow the US GOVERNMENT to spend money buying more things from overseas.
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S Amendment 2760 - Auditing the Federal Reserve of 2010 (Voted No)
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Image result for audit the fed
Along with the Democratic majority Corker and 10 other GOP senators Corker voted against auditing the Fed. Since then federal debt has ballooned from $7.5 trillion to more than $14 trillion.

Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 (Voted Yes)
In a vote that was only opposed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-ARK) Corker turned the tables on typical treaty ratification in the US Senate bizarrely allowing Barack Obama's as yet unrevealed nuclear disarmament agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran to be ratified unless a two-thirds majority disapproved of it in the Senate. Usually the opposite is true.

Good time for a switch

I feel that Bob Corker represents the typical fair from the GOP, which is to say that if you consider yourself a conservative beware. Many #NeverTrump conservatives have claimed that they are keeping the president accountable. My question would be: "Who is keeping them accountable?" Thanks to a party full of Bob Corkers, auditing the Fed remains a fringe opinion despite the GOP claims to opposing expanding the federal debt ceiling. Corker-style conservatives oppose DC statehood or representation in Congress while pretending to stand for representative government. And most of all, the GOP under frauds like Bob Corker has claimed to be the vanguard in fighting Islamic terrorism yet they turn around and authorize a nebulous and secrecy shrouded agreement with the USA's most powerful adversary in the Middle East, Iran.

Meanwhile just this September, in typical Republican fashion Corker and 47 other Republicans and 13 Democrats voted to table a vote repealing the open-ended Authorization for Use of Military Force from 2002. This means that while Corker vocally claims the White House is occupied currently by a juvenile minded idiot, he has no problem with the same person using the world's most potent military in wars not sanctioned by Congress in places like Yemen.

I don't usually stay civil, but this time I will. Bob Corker was in the Senate for 12 years. What's the footprint? Where has he gotten the USA, or his state of Tennessee. My feeling is that hes's been a just one more card in a deck of two faced charlatans that claim the mantle of conservatism.

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