Bob Corker and Mike Pence November 16, 2010
First, let me start by saying how much I love New York Times columnist (and Nobel Prize winner!) Paul Krugman. He’s wonderfully intelligent and is one of the few people who can take economic theory (I think I may have failed micro or macro economics in my freshman year of college…) and make it not only understandable but interesting.
That said, in his piece in today’s New York Times, “Axis of Depression,” Krugman asks, “What do the government of China, the government of Germany and the Republican Party have in common?,” and answers, “They’re all trying to bully the Federal Reserve into calling off its efforts to create jobs. And the motives of all three are highly suspect.”
But here’s the money quote:
“Two Republicans, Mike Pence in the House and Bob Corker in the Senate, have called on the Fed to abandon all efforts to achieve full employment and focus solely on price stability. Why? Because unemployment remains so high. No, I don’t understand the logic either.”
Well, God bless Professor Krugman.
And here’s the answer, which was extremely clear to me this morning: I think Bob Corker is planning a run for president. That is the only possible answer to this question.
We already know Mike Pence is planning a run for president. He’s said he needs to confer with his family and with God. Lord knows there’s never been a Republican who confers with God about running for president who has heard back from the Almighty, “No, don’t run.”
Bob Corker? Are you running?
For those who don’t know Corker, he’s the Republican senator from Tennessee. That should make any member of the LGBTQ community concerned.
The Washington Post wrote in September that Corker has “been called a future leader of the party, thanks mostly to a star turn during Senate negotiations on a bill to bailout the Big Three automakers.”
Bad news, Corker gets a 19% progressive rating from That’s My Congress.
Aside from promising to protect “traditional marriage,” Corker, it seems, has evaded any other positions on equality.
But he has strong anti-gay marriage opinions. In 2006, in response to a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that moved the state toward same-sex marriage, Corker said,
“Today’s decision by the NJ Supreme Court is yet one more example of activist, liberal judges creating bad law from the bench. I voted on the first day of early voting to prohibit same sex marriage because it protects not just the sanctity of marriage between a man and women, but upholds the views and values of the vast majority of Tennesseans.”
So, just musing, but I’d keep my eyes open for him. His vote on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will be telling.