What is up with this Lamar = RINO crap?
He's got an excellent voting record in the Senate, and has had mostly good positions on issues his entire career? Is he a RINO just because he isn't screaming all the time? Give me a break!
Lamar has been up to his knees in questionable deeds from his term as governor on including taking donations from a former Dem oppenant who was the head of the Butcher Banking Empire in Tennessee for starters. Source here TN US SENATE: Clement, Alexander trade accusations about roles in Butcher bank failures
The Butcher Brothers were using shell companies they or friends created to shuttle bad loans. Loans also tied into such ill conceived projects as EXPO 82 or the 1982 Worlds Fair. By the time the fair was over the Feds were raiding United American Bank Ran by Jake and Southern Industrial Banking Corp {ran by CH Butcher Jr}. Hard working persons lost all they had in Southern Industrial as it was a Savings and Loan operation.
I will say this much most of the scandals about Alexander were in the papers here years ago. His being chosen by Bush for the GOP senate nod was a political favor. He was by no means the best man for the job.
Although someone has already answered your reply, I'll answer it from another perspective.
Why do I call Lamar! a RINO ? Because he is. I've already explained that there are many qualifiers for RINO, and EVEN IF they supposedly vote Conservative, that doesn't mean they can't earn the title of RINO. McCain is a prime example of that.
I never considered Lamar!'s tenure as Governor to be terribly impressive (I was in grade school at the time). Perhaps the only success being his luring Nissan to build a plant here in Middle TN. As for his other accomplishments, he left the state Republican party a basketcase after his departure (only 3 of 9 U.S. House members, barely 1/3rd of the legislature, no Senate seats). Despite begging and pleading from many quarters, he absolutely refused to run for the Senate in 1984 when he was NEEDED to stop the AlGore vermin, the only Republican in Tennessee who could've done it (save the incumbent, Howard Baker, who got the nutty notion he would be the next President).
As was also pointed out about his no-accomplishment tenure as UT President and similar no-accomplishment tenure as US Education Secretary. He went around acting like he was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I've been similarly unimpressed with his tenure in the Senate, where his profile is virtually non-existent with Tennesseans. He became obsessed with the issue of taxing the internet/internet purchases, which was of particular importance to me. And after contacting him on the issue several times, refuting his points on his nonsensical press releases, he finally answered -- sending me the same f'ing press release to which I had refuted !
Witness, too, his recent johnny-come-lately schtick, all of a sudden, after years in the public eye -- even after PRESIDING over UT and the Dept of Ed, he "figgered out" that there is a "leftist presence" in education. Well, no $hit, Lamar! ! I knew that when I was being indoctrinated up to my eyeballs in it while in grade school when HE was Governor. I guess if I knew better at 12 when he was finishing his last year in office as Governor about the state of education than he did, that really tells you something.