TN US Senate race: Clement (D) speaks out on his Butcher bank role (bob admits lie)

Congressman Bob Clement yesterday ''conceded'' that he was on an ''advisory'' committee of one of the failed Butcher banks in the early 1970s, but he continued to maintain that he was not on its board of directors.

Saying he wanted to move along to the real issues, Clement held a conference call with reporters to describe his service with C & C Bank of Knox County and to again challenge senatorial opponent Lamar Alexander to step down from the board of directors of Education Networks of America.

DELUSIONAL BOB

http://www.timesnews.net/storydefault2.dna?_StoryID=3120952

Clement claims he's 'dead even' despite polls

Saturday, October 05, 2002 By Hank Hayes Political reporter

KINGSPORT - Although independent polls put him anywhere from 10 to 20 points behind, Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Bob Clement proclaimed Friday his race with Republican Lamar Alexander is in a dead heat.

"This race is dead even," Clement declared during a daylong campaign swing through Northeast Tennessee. "The only advantage Lamar has now is that he has slightly more name recognition than I do, but by election day, it won't be a dime's worth of difference between him and myself."

In an effort to demonstrate his competitiveness, Clement spoke to seniors in Church Hill about prescription drugs, shook hands with employees at Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport and greeted first responders in Johnson City. He also campaigned at the Apple Festival in Erwin and at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough.

Clement indicated he won't concede East Tennessee to Alexander.

"I want to do well here," said Clement, who has served multiple terms as a congressman from Middle Tennessee. "Forty three percent of the population of this state now lives in East Tennessee. I say when I get up on the stump ‘if there's anything as fine and good and true as a Tennessee Democrat, it's a Clement Republican.' I'm a conservative-to-moderate Democrat so I think I've got a lot of appeal to East Tennesseans. I could have sought re-election with little or no opposition, but I felt like this is the year and this is the time."

Clement said he is "very disappointed" there is no agreement to debate Alexander in Northeast Tennessee.

"I want that to happen very badly," Clement said. "We agreed we would have a debate in each of the six media markets. If I have to, I'll come to Johnson City to debate and put a chair on the stage where Lamar is supposed to sit."

In the last debate between the two candidates in Chattanooga, business ethics emerged as a central issue in the campaign. Clement confronted Alexander for using "political connections to make himself a millionaire many times over." Alexander countered by pointing out that Clement had served on the board of a failed East Tennessee bank.

"To be honest, Bob's desperate tone tonight sounded like a campaign that is behind in the polls by double digits, nearly out of money and with no life support in sight from his national party," Tennessee GOP Chairman Beth Harwell said of Clement's attack.

While he continued to talk about Alexander's business dealings, Clement's unveiling of his own prescription drug plan in Church Hill was a key highlight of the campaign swing.

"I will not rest until there is a prescription drug benefit in Medicare," he told Church Hill seniors. "Second, I will lead the fight to allow the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada. The third tier of my plan to lower prescription drug costs includes closing loopholes for patent extensions."

Clement's campaign staff provided a survey showing that prices for the most commonly used prescription drugs by seniors increased by 7.8 percent from January 2001 to January 2002 while the rate of inflation was 2.7 percent.

Appearing with first responders at the Washington County Emergency Medical Services facilities, Clement stressed he stands by President Bush on the issues of homeland security and the war on terrorism.

Clement said the president must put the same focus on domestic priorities like the economy.

"Don't look at your 401(k)s in October because it's horrible," he told first responders.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/news_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_359_1460312,00.html

Clement says he didn't sit on Butcher board

By Georgiana Vines, Associate Editor

October 5, 2002

U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Bob Clement maintained Friday that he served on a community advisory committee of a Butcher bank in the 1970s, not a policy-making board of directors.

He added that he received $300 in compensation. "If I was on a bank board, don't you think I should have been paid more?"

The 5th District congressman said if his Republican opponent, former Gov. Lamar Alexander wants to continue to say Clement was on the board of City & County Bank of Knox County, "I simply concede the point."

The Alexander campaign responded later that "all the evidence" points to a board membership and that Clement was digging himself into a hole of "Grand Canyon proportions."

Clement's comments came in a conference call from Johnson City with journalists after a weeklong brouhaha between the two candidates over which U.S. Senate candidate might have benefited in the 1970s and '80s from an association with then-bankers Jake Butcher and his late brother, C.H. Jr.

Since the Butchers' banks failed in 1983 and the two brothers eventually spent time in federal prison on various bank fraud counts, such an association today for those who remember would not be helpful to a candidate.

As governor, Alexander supported efforts to assist the Butcher brothers on bank merger legislation and in seeking capital to save their banks.

The C&C board membership issue came up in a Monday night debate in Chattanooga as part of a discussion on "corporate responsibility." Clement initially denied he was on a Butcher bank board, then afterward said he was a member of an advisory board.

"I should have been more careful in my response," he said Friday.

A News-Sentinel story on Nov. 13, 1973, reported Clement was elected to the board of the City & County Bank of Knox County when he was a member of the old Public Service Commission. It was announced by both Butcher brothers following the board's regular meeting the previous evening, the story said.

A reproduction of the original 1973 annual report of the City & County Banking Group, made available by the Alexander campaign, has Clement listed and photographed as a board member of the Knox County C&C Bank.

Still the Nashville congressman insisted he was in an advisory capacity.

And as for the photographs, he said he remembered attending receptions or parties with the Butchers and others when photographs would be made but that's all.

"I was in no policy-making role at a Bucher bank and certainly had nothing to do with bank policy," he said.

Clement said Alexander was trying to find a "false controversy" because he refuses to disclose his full tax returns and "a long history of sweetheart deals."

As he had previously, Clement called on Alexander to resign from the board of directors of Education Networks of America, a company that has a contract with the state to connect public schools to the Internet.

The Alexander campaign said after Clement's conference call that "all of the evidence points to the fact that Clement was on the board of directors for the City & County Bank of Knox County. The credibility hole he is digging himself has reached Grand Canyon proportions and is now becoming a campaign issue."

As for the ENA board, Alexander joined in 1999, "13 years after he served Tennessee as governor," an aide said. He is paid $5,000 a month as a board member.

Clement and Alexander meet again Sunday night in Jackson and Monday night in Knoxville.

Both candidates say they would prefer to debate the issues rather than getting sidetracked.

Carol Andrews, a Clement spokeswoman, said Monday night's debate gives the Democrat "a chance to have a good discussion on differences between us and Lamar Alexander."

Alexander agreed.

"I feel we should talk about jobs, prescription drugs and schools," he said in a meeting Thursday with the News-Sentinel editorial board.

The Knoxville debate will be sponsored by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, at 7 p.m. at Fulton High School, 2509 N. Broadway. The News-Sentinel is a co-sponsor.

"We expect the candidates to address the issues they will face when they get to the Senate in 2003," said Margie Nichols, WBIR news director.

A panel of journalists will ask questions of the candidates, and then the two will ask each other questions. The public is invited.

The Hamblen County Democratic Party said people in the Morristown area are invited to watch the debate on a large TV screen at its headquarters, 1826 W. Andrew Johnson Highway.

Georgiana Vines is associate editor of the News-Sentinel. Her political column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. She can be reached at 865-342-6343 or at vines@knews.com. This column also is available on the Internet at www.knoxnews.com. The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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