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WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, has called for a hearing on the $2-billion trading loss by JPMorgan Chase & Co., saying that "policies are going to be derived out of what’s happened." Corker, who was a key participant in the debate over the 2010 financial reform law, said it was important for policymakers to get the facts about the situation and whether pending regulations would have prevented it.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker resisted pressure from the White House and joined other Republican senators today in blocking President Barack Obama's nominee to lead a new federal agency set up to stop abuses by the financial industry. GOP senators filibustered the nomination of former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The 53-45 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the GOP opposition and confirm Cordray for the position. The agency was created under the Wall Street reforms Obama signed into law last year and...

The 13 lawmakers who received campaign donations from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) have one thing in common —none of them got advance notice the checks were coming. Palin distributed $65,000 to candidates during the first half of this year, according to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing this month by Sarah PAC, Palin's political action committee. But the lawmakers who received donations said they never heard from the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee —and possible 2012 presidential candidate —or her representatives about the money. "The check showed up; there was no discussion ahead of time,"...The contributions were unsolicited...

  "We Go About Our Business Almost as Zombies." "Leadership Does Not Want Us to Make Hard Decisions." "The Senate is absolutely dysfunctional; and it’s dysfunctional because neither side wants to engage in the tough decisions of the day." "The fact is that we are all sort of two-bit pawns in all of this by allowing our country to continue to spend money." I was beginning to wonder when this Senator Corker was going to resurface.  He seemed poised and ready to take up the debt ceiling fight months ago when talk of the looming debate began on the Hill - which...

If Tea Partiers decide to make Bob Corker a target next year he's vulnerable to it. 43% of Republican primary voters in the state say they'd prefer to nominate a more conservative alternative to Corker next year, compared to just 38% who say they'd rather put Corker forth again. It's not that Republican voters are particularly negative toward Corker. He has a a 60/19 approval spread with them and 55% think he's ideologically 'about right' compared to just 23% who think he's 'too liberal.' But a plurality of them would like to replace him with someone further to the right...

For Democrats hoping to withstand the push for permanently smaller government, the enemy is now within. On Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., joined with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to propose the Commitment to American Prosperity Act, which would gradually lower the ceiling for all federal spending to 20.6% of GDP by 2020, down from a projected 24.7% this year. The Corker-McCaskill CAP bill goes a big step further than President Obama’s Fiscal Commission, which aimed to reduce spending to 21.8% of GDP by 2020. And it does so without the inducement for Democrats of more than $1 trillion in tax...

(RTTNews) - A prominent Tea Party group sent a message to members on Monday identifying five current Republican Senators that they intend to target in 2012. Tea Party Nation named Sens. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., as Republicans that need to be sent into retirement, accusing them of being Republicans In Name Only, or RINOs. The message cited Lugar's vote against a ban on earmarks as well as a his votes in favor of the DREAM Act and the START Treaty. Hatch was also criticized for being a "pork...

Backroom deals won’t do Tennessee much good if America’s national security is compromised. Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander (R) and Bob Corker (R) must not have considered national security when they decided to vote in favor of ratifying the dangerous New START Treaty. They also failed to research Russia’s alliance with countries like Iran, China, North Korea and Venezuela. It appears the Tennessee Senators were interested in bringing home the pork at the expense of our nation’s security. Zachary Roth’s December 23rd article states: “It will likely include more than $6 billion dollars for a uranium processing facility, to be built...

But the modernization isn't likely to be carried out in anything like a rational, cost-effective way..... It will likely include more than $6 billion dollars for a uranium processing facility, to be built at the Y-12 weapons compound in Oak Ridge, Tennessee..... Indeed, the states' two GOP senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, both said that money for modernization -- and therefore, in all likelihood, pork for their district -- was a key condition of their support.

The Senate voted 67-28 to pass a cloture motion, seemingly enough to assure final ratification. Eleven Republicans joined with 56 Democrats to pass the cloture motion. It will take 67 votes to ratify the New Start pact, which would give the Obama administration its top foreign policy goal in the lame-duck session. Among Republicans announcing their support were Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, George V. Voinovich of Ohio, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and...

On Sunday night, after a weekend of wrangling, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) filed for cloture on the New START treaty, setting up a crucial Tuesday vote on whether to end debate. A final vote could come on Thursday. As Josh Rogin observes, keep an eye on Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) as the clock ticks...

UPDATE, 4:11 p.m.: In an interview with me just now, Senator Bob Corker doubled down on his contention that if Dems move on DADT, Republicans will be less likely to support START. "I felt like momentum was growing for START," Corker said, adding that since Reid announced he was holding votes on DADT and DREAM, it has had a "chilling effect." "I'm watching support for the treaty erode, because of highly partisan political issues being brought up solely because activist groups in the Democratic Party want this done," he continued. Corker said he wasn't issuing a personal threat, and was...

NASHVILLE -- U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., says he has told Volkswagen officials that he thinks it would be "highly detrimental" to the German manufacturer if the United Auto Workers organizes its Chattanooga assembly plant. "I was asked to give input, and I did," Corker said. The advice stemmed from his experience trying to negotiate with the union during the 2008 federal bailout of GM and Chrysler, he said. "I certainly shared with [VW] I couldn't see how there was any possibility it could be a benefit to them to enter into a contract with UAW," said Corker, a former...

Here we go. With a mere 13 days to go in this election -- an election in which all things left are on the verge of being thoroughly repudiated if every poll out there is to believed -- a shocking story appears. A story in LaborUnionReport.com has Tennessee GOP Senator Bob Corker telling "high dollar donors" at a GOP event something prospective Republican voters will be surprised to hear: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP colleagues have no intention whatsoever to repeal ObamaCare. None. Zip. According to what the story says are "multiple sources," here's the skinny: The...

"Lenin is dead," Konstantin said as we toured Red Square in Moscow in the early 1990s. "He just hasn't been buried yet." And, sure enough, hard beside the Kremlin, the curious stood in cold lines to enter the tomb of Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924). Lenin's ghost - Communism - haunted Russia for almost 70 years after his death. Looking at today's economic environment, one need turn Kosta's phrase just a tad to make an increasingly obvious point: "Keynes is dead. He just hasn't been buried yet." The failure of the great Keynesian experiment of the early 21st century - i.e. President...

Tea-party activists, keen to build on their success toppling GOP incumbents in primaries this year, are already targeting more Republican veterans in the 2012 election. GOP senators like Bob Corker, above, have drawn criticism from tea-party activists for some of the positions they have taken over the years. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress, already has a conservative GOP primary opponent. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Indiana) have all drawn fire from the right wing of their party. Tea-party activists have put these...

Tennessee’s U.S. senators are among the richest of the 535-member Congress, according to newly released financial disclosures. U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., added more than $1 million to his wealth in 2009. With a worth last year of at least $18.3 million, he’s the 16th-richest member of Congress, according to an analysis by The Hill, a Washington, D.C., political newsletter. U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., reported no change last year but remained among the wealthiest senators, with a net worth of at least $12.1 million, The Hill reported. Among The Hill’s 50 wealthiest members of Congress, three were from Georgia...

President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress should swear off any major action during a lame-duck Congress, a Republican senator said Friday. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said if Democrats want to add stability to the economy, they should pledge not to move legislation that might not otherwise pass during the congressional session following Election Day. "I think one of the great things the administration can do to cause people to settle down is to say, absolutely, that they would oppose any great activity in a lame-duck session," Corker said during an appearance on CNBC. Republicans have expressed worry that...

After almost two years of calmly apologizing for American exceptionalism, quietly extending rights to those who have killed thousands of American citizens (and those who want to do the same) and steadily pressing a socialist agenda that defies both American majority opinion and American precedent; President Barack Obama is losing his cool. Foreign attackers didn't phase him and dissent over domestic issues didn't seem to register with him Not even the traditional opponent of a sitting president, the White House Press Corps, has been able to get under his skin. Granted he won't give them the opportunity, reducing their access...

It was billed as a high-noon cease-fire between President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans, but the rare, private Capitol Hill meeting instead turned into a heated shootout at the notion that anyone in the room has bipartisan intentions this election year. When Obama appealed for bipartisanship on legislation in the six months remaining before Election Day, freshman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., confronted him, the senator later told reporters. "I told him I thought there was a degree of audacity in him even showing up today after what happened with financial regulation," Corker said after the meeting. "I asked him how...

The Senate today rejected a proposal by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to impose a minimum 5% down payment for virtually all home mortgages. The amendment to the broader financial regulatory overhaul bill, which failed 42-57, would have required income verification and an assessment of borrowers’ ability to repay as well. Corker’s proposal also would have stripped out a provision that required financial firms securitizing loans to keep a 5% portfolio risk.

I just got this email from Bob Corker after sending him a letter voicing my opposition to PR statehood. Thank you for taking the time to contact my office regarding your concern with Puerto Rico becoming a state. Your input is important to me, and I appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts. As you may know, Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States and as of 1917 the people of Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens. As a U.S. territory Puerto Rico can establish a local government with its own constitution that applies to local governing....

Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 1:59pm CDT Corker: Health reform won't be repealed Nashville Business Journal - by Brian Reisinger Staff Writer U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said Wednesday that Republican efforts to repeal sweeping health care reform are futile, and instead promoted incremental fixes in a wide-ranging talk in Nashville. In the immediate aftermath of the reform’s passage, many of Corker’s Republican colleagues, including 2008 presidential contender Sen. John McCain, have pledged to repeal the legislation. Corker described that as unlikely, given the reality of needing 67 votes in the Senate to overcome a presidential veto of repeal legislation. “The fact...

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker Believes There is Still Room for Compromise on Health Care. BY SHAILAGH MURRAY Republican Sen. Bob Corker stood before a packed high school auditorium this week for his 24th and final town hall meeting of the summer, sketching out his vision for the bipartisan health-care plan he says he is convinced Congress can pass.

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn, told an audience of nearly 1,000 people Monday that it's time to get the debate "in the middle of the road" on health care. "What we need to do is organize choice," Sen. Corker told more than 700 people assembled in the auditorium at the Dixon Center at Lee University. Dozens more watched on TVs in the lobby and across the street.

Rep. Zach Wamp told members of the Chattanooga Pachyderm Club on Monday that Sen. Bob Corker is gaining clout around the country as a potential presidential candidate. He noted that Sen. Corker was chosen to deliver Friday night's Silver Elephant Banquet speech at the convention of the South Carolina Republican Party. Rep. Wamp said, "They could have had Palin, but they chose Corker. That is a big, big deal. It is a landmark beginning into the national political environment for our senator." He said the choice of Sen. Corker for the speech "was a high compliment and shows the stature...

The Obama administration faced strong opposition from two Senators — a Democrat and a Republican — to rush $497 million of emergency aid to Pakistan. One of them, Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said he was concerned that the Obama administration was trying to rush emergency aid without proper congressional oversight to a country where some of the leaders have been called ‘Mr 10 per cent’ because of their alleged corruption. ‘It will be a monumental mistake’ if the administration sent aid to Pakistan without proper congressional oversight, he said. ‘I would like to know how the money would...

The South Carolina GOP had planned to invite Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to speak at the dinner, according to a state Republican operative familiar with the plans, but discussions with Palin’s political advisers on the East Coast ended after the governor’s staff in Alaska “shot it down.” Meg Stapleton, a spokeswoman for Palin’s political action committee, SarahPAC, said that the governor’s office in Alaska declined the speaking offer two separate times, once in December and again several weeks ago, when the South Carolina GOP put in a second request through the PAC. Stapleton said Palin is not even considering “the...

Roll Call Vote, U.S. Senate, 111th Congress, On the Amendment (McCain Amdt. No. 882, as Modified), S.Amdt. 882 to S.Con. Res. 13, April 2, 2009

Just reported...

SMYRNA, Tenn. People in this small town surrounding one of Nissan's busiest U.S. car plants have followed the news of the auto bailout with particular interest. Namely, they wonder, what about us? Nissan is a Japanese automaker, but the Altimas, Maximas and Pathfinders that roll out of the factory are built by locals who are "Americans too," they like to point out. And just like the other automakers, Nissan is inflicting some of the economic pain on its employees, cutting shifts and pay. For some, the most galling aspect of the bailout is that federal money could go to union...

DETROIT — For more than 70 years, the United Automobile Workers union has known who its adversaries were: company executives, foreign automakers and right-to-work advocates who fought its organizing drives. Now it has another: Senator Robert Phillips Corker Jr. On Thursday night, Senator Corker, a freshman Republican from Tennessee, pushed the U.A.W.’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, to agree in principle to tough contract concessions before the Senate Republicans would agree to provide a lifeline to General Motors and Chrysler. But Mr. Gettelfinger, after giving ground in recent years on health care, job security and pay issues, would not agree to let...

Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, faced off with the UAW over fuel efficiency standards last year when he supported legislation that requires car makers to lift the MPG average of their product lineups. The architect behind the failed Senate deal to rush $14 billion in emergency loans to Detroit's automakers is no stranger to the car industry or a friend of the United Auto Workers, which torpedoed the deal. Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, is the founder of his own construction company and an investor in commercial real estate. The Wall Street Journal reported that Corker...

Sen. Bob Corker on Friday night praised Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s announcement that he would use the authority granted to him through the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to buy senior preferred shares of non-voting stock directly from financial companies: Sen. Corker said, "I applaud Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's announcement tonight that he will use the authority that Congress granted him in the rescue bill to buy senior preferred shares of non-voting stock directly from financial companies which is the quickest way to inject liquidity into the markets, get credit flowing again and protect the taxpayer at the same time. "I...

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., joined a group of senators Thursday in a letter asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to allow the Oct. 1, 2008, expiration of current bans on American energy exploration and production. The letter was authored by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. In addition to DeMint and Corker, the letter is signed by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and 36 other Republican senators. "We need a balanced approach that will allow us to produce more energy here at home and use less, with a strong emphasis on conservation as we move...

Still, it was probably too much to assume every Republican would work out that their side was winning this issue. And so, last Friday, in stumbled Sens. Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Saxby Chambliss, Bob Corker and Johnny Isakson -- alongside five Senate Democrats. This "Gang of 10" announced a "sweeping" and "bipartisan" energy plan to break Washington's energy "stalemate." What they did was throw every vulnerable Democrat, and Mr. Obama, a life preserver.

Talk about internecine upset. The office of Senator Bob Corker, Republican from Tennessee, has weighed in today, siding with Senator Barack Obama’s objections to the state’s G.O.P. Web campaign against Michelle Obama. To recap, the officialdom of the Tennessee G.O.P. posted a Web spot that mines remarks Mrs. Obama made in February that “first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.” The ad repeats footage of her speaking those words, interspersed with comments from Tennesseans, talking about how they’ve always been proud to be an American. Her comments have been reverberating for nearly three months...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker today accused Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of playing politics by refusing to allow the confirmation of two nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority's board of directors. Alexander, a Maryville Republican, chided Reid during a speech on the Senate floor for what he called "partisan, playpen politics." Alexander also released a letter from Reid in which he said could not support the nominees - Susan Richardson Williams of Knoxville and Bishop William H. Graves of Memphis - because of "the inadequacy of bipartisan representation" on the board. Reid noted that the...

Education, energy, health care and the Iraq war all were touched on today as Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam hosted his longtime friend and U.S. Senator Bob Corker for an "informal talk" before some 500 invited guests at the Jacob Building in Chilhowee Park. And on all four major topics, the Republican senator highlighted views conspicuously at odds with what the White House and, in some cases, the GOP leadership have advocated. Corker, a freshman senator from Tennessee who took office in January after serving as mayor of Chattanooga and later as state finance commissioner, repeated President Bush's oft-quoted statements that...

Senator Bob Corker is ready to head back to the drawing board to get an expansion of the federal State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) passed. Friday, Corker said he supports SCHIP and believes it could do great things for Tennesseans. He said he's not looking for ways to move a modified version of the bill forward. "I was able to to work with, and to get 18 senators, the 18 Republican senators that actually supported the SCHIP bill, to ask leaders on both sides of the House and Senate to sit down now, with the President, and let's figure...

Alexander, Corker near site of truck bomb attack

Anticipating a cloture vote on the immigration bill on Tuesday, U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) today said he will be in opposition. He said, “I plan to vote against cloture on the immigration bill, as I have already done twice during this debate. I believe a better approach would be a more modest bill that focuses on border security, employer identification, and putting systems in place that will put us in a position to actually enforce a new immigration policy. Sen. Lamar Alexander said he will also vote against cloture.

Immigration Reform Three weeks ago, a bipartisan group of senators and administration officials emerged from negotiations to announce agreement on a new comprehensive immigration reform bill. I, like other senators outside of this select group, approached the news with caution. As the details trickled out, it became apparent an effort was underway to take a complex piece of legislation, reforming over 40 years of immigration policy, and rush it through the Senate before most members could even read it. I voiced opposition and voted against proceeding any further until I felt confident there would be a serious debate over an...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) today made the following statement regarding immigration reformation legislation proposed this week in the Senate: “On Monday, Senators are being asked to start voting on a complex immigration reform bill that most members have not had a chance to read or review. There is no doubt we need to secure America’s borders and reform our broken immigration system, but this should not be done hastily by cramming through a largely unknown piece of legislation in a few days. “After reading several summaries of this bill, I have serious concerns and for that...

NAYs ---16 Akaka (D-HI) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Byrd (D-WV) Corker (R-TN) Dodd (D-CT) Feingold (D-WI) Kennedy (D-MA) Leahy (D-VT) Menendez (D-NJ) Murray (D-WA) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Sanders (I-VT) Whitehouse (D-RI)

WASHINGTON — U.S. troops in Iraq want support and patience until at least mid-summer to test whether extra troops are increasing the government's stability in that country, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said today after a weekend visit to Kuwait and Iraq. Corker, in a phone interview between public meetings in East Tennessee counties, said he based his views on private talks with soldiers from Knoxville and Memphis, five U.S. generals, Iraqi government officials and others. He was in Iraq on Sunday for quick briefings before Congress decides how much more money to spend in Iraq in the next year. Today...

CORKER HAS TEPID RESPONSE ON IRAQ RESOLUTION Senator Corker sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The man said he did not support the resolution because it was non binding. Is that a good reason? He said the resolution will have no effect on the administration. Well, I disagree. Gen. Petreus said the resoultion will give comfort to the enemy. What does Corker mean have no effect? It is demoralizing sir! He also criticized the administration’s handling of Iraq and had nothing positive to say about the execution. He is definitely not making any effort to support the administration in...

MEMPHIS - When Republican Bob Corker takes the oath of office in the U.S. Senate, his ambitions for Tennessee start on the back row of the chamber now controlled by Democrats. As the most recently elected member of the minority party, Corker will have a seniority rank of No. 100 as he takes over the seat held by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. According to associate Senate historian Donald A. Ritchie, that will consign him to a back-row seat in the 100-member chamber. Corker's swearing-in is set for Thursday. Marcus Pohlmann, a political science professor at Rhodes College, said Tennessee's...

Thursday, 11/09/06 'Call me' ad actress says 'it was just a job' The bare-shouldered blonde whose appearance in a political ad helped sink Democrat Harold Ford Jr. says she isn't very political, and didn't know who "Harold" was when she said, "Call me." "I don't involve myself in politics. I stick to my job," said Johanna Goldsmith, an Austin, Texas, actress. "For me, it was just a job like any other." Goldsmith's ad in the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee touched off a national political and racial firestorm. She had promised to keep quiet until after the election, and she...

Is it just me, or does it look like he has been crying?