Zach Wamp

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp on Tuesday said he’s conflicted about leaving Congress to possibly run for governor of Tennessee in 2010.

Rep. Wamp, R-Tenn., told the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club he didn’t know whether he wanted to remove himself from work on national security issues, which he said is the federal government’s No. 1 responsibility. He said state government’s main focus should be education.

“I’m ... conflicted because of (national security) issues, because of my help bringing my colleagues in the Congress to a better understanding of what’s going on in the world,” he said.

Earlier in his speech, Rep. Wamp read an opinion piece he had written about the recent terror attacks in Mumbai, India.

He said he also was waiting for an announcement from former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., on whether Dr. Frist would run for governor. Rep. Wamp has expressed strong interest running for the state’s chief executive job, but said whether or not he runs will depend on Dr. Frist’s decision.

Calls to Dr. Frist’s political action committee were not returned Monday.

But in blog posts on his Web site, Dr. Frist has expressed an interest in state politics. A posting two days after Election Day congratulated GOP candidates in Tennessee for winning control of the General Assembly.

“Tuesday's overwhelming Republican victory in Tennessee is a positive reaffirmation that Tennesseans understand and support conservative principles of smaller government, lower taxes and common sense values,” Dr. Frist wrote.

Other posts focus on his interests in AIDS research and aid to Africa.

Rep. Wamp also told the Republican group that he believed a $25 billion loan to U.S. automakers, or any other government action to bail out troubled industries, would be a bad economic move.

“We shouldn’t go an inch further,” he said. “The (auto industry) bailout is only going to make things worse.”

Still, Rep. Wamp said he didn’t know whether his vote in favor of the initial $700 bailout bill was a mistake.

“We didn’t have much choice, given where we were,” he said.

Rep. Wamp did say he believes that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has “miserably mishandled” the bailout package.

After Rep. Wamp voted for the bill in early October, he said he did not like the bill, but was glad Congress held out for more reforms and accountability.