NASHVILLE — U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., today denounced proposals by Republican presidential hopefuls John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton to offer Americans a federal gas-tax holiday as “pandering extraordinaire.”

The Chattanooga lawmaker said “my heart goes out to people in this state that are paying the gasoline prices they’re paying. I bump into people who are on limited incomes, and it is in a big way affecting their lives and changing the way they go about their lives.”

Still, he said, “I think all of us realize this is solely pandering” by U.S. Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Clinton, D-N.Y.

The idea of a gas-tax suspension has been touted by Sen. McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and Sen. Clinton, D-N.Y., who is battling U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for the Democratic nomination.

Sen. Obama denounced the proposal on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on Sunday as a “classic gimmick,” a sentiment apparently shared to some extent by Sen. Corker.

“What’s interesting is that both of these candidates that have proposed this also, simultaneously, support cap and trade legislation which is in essence a carbon tax,” Sen. Corker said.

“Here they are saying they want to have a gas-tax holiday,” he said. “But in June, we’re going to have a debate on a bill that actually is a tax on gasoline, and they’re for it. If that’s not pandering, I don’t know what it is.”

Sen. Corker’s comments came after an address to the Nashville Rotary Club.

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.