You readers out there are right to be wondering why Tennessee members of Congress are missing in action while the Trump administration continues to scare the pants off Americans by wallowing in Russia scandals and laying one policy goose egg after another.
Where, after all, is our Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, and where are our senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander?
Washington is on fire right now with the Russia investigations and with GOPcare votes. In fact, the beltway is so hot that days of hearings with Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch have barely gotten any attention, either from the media or the lawmakers - save a treatise from Alexander chiding Democrats in advance for filibustering.
Meanwhile, our stalwart Tennessee leaders are laying low.
Not only did none of them show up for town halls during their recent recess, they aren't venturing out much in front of cameras either - though none of them is camera shy.
But face it: There's no upside right now for any Republican to be within 50 miles of the obvious question, "Do you support (or are you worried about) Donald Trump's lies, missteps and scandals?"
So instead of hogging limelight as politicians are wont to do, our boys are sticking to the shadows and posting an occasional news release or email that they feel pretty sure will be ignored by a media currently drowning in the fire hose of scandals.
Alexander, for instance, has been industriously making pronouncements about "harmful Obama-era labor regulations" as he meets with Labor secretary nominee Alexander Acosta. He also took time out Wednesday to speak on the Senate floor to express opposition - for the thousandth time - to a Tennessee Valley Authority plan to purchase what Alexander calls "unreliable" wind power. Alexander is a huge proponent of nuclear power. But with all due respect, Sen. Alexander, both reactors at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant are down right now at a cost in lost revenue to TVA of at least $1 million a day.
Meanwhile Fleischmann made a little news - unintentionally - by making it into a review titled "9 health reform lies Congress members are telling their constituents." The story reports a fact-check review by ProPublica and its partners at Kaiser Health News, Stat and Vox. The review analyzed more than 200 letters members of Congress sent out to their constituents in response to the public's questions and concerns about the Affordable Care Act and its proposed replacement, the GOP's American Health Care Act.
The review thumps Fleischmann for blaming the ACA for the number of uninsured Americans. He wrote: "According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately thirty-three million Americans are still living without health care coverage and many more have coverage that does not adequately meet their health care needs."
The actual number of uninsured in 2016 was about 29 million, a drop of 4 million from the previous year, the Census Bureau reported in September. Fleischmann's number was from the previous year.
"Beyond that," Vox reports, "reducing the number of uninsured by more than 12 million people from 2013 to 2015 has been seen as a success of Obamacare. And the Republican repeal-and-replace bill is projected to increase the number of uninsured."
Yes, GOPcare is projected to increase the number of uninsured Americans by 24 million - bringing the total to about 52 million by 2025.
"Regardless of the year of the statistic, the fact remains that tens of millions of people do not have health care coverage or coverage that sufficiently meets their needs," Fleischmann responded, in part. "Health costs have not gone down and Americans were not able to keep their health plans, as promised. Obamacare did not do what it was designed to do."
And then there is Corker.
Corker, who for a while was a frequent TV news guest and mentioned often as a possible Trump vice president pick or secretary of state pick, has largely gone dark. During town hall week, his staff said he was out of the country.
Since Trump's budget and health care plan were unveiled, Corker has sent out a few remarkably low-key news releases. Here's the gist of those messages: The president's budget doesn't address the "real drivers of our debt - Medicare and Social Security." As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Corker has posted that the U.S. must prioritize humanitarian access and fix inefficiencies in food aid deliveries. He also wrote in a statement that he looks forward to meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to discuss "how he believes he can accomplish his work at these [a 29 percent reduction] budget levels."
On GOPcare, Corker announced on March 16 that he had a discussion with Trump on Air Force 1 and hopes cost and affordability will be addressed.
"The bill should help lower the cost of health care sooner rather than later," Corker's statement reads. He adds: "Tax credits must be sufficient enough to allow hardworking Americans not covered by their employer to reasonably purchase a health care plan that fits their needs. I will be watching closely as the legislation progresses."
That's far more than our other two lawmakers offered on health care, foreign relations or anything else, but there still hasn't been a peep from any of them about the growing darkness around the Russian questions.
Come on, fellows. Step out from behind the potted plants.
We're waiting.