Just before the holidays, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who in September announced he will not seek a third term, had the opportunity to open the final act of his Senate career with distinction.
He already had stature and respect as a business-smart and plain-spoken moderate Republican lawmaker. He built on that stature – even with Democrats and progressives – when as the chaos of the Trump era unfolded, he offered thoughtful and common-sense critiques of the president’s need for improvement.
He built on his reputation still more with his early December announcement that he would oppose the unpopular GOP tax cuts plan. Always a deficit hawk, Corker said he wouldn’t vote for a plan that raised the deficit “one penny,” so how could he vote for a plan that would raise it by an estimated $1 trillion?
Yet on Dec. 15, he changed his mind, and a few days later he joined fellow Republicans to vote 51-48 to pass a tweaked version of the tax bill – one then projected to add even more, at least $1.5 trillion, to the deficit.
Corker’s opportunity for greatness turned into a firestorm of voter anger and a media storm of questions.