Sen. Lamar AlexanderNASHVILLE – Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander told cheering supporters Monday that he learned as governor he sometimes had to work with Democrats to get things done for Tennessee and has found it necessary sometimes in Washington to do the same.
“If I stood up before you today and said I by myself brought in the auto industry, and I by myself paid teachers more for teaching well and built the best road system, I wouldn’t be telling you the truth either because I had to work with other people to do it,” the two-term senator told some 150 or more supporters at his campaign headquarters here in Nashville.
Alexander, who’s come under criticism from his tea party-supported GOP primary opponent Joe Carr for not taking a hard enough line, said, “I respect the fact that those of us who are elected are expected not to just make a speech but get results.”
“I’ve tried to do the same thing in Washington, D.C.,” Alexander said. “We changed a law to make medicine safer. We changed a law to make student loans less expensive for students.”
But he said in the Democratic-run Senate, “I couldn’t have done that by myself. I had to work with other people to do it. Some people just want to make a speech. I want to get a result. I’m not in the shut down the government crowd; I’m in the take over the government crowd … take it in a more conservative direction.”