First, someone should have told Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann years ago not to put on that hard hat during his photo op at the Chickamauga lock with U.S. Army Corp of Engineer engineers — fellows who really do look like they need hard hats to protect the important stuff in their heads.
Second, someone should have told Tennessee’s 3rd District Congressman not to reuse his photo-op hard hat picture time and time again while campaigning that he has worked “tirelessly” to “fix” the 75-year-old, eroding lock, especially since he largely did nothing to help get work on the lock restarted until 2013. That was when his third election season was upon him and he finally had viable competition and he suddenly remembered there was an aging lock that facilitates cheap transportation of billions of dollars in goods from upper East Tennessee south to the Gulf and north to Paducah, Ky., and on to the Mississippi River.
But thirdly — and the clincher: Someone should have told Chuck to never, ever try to brand himself to something not yet done. The new and improved remake of what locals fondly call the Chick Lock is far from done — and it’s ever-growing price tag is still unfunded, yet Chuck has chosen to remake the lock’s nickname with his own.
“The Chickamauga Lock, affectionately known by many as the Chick Lock, is now being referred to all over the United States as the ‘Chuck’ lock,” Fleischmann quipped to the Chattanooga Rotary Club on Thursday as he pledged to work toward gaining at least $6.9 million in funding in the next year to reactivate work on the stalled replacement.
To borrow a campaign debate quote from Mary Headrick, made about the stalled lock funding that was gummed up in part because of Fleischmann’s no-new-taxes pledge to Grover Norquist: