Sohn: Corker's comments on Trump disappoint

Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., center, listens during a hearing in 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., center, listens during a hearing in 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

No one has said former Chattanooga mayor and now Tennessee's U.S. Sen. Bob Corker lacks ambition.

In fact, he's unabashedly ambitious, and he's never seen a political opportunity he didn't like.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman proved it again Thursday and Friday as he gushed over Donald Trump's vague so-called "foreign policy speech."

That would be the speech that The Washington Post's Dana Milbank wrote was "Trump's crazy attempt not to sound crazy," and The New York Times dubbed "Donald Trump's Strange World View." The Times notes Trump "did not exhibit much grasp of the complexity of the world, understanding of the balance or exercise of power, or even a careful reading of history."

But Corker, ever eyeing his and his party's future, called it a "great step in the right direction" and "full of substance."

"I look forward to hearing more details, but in a year where angry rhetoric has defined the presidential race on both sides of the aisle, it is my hope that candidates in both parties will begin focusing not only on the problems we face but on solutions," Corker wrote in a news release soon after Trump spoke.

Later, speaking on MSNBC, Corker told host Chris Matthews, "If you look at the broadness, the vision, I thought it was a major step forward."

If he meant the apparent nominee was calming down his reality TV clown act in an effort to appear more "presidential" - well, maybe.

But Corker's "full of substance" comment would seem to indicate that's not all he means when he talks about Trump's blathering. On the other hand, perhaps Corker hopes that Trump - though nearly 70 and apparently a slow learner as is evidenced by his continuing tendency to belittle women - is malleable.

But other foreign policy wonks - and not Democrats - were less impressed.

"It struck me as a very odd mishmash," Doug Bandow, a foreign policy scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, told Politico. "He called for a new foreign policy strategy, but you don't really get the sense he gave one," said Bandow, who shares Trump's beliefs about scaling back America's role abroad.

Robert "Bud" McFarlane, a former national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, said Trump's speech was "lacking in policy prescriptions" and its "strident rhetoric masked a lack of depth," according to Politico.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted that Trump's address was "pathetic in terms of understanding the role America plays in the world, how to win War on Terror, and threats we face."

In another tweet later during the speech, Graham wrote: "Ronald Reagan must be rolling over in his grave."

But "vision" was what Corker saw.

Perhaps a vision of himself in a Trump administration, heaven forbid there should be one.

And what if there isn't a Trump administration and GOP power wanes in the beltway? Then chances would seem pretty good we may yet hear some Corker-for-governor speeches.

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