Why did Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker run from a possible call to be Donald Trump's VP?
Chattanooga's former mayor says the post of vice president is too "political" to suit him.
Really? Since when has anything been too political for the Bob Corker who took heat from his party for golfing with President Barack Obama?
To our ears, too "political" is a politically-correct (Trump pun intended) description of Corker's demure retreat. It's a little like saying he can't play ball next week because he has to wash his hair.
That's not to say Corker's reasoning was flawed. To best understand our senator's Wednesday announcement that he was withdrawing his name as a potential Trump running mate, just read between the lines of a New York Times news analysis examining Trump's fumbles on Hillary Clinton's possible worst day - Tuesday when the nation's FBI director called Clinton's use of personal email to ferry classified material "extremely careless."
Instead of seizing the day with what some pundits called a living, breathing FBI-delivered attack ad, Trump tweeted.
That's right. He tweeted. Nineteen words and an exclamation point.
"The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment," states the Twitter message. On the plus side, at least all the words were spelled correctly.
The New York Times summed it up as only the latest missed opportunity in a month of missed, punted and lost opportunities, including the Islamic State-inspired rampage in Orlando, Fla., and Britain's vote to leave the European Union.
"[T]here have been few days during this cycle of disbelief in which the sense of regret has been as palpable for Republican strategists and policy makers as when [FBI Director James] Comey jolted the political world back to life after a long holiday weekend."
Instead Trump the narcissist "unnecessarily inserted himself into each story and saw no improvement in his standing in the polls," Republican strategist Brian Walsh told New York Times reporters. "Trump overtakes news cycles at every turn. My God, he was on his golf course saying what a good thing the pound's collapse would be for his bottom line."
On Tuesday night when our own Bob Corker served as the warm-up act for what could have been a momentous Trump speech to finally focus more than a Tweet on the FBI probe and Clinton's vulnerability over emails, the Donald gave it a brief mention before heading down another rabbit hole - a rant that ended up as praise for Saddam Hussein, a great terrorist killer.
"He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights. They didn't talk. They were terrorists. It was over."
Huh?
Trump's imagination was running away with him again. Hussein wasn't a terrorist killer. He was a terrorist - in a suit. He was the guy who in the 1980s shot scud missiles at Israel and killed tens of thousands of his own people with chemical weapons.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, on Fox News, was forced to acknowledge that Hussein "was one of the 20th century's most evil people."
Meanwhile, Jake Sullivan, a senior policy adviser to Clinton, was practically singing a Democrat version of Carpe Diem.
In a statement, Sullivan said: "Donald Trump's praise for brutal strongmen seemingly knows no bounds." Sullivan connected the dots by noting Trump also has applauded the strength China showed in the Tiananmen Square massacre, offered admiration for Kim Jong-Un's murderous consolidation of power in North Korea, and heaped praise on Vladimir Putin.
Is it any wonder then that Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, might finally have been blinded by the light and moved away at full steam to find his shampoo and put distance between a possible Trump/Corker ticket - praising Trump all the while?
Corker wisely let self preservation top ambition. At least for now.
Corker told Times Free Press reporter Andy Sher that he isn't ruling out serving in a possible Trump administration if the opportunity materializes.
"If at some point serving in an administration was something that became an opportunity - there's just better ways for someone like me to serve than being a candidate for vice president. It's highly political. As you know I try to focus far more on substance."
It has been reported that Corker would love to be Secretary of State.
That is substance, yes. But perhaps, given Trump's pronouncements on foreign matters and foreign leaders, our senator might best shy away from that, as well.