With Bredesen, it will be a race
Former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen added Democratic heft to the 2018 Tennessee Senate race Thursday morning when he officially launched his bid for the soon-to-be-empty seat of Bob Corker.
Bredesen, a political moderate and fiscal conservative who recently turned 74, was the last Democrat to win a statewide election in Tennessee. He won all 95 counties in 2006 in his re-election as governor.
Also seeking the Democratic nomination is James Mackler, a straight-talking Iraq War veteran and Nashville attorney with Chattanooga ties. Mackler, though very smart and personable, likely lacks the name recognition and political credentials to win the primary against Bredesen, a former two-term governor, former Nashville mayor and self-made millionaire with lots of expertise in the health industry.
Bredesen also is the most likely of just about any possible Democrat candidate to be able to beat the Republican front-runner, Tennessee's U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Brentwood.
In a more than two-minute video, Bredesen sits on a chair on a porch while discussing a host of issues facing the country, including gridlock in Washington, D.C., the opioid crisis and the need to fix the Affordable Care Act.
"I'm running for the Senate because I have the right kind of experience and the actual track record that it will take to start working across party lines to fix the mess in Washington and bring common sense back to our government," Bredesen said.
He's right. And Tennessee is looking a little less red and a little more purple.
Franken's fall is bittersweet
It's both sad and good to see Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., announce his plan to resign in coming weeks after eight women alleged that he made unwanted advances on them.
It's sad because Franken seems to be a good man at heart and a good politician. His acknowledgment that he let down the people of Minnesota and America - and especially women - speaks to that deep goodness.
"I am proud that, during my time in the Senate, I have used my power to be a champion for women - and that I have earned a reputation as someone who respects the women I work alongside every day. I know there's been a very different picture of me painted over the last few weeks. But I know who I really am," he said in his resignation speech.
Franken talked of politics and the frustrations of being in politics, recalling the words of one of his Minnesota predecessors in the Senate who said that politics is about the improvement of people's lives.
"Even today, even on the worst day of my political life, I feel like it's all been worth it (to serve the people), Franken said. "I know that the work I've been able to do has improved people's lives. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat."
On the other hand, it was good to see Franken say he will resign, because enough really is enough - no matter how dated the gropes and pinches and unwanted kisses may be. The culture of sexual bullying - knowingly or unknowingly - simply must change. And it is.
More resignations (or firings) will follow Franken's. Just as more followed Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and Bill O'Reilly.
For Franken, certainly political considerations were a factor.
The 30-plus Democrats who massed this week to pressure Franken's decision want a clear contrast with Republicans - many of whom continue to rally behind our Republican groper-in-chief, as well as Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused by nine women of making sexual advances on under-age and older teenage girls when he was in his 30s.
Republican leaders, however, are unlikely to follow suit. They have no shame.