In the News: Auto rescue puts Sen. Corker on national stage

Senator Corker was mentioned in the following article published in the Tennessean on December 14.

Tennessean: Auto rescue puts Sen. Corker on national stage
By Bill Theobald • TENNESSEAN WASHINGTON BUREAU • December 14, 2008

WASHINGTON — Two years ago, Bob Corker was that other guy, the one who barely beat the flashy and nationally known Harold Ford Jr. for a U.S. Senate seat.

On Thursday night, Corker found himself on the floor of the Senate, surrounded by GOP colleagues as they leaned in to listen to their primary negotiator in the debate over the $14 billion rescue package for the U.S. automakers.

And while the deal he was brokering ultimately fell apart, the Tennessean has emerged on the national political scene. How it happened is a story of preparation, pragmatism and some political luck.

Corker, who was still working the issue Friday in his Washington office after most of his colleagues had long left for the holidays, dismissed his new acclaim as he reflected on the past few weeks.

"We shouldn't get too full of ourselves here," Corker said. "Next week somebody else will be in the batter's box."

How Corker, 56, got his turn at the plate goes back to the approach the former Chattanooga mayor and millionaire real estate developer took when he arrived in the Senate.

"When I first came here, I didn't say much. I listened a whole lot," Corker said. "I learned that if you speak out on every issue, what happens is people immediately tune you out."
He decided to focus on a few issues on which he could develop expertise.

Given the choice between a slot on the high-profile Senate commerce committee and one on the banking committee, Corker took the latter — against advice from colleagues. "Don't go on the banking committee — it's the most boring committee we've got," Corker recalled being told.

Then the country's financial system began to collapse, followed by the auto industry, and the committee was thrust into the middle of both issues. Corker started to gain attention on the auto-industry rescue with his tough questioning of automaker executives at a committee hearing in November.

Before executives and union officials testified again, Corker spent two days in New York City meeting with Wall Street analysts who monitor the industry and with the bondholders who own the companies' debt. He met with union officials the day before the hearing.

So, when his turn to ask questions came last week — far down the list because of his low seniority — Corker was ready.

Look, he told the executives bluntly, everyone knows Chrysler LLC won't last as a separate company. And Ford Motor Co., he told Ford CEO Alan Mulally, is here only because the other two companies are. While you don't need money now, he told Mulally, you figure, why not get a low-interest loan from the federal government without having to put up anything?

Corker's message to General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner? You're the problem. You've got $62 billion in debt, and that's unsustainable. And he told United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger that if the union didn't agree to cuts, GM would go into bankruptcy and the union's labor contract would be voided.

Corker then laid out the three proposals that became the centerpiece of the Senate Republicans' alternative to legislation negotiated between the White House and congressional Democrats: The company's debtors had to give up 70 percent of the value of their bonds. The union had to settle for half of the $21 billion GM owes to a fund for retiree health benefits and take company stock for the other half. And it had to match the labor costs of foreign automakers operating in the U.S.

Logical choice for talks

When Josh Bolten, President George W. Bush's chief of staff, met with Senate Republicans on Wednesday to outline the White House plan, Corker offered his proposal. Senate Republicans rejected the White House plan as too weak and embraced Corker's.

Corker became the logical choice to negotiate for the Senate GOP, because he knew the issue in depth and because Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, ranking Republican on the banking committee, was dead set against a taxpayer bailout.

So all day Thursday, Corker found himself in the historic Senate Foreign Relations Room in the Capitol with the banking committee chairman, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; UAW representatives; and legislative staffers.

The auto executives were in a room across the hall. On the phone were GM's bondholders.

When agreements were reached, legislative staffers put the new language into the bill.

Negotiations stalled on one point. Corker and Senate Republicans wanted to include a specific deadline for the union to be "competitive" with foreign companies on labor costs. Union negotiators wouldn't budge.
"I'm a practical guy," Corker said. "I said, 'Give me a date. Give me any date in 2009.' "

The union wouldn't give.

On the Senate floor, Corker pleaded that the two sides were just "three words" apart. Dodd praised Corker effusively, saying he could not remember a senator with so little experience making such an impact.

On Friday, Corker said he felt a sense of "surrealness" at coming so close to what he said would have been the most significant restructuring of the auto industry in a generation.

Almost, though, brought little satisfaction.

"I came here to solve problems," Corker said. "I try to major in substance."

Asked at a news conference whether he felt the Republicans or the Democrats and UAW had won a political victory, Corker responded: "I don't think it was a victory for anyone."

Copyright © 2008 The Tennessean. All rights reserved.

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