Subject: Lamar Alexander

• Taking Tuke's Pulse

  September 29, 2008

• Tennessee Democrats Must Feel Stupid Now

  October 9, 2008

• Running on Empty

  June 10, 1999

• The Money Game

  July 22, 1999

• Corker and Alexander Say No to the Stimulus: Did They Sleep Through the Election?

  Wait a minute--we thought Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander were supposed to be moderates. That's what the wingnuts are always telling us. But yesterday,our senators joined all the rest of the tightasses in their party--minus Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter, thankfully--in a united front against the economic stimulus package. Alexander was absolutely outraged by the bill: "This bill is a colossal mistake. This is still mostly a spending bill, not a stimulus bill. Even worse, it bo

  February 11, 2009

• Corker & Alexander Vote for All Tax-Cut "Stimulus"

  Sometimes it's easy to get distracted. Lost in the white noise of last week's Obama birth certificate boondoggle was another WTF?! moment brought to you by Tennessee politicians.Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander were two of the 38 Senators to vote for a Republican-sponsored stimulus substitute. The plan: Nothing but tax cuts, especially for the wealthy. A.K.A. The same trickle-down B.S. that's been peddled since the days of Reagan.Pretty sweet if you're Albert Haynesworth. Not so much if you're wor

  February 16, 2009

• Lamar Alexander Joins the Anti-Union Bandwagon

  Aren't you supposed to be cooler than this, Lamar? He may have not scored the points that Sen. Bob Corker landed with his bashing of auto workers during the Detroit bailout hearings, but Sen. Lamar Alexander is playing a decent game of catch-up. He's denounced the the Employee Free Choice Act as "the most radical piece of legislation before Congress."It's the kind of rhetoric that plays well with Chamber of Commerce types, and should land him some fat campaign checks. The only problem is it just

  March 12, 2009

• Lamar Gets It! Blowing Up Mountains Is Crazy

  Sen. Lamar Alexander has introduced legislation to ban the dumping of mining waste into streams. Effectively, that would stop coal companies from blowing the tops off mountains. That's a step the governor and the legislature are refusing to take. So in a bizarre twist, Pith is beginning to see Alexander in a new, improved light. You know things are tough when you have to turn to a Republican in Washington to protect the environment. A press release explains: Mountaintop mining is a method of co

  March 26, 2009

• Son of Ned

  Democrats tout polls showing Lamar’s beatable after all

  October 4, 2007

• Boner Awards 2006

  Bear with us as we recap the weirdest, wildest Nashville moments of the past year

  December 21, 2006

• Words of the Week

  December 7, 2006

• Alexander Says Response Was a Joke

  ‘I was really happy for Trent Lott’

  November 23, 2006

• The Boner Awards 2K2

  Our annual recap of the goofy, grisly and gnarly in Nashville

  December 19, 2002

• Herding Him Back

  Lamar is gonna drink Bill Frist's Kool-Aid

  July 15, 2004

• Right of the Right

  Lamar makes his first glorious stand—in favor of a tax

  November 6, 2003

• His Own Man

  Alexander proves to be a classic moderate, not an administration toady

  September 25, 2003

• Bill of Health

  If Frist’s ever in an accident, at least he’ll be there to help

  April 24, 2003

• Alexander Again

  Lamar comes back from the political shadows and sends Clement there in his place

  November 7, 2002

• Love/Hate Mail

  A long memory

  October 24, 2002

• News Briefly

  If you can’t beat them, kill them

  October 3, 2002

• News Briefly

  All Politics is local

  September 19, 2002

• Rooting for the Doves

  Trigger-happy candidates bear—and bare—arms over Labor Day

  September 5, 2002

• News Briefly

  Now, let the mudballs fly

  September 5, 2002

• Clement vs. Alexander

  We’re not exactly sure who’s right, wrong or out to lunch on this one, but we have hunches and we’re sure we’re opposed to it.

  August 29, 2002

• It’s a Choice, Alright

  The GOP has a seasoned moderate in Alexander and a conservative upstart in Bryant

  July 18, 2002

• Truth in Pandering

  The boll weevil makes its way into the U.S. Senate race

  June 6, 2002

• Sen. Lamar Reagan

  Lamar Alexander takes a page from a timeless Republican Party icon

  April 11, 2002

• The Week That Was

  Searching for Al's soul

  October 28, 1999

• Dealing in Diversity

  Voters will get a Council that looks more like Nashville

  September 2, 1999

• Lamar Fights Back

  July 29, 1999

• Leader of the PAC

  August 20, 1998

• Political Notes

  March 27, 1997

• Heroes and Villains

  October 31, 1996

• The Making of a Candidate

  January 18, 1996

• Political Notes

  October 26, 1995

• Sen. Alexander Initiates First Contact, Chuckles

  PoliticoIn this stunning image, our very own Sen. Lamar Alexander is World Emissary to a group of extraterrestrials. Alexander can be seen holding the key to an infinite energy source and chuckling nervously as he contemplates the lost TVA campaign contributions that may result.JK. He's being presented with a "Support Music Award" from VH1 and the National Association of Music Merchants.

  May 15, 2009

• Mr. Doubletalk: Lamar Alexander Attacks Barney Frank for GM Meddling

  Here's Lamar Alexander picking on Barney Frank for asking GM to keep a plant open in his Massachusetts district. But as Politico observes, Alexander will do the same thing. "I, of course, will urge that the Spring Hill plant be a contender for a GM product in the future," Alexander said. "I'll be doing what every congressman would be doing." For this, Sean Braisted makes our senator his hypocrite of the day.

  June 10, 2009

• Going Nuclear: Lamar's Flimflam Energy Plan

  Lamar Alexander is offering the Republican alternative to the Democrats' cap-and-trade legislation. He wants America to build 100 new nuclear plants in 20 years. At the same time, Alexander says he's not open to compromise on the climate change bill. "We should want an America in which we create hundreds of thousands of 'green jobs,' but not at the expense of destroying tens of millions of red, white and blue jobs," the senator says. Setting aside the obvious problem (what would we do with a

  July 14, 2009

• Lamar Alexander: 'It's Not Time'

  Here's the new TV ad titled "It's Time" from Barack Obama's campaign arm, which is trying to drum up support for the president's health-care reform initiative. Today, our own Lamar Alexander was one of the 10 Republicans who voted against overhauling health care in the Senate health committee. All 13 Democrats voted for it so it passed anyway in a landmark moment in the party's efforts to expand health coverage in this country. Alexander issued this "the-sky-is-falling" statement:

  July 15, 2009

• Lamar Drives a Sissy Car and Votes for Sotomayor: What's Wrong with Our Senator?

  Lamar is actually driving this go-cart.​What's the matter with Lamar Alexander? First, he fights to stop the coal industry from blowing up our mountains. Then he takes up for Sen. Barbara Boxer on the Senate floor and insists Republicans really do want a bipartisan solution to the health care mess. And now for his denouement, he breaks with Republican leaders, tells the NRA to go to hell and announces he'll vote for Sonia Sotomayor. He's driving a Prius hybrid, for Chrissakes, and he converte

  July 31, 2009

• Lamar Sticks to Tennessee Donors

  ​In a new report, the Center for Responsive Politics spotlights members of Congress whose campaigns are funded by out-of-state donors. Sen. Max Baucus, for instance, has taken more than 100 campaign contributions of more than $200 this year and not a single one of them has come from a resident of his state of Montana. On the other end of the spectrum, only Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) stands out. Alexander, who was reelected last fall, raised $27,000 from individual donors during the fi

  August 4, 2009

• Lamar Alexander and the Difficulty of Having it Both Ways

  On Fox yesterday, Lamar Alexander showed the difficulty of being a fiscal conservative while still supporting wildly popular programs. The senator said he'd vote in favor of kicking another $2 billion for the cash for clunkers program -- while simultaneously calling for a curb on spending and deficit reduction. So presents the quandary of playing both sides of the fence.

  August 6, 2009

• A Sickening Silence: What's Wrong with GOP Moderates?

  ​Commentators are wondering why Republican moderates aren't speaking out against extremism in their party. It's becoming more apparent by the day that the GOP has been commandeered by a gang of nutjobs--the Obama birth conspiracy theorists and the town hall meeting mobs are the latest evidence. "What's wrong with these people?" asks Joe Rothstein. "Are they afraid they will turn into pillars of salt if they speak out against the radical fringe that has taken over the Republican Party?" Th

  August 6, 2009

• Lamar's Nuclear Dreams: A Trillion-Dollar Bailout in the Making

  ​Lamar Alexander is leading Republican calls for massive new construction of nuclear power plants. He wants to double the number of U.S. reactors. "It is already far and away our best defense against global warming. So why not build 100 new nuclear power plants in 20 years?" he says. The short answer? It costs too much. As this article in today's Christian Science Monitor explains, the new debate over nuclear power is focused not on worries over meltdowns or radioactive waste but on who w

  August 14, 2009

• Alexander Calls Out Obama for Appointing Too Many Czars

  By appointing all these policy czars, President Obama has given Republicans a political opening, and Sen. Lamar Alexander is taking it. Alexander, a member of the Senate GOP leadership team, says so many White House czars are "an affront to the Constitution," and he's right. Apparently, no president has ever appointed so many special advisers. It's a way to dodge Senate confirmation and congressional oversight, and it concentrates too much power in the White House. As a practical matter, it's

  September 9, 2009

• Socialism in America: RNC Official Blames Alexander

  ​Pith loves a good political feud, and one is developing between RNC chair Michael Steele and our very own Sen. Lamar Alexander. It started in Washington behind closed doors (of course!) with Alexander telling Steele to stop meddling in public policy, and now it's spilled into the public eye on Politico, with the RNC vice chair defending his leader. Name-calling is next we hope.

  October 13, 2009

• Lamar on Bernanke: 'We're Lucky to Have Had Him'

  Sen. Lamar Alexander is firm on confirming Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for another term: "We're lucky to have had him at that job at a time when we very nearly slid into a great depression." With a big vote scheduled for this week, Bernanke hops on the phone and begs Bob Corker for his support.

  January 27, 2010

• Morning Roundup: Why Are We Buying Bottled Water for State Workers (And Other Pressing Questions)?

  ​Marsha Blackburn thinks twice about speaking at the tea party convention. ... Wamp campaigns in Carter County--"home of my Republican speaker of the House." ... Bredesen signs the education reform bills into law. ... He concedes he's planning state worker layoffs but won't say how many. ... The state's Edison computer system strikes again. ... Rep. Stacey Campfield launches a new crusade to end taxpayer-funded bottled water for state employees: "This is not going to balance the state bud

  January 27, 2010

• Vote for Lamar for Hypocrisy Hall of Shame

  ​Liberals are having a high time hitting various Republicans, including our own Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Zach Wamp, for hypocrisy on the economic stimulus. In all, there were 110 congressional Republicans who voted against the stimulus, then praised its effect. According to the Associated Press, Wamp praised $71.2 million in economic stimulus funds for the Oak Ridge Lab in Tennessee. Wamp noted the funds would add "about 170 construction jobs." The Washington Times reported: "Sen.

  February 18, 2010

• Democrats Consider Hiring Lamar as Campaign Consultant

  ​The ever-helpful Sen. Lamar Alexander has been giving Democrats a lot of heartfelt political advice lately. If they pass health care reform, according to Alexander: "I think it is the making of a political wipeout" for Democrats "if they pass this unpopular bill" and "jam it through in a partisan way. I could be wrong, but based on 40 years in politics, I believe it will become the symbol of an overreaching Washington and will define every single congressional race. The only thing I can

  March 12, 2010