Silence is golden.
Sen. Bob Corker is leaving office at the end of this term — and, given his ongoing Twitter spat with President Donald Trump, taking a “sour grapes” award with him.
What’s happening?
Corker, never one to agree with Trump, has come out in disagreement once again, this time over the budget impasse that’s marked the building and funding of the border wall.
On Sunday, Corker took to national television to characterize the funding fight and subsequent government shutdown as a “made-up fight” — as in something to occupy the White House’s time. That, despite the fact that Trump long-promised on the campaign trail to build a wall and to have Mexico pay for it.
But Corker said this, on “State of the Union” on CNN: “This is a made-up fight so the president can look like he’s fighting, but even if he wins, our borders are going to be insecure.”
And all the voters go: So why don’t you secure them, Bob?
Regardless — he’s leaving office, having announced retirement in mid-2017.[…]
What well-placed, well-entrenched, well-protected senator voluntarily leaves the cushiness of Capitol Hill, anyway?
“Although Corker might well have stepped aside to avoid a brutal primary challenge,” FiveThirtyEight wrote, “he seems unlikely to go gentle into that good night. The statement announcing his decision contained a rather interesting little passage: ‘I also believe the most important public service I have to offer our country could well occur over the next 15 months, and I want to be able to do that as thoughtfully and independently as I did the first 10 years and nine months of my Senate career.’ “
If what Corker meant by “most important public service” was publicly attacking Trump — well then, his sour grapes award is well-deserved.