Shock Horror: Rep. Jim Cooper Is A Politician

By Kleinheider Posted on February 5, 2009 at 7:21 am

Jeff Woods puts a recent controversy in historical context:

In 1994, when Cooper was running for the Senate, Bill Clinton was the president and wildly unpopular in Tennessee. Across the state, Cooper made a point of painting himself as a maverick, desperately distancing himself from the president. But then one evening, I watched Cooper give an interview on a black radio station in Nashville. Clinton remained very popular with blacks, if no one else, and Cooper told listeners, “I have voted with President Clinton 90 percent of the time.”

It was an audacious display of hypocrisy. Cooper plays the upright guardian of the public interest but he’s no different than most politicians, just a lot squirrelier. A big phony, he tailors what he says to suit his audience. That’s what he’s doing here. He wants to oppose wasteful spending, but he doesn’t want to buck the popular new president. He’s not agile enough to walk that tightrope.

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Tags: Jim Cooper, Liberadiogate, stimulus  

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