I hated it so much when now Sen. Corker barely beat my man Rep. Harold Ford. But now this guy is impressing me big-time. Keep up the good work Sen.!

From The New York Times:

For more than 70 years, the United Automobile Workers union has known who its adversaries were: company executives, foreign automakers and right-to-work advocates who fought its organizing drives.

Now it has another: Senator Robert Phillips Corker Jr.

Senator Corker first raised his profile in the Congressional hearings last week, with his relentless questioning of Chrysler’s chief executive, Robert L. Nardelli, suggesting that Chrysler wanted federal aid only so it could find a merger partner.

“There is not a human being alive in the automobile world who thinks that Chrysler is doing anything other than hanging around long enough until it finds somebody to marry,” he said.

He continued with the metaphor, making for one of the more colorful exchanges during four days of hearings in recent weeks on the bailout. “While this is happening you’re going to be going to spas and getting facials and trying to get someone to marry you,” Senator Corker said.

With his sharp and colorful criticism, Senator Corker became a face of the opposition to the bailout effort along with another senator, Richard C. Shelby, Republican of Alabama, who garnered more attention early on in the debate by describing Detroit’s Big Three as “dinosaurs.” Mr. Shelby has many plants operated by foreign automakers in his state, such as Toyota, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai.

Now, after negotiating on behalf of Senate Republicans, it is Senator Corker who is being invited to appear on Sunday morning talk shows.

On Friday, Senator Corker took pains to dispel notions that the outcome was the result of sharp split between his party and organized labor, or that it was engineered by lawmakers from states that are home to foreign auto manufacturers.

“I was a member of a union as a young man, a card-carrying union member,” Senator Corker, who was a construction worker, said at a news conference. “My company that I started when I was 25 employed large numbers of union workers — carpenters, laborers and others.”

And Mr. Gettelfinger acknowledged during his own press conference that he had been willing to reach an agreement with Senator Corker on the concept of lowering U.A.W. members’ wages and benefits to the levels paid at plants run by Toyota, Honda, B.M.W. and Nissan.

The two sides wound up apart only by the date when concessions might take effect — 2009, as the senator wanted, or 2011, as Mr. Gettelfinger proposed, when the next union contract takes effect. But Mr. Gettelfinger refused to yield completely to Congress; yielding would allow lawmakers to tell U.A.W. members what they could earn or what the terms of their contract would be.

[But the landscrape has changed Mr. Gettelfinger, and now one must ask whose money is going to fund these salaries and benefits. We are now beyond what G.M. is willing to give in to; we are talking about taxpayers' money. The rules of the game have changed indeed, at least if you want the money.]

Senator Corker has shown he can play with Democrats, too. A former mayor of Chattanooga and a developer and builder, he was the only new Republican elected to the Senate in 2006, defeating former Representative Harold E. Ford Jr. to take the seat vacated by Bill Frist.

Despite the collapse of the talks, Senator Harry M. Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, gave Mr. Corker credit for his efforts in 2007 backing higher fuel economy standards. “I have been extremely impressed,” said Mr. Reid, saying Mr. Corker’s work laid the basis for the next round of auto legislation when the 111th Congress convenes next month.