Meet & Flee

I had lunch today at Nashville's best meat&3, 'Arnold's' on 8th. Sawing away at some roast beef I became aware and then annoyed at a presence in my peripheral. A short, gray man in a L.L. Bean-ish sweater was drooling over my crazy-delicious turnip greens and saying as much. Just as I looked over to ask the gentleman to kindly 'step off' he stuck his hand between me and my chow declaring, "Hi. I'm Bob Corker. I'd like to ask you to consider voting for me". I shook his hand and agreed to consider it, with emphasis on the word 'consider'. He then greeted the random fellow I was sitting with who before lunch was a stranger to me. Random Guy informed Corker that his support was already with him but then, in the form of a two minute plus rant, told the candidate that he was 'pissed off' about the now infamous TV ad bashing opponent Harold Ford. Corker responded by claiming that the ad was placed without his consent. He added that supporters can spend their money as they choose and added, in an effort to scrape some sympathy from the controversy, that those behind the sophomoric spot have put his campaign in jeopardy. With that Corker swerved post-haste across the room to shake hands with a guy in a John Deer cap. He drifted hummingbird-like from handshake to handshake for a few minutes and then, after having gawked at my greens, left without eating. With cornbread I moped my plate of the remaining gravy while listening to the diners around me talk about Mr. Corker. They weren't discussing his platform. They were describing their disgust of the ad-in-question. Once again the Tactics of the Desperate distract from Issues of Significance. Oh, and one more thing: Hey Corker! Back up off a man’s greens why don’t ya!