Free Republic

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp said Friday that fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Haslam's decision to launch television advertisements next week is a sign of the Knoxville mayor's failure to connect with voters.

I'd been trying unsuccessfully, in recent weeks, to catch up with Congressman Zach Wamp to see what he thought of the Obama administration's apparent push to move the Nuclear Weapons Complex out of the Dept.of Energy and over to the Dept. of Defense. Few members of Congress are more intimately knowledgeable of the nuclear weapons program than Wamp, and he's been a big supporter, in part because of the Y-12 warhead plant in his home district. On Friday, at an event at Y-12's New Hope Center, I had a few minutes to talk with Wamp, and I asked him for...

Congressman Zach Wamp told the Chattanooga Rotary Club on Thursday as far as Congress was concerned, the bailout bill was never about the stock market, it was about the credit market. Rep. Wamp said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson came to Congress with a three-page explanation of the problem and a request for $700 billion, and it was Sec. Paulson who used the terms “Wall Street” and “bailout” in the same sentence. Congress must protect the interest of the American people and the first bill, the Monday bill that he voted “No” on, did not protect those interests, Rep. Wamp said....

WASHINGTON - Fatherhood and ambition. In Fred Thompson's life, they rise and fall together, a recurring couplet in the nostalgic story of a Tennessee fella who's guided more by life's surprises and others' expectations than he is by any master plan. Consider: * The small-town jock called "Freddie" and "Moose," who, at 17, upon getting his high school girlfriend pregnant, married her, heeded her politically connected family and made something of himself. * The divorced U.S. senator, lawyer, lobbyist and actor who dropped out of politics when one of his three grown children died from a prescription drug overdose. *...

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., blasted the "24-hour news cycle" Friday, saying that a barrage of coverage in a lengthy presidential campaign will turn off Americans. "You think these candidates want to campaign for two and a half years for president? Are you kidding me?" Rep. Wamp said to members of the Chattanooga Civitan Club at Bessie Smith Hall. Rep. Wamp said former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., whom the congressman is backing for president, "knows he wasn't supposed to start this early." "I don't know how it's going to end up, but y'all are going to be sick of...

Republican Fred Thompson needs to say in August if he is running for president because he has enjoyed about all the benefits he can expect from being a noncandidate, a key backer said on Tuesday. The Hollywood actor turned White House contender announced he had raised more than $3.4 million in June -- less than the predicted $5 million -- for his presidential campaign-in-waiting, amid some concerns he has waited too long. "The level of support and enthusiasm from people across this country is inspiring," said a statement from Thompson, who said donations came from 9,167 people from all 50...

Don’t count on the Tennessee Republican when the chips are down. Representative Zach Wamp apparently has a short memory. He was elected to Congress in 1994, and has already forgotten why he came to Washington. Back then Wamp ran as a conservative, with some silly populist ideas like paying members of Congress the same as a lieutenant colonel and making them live in officer housing, according to The Almanac of American Politics. Now, Wamp has grown in office and instead advocates silly establishment ideas, like instituting new "paygo" rules that would make it almost impossible to extend the Bush tax...

Wamp’s Bad Vote Don’t count on the Tennessee Republican when the chips are down. By NRO Staff Representative Zach Wamp apparently has a short memory. He was elected to Congress in 1994, and has already forgotten why he came to Washington. Back then Wamp ran as a conservative, with some silly populist ideas like paying members of Congress the same as a lieutenant colonel and making them live in officer housing, according to The Almanac of American Politics. Now, Wamp has grown in office and instead advocates silly establishment ideas, like instituting new "paygo" rules that would make it almost...

WASHINGTON - All three of Tennessee's U.S. House members who ran for statewide office this year lost, but U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp said he remains interested in campaigning to succeed U.S. Sen. Bill Frist in 2006. "I'd like to run, and it's likely," said Wamp, a Chattanooga Republican. "But it's not certain." Frist first ran and won in 1994, promising to serve in the Senate no more than 12 years (two terms), and he's told friends he'll keep his pledge. Wamp also ran and won that year, pledging a 12-year limit (six terms) on his House service. Wamp already has...