Heidi Alexander: “let me begin where the majority leader stopped. It is a true story about the tunnels. Senator Corker was curious about…”

“let me begin where the majority leader stopped. It is a true story about the tunnels. Senator Corker was curious about smuggling supplies from Egypt to Gaza. Others of us might have asked somebody about that--not Bob Corker. He hailed a Jeep, rode to the border, inspected the tunnels, took photographs, and as the majority leader said, when he met with Benjamin Netanyahu that afternoon, showed him the photographs. Netanyahu was startled. The Prime Minister of Israel might have been surprised by Bob Corker's conduct, but none of us who knew Bob Corker were surprised. As Senator McConnell said, Bob Corker is always a man on a mission, with little regard for the obstacles in the way. In 1978, age 25, he had saved about $6,000, and he started a construction company. A friend of mine in Maryville, my hometown, worked for him as he built a shopping center in Blount County. My friend said: I always knew that that Corker was going to amount to something. After his experience in Haiti that Senator McConnell discussed, he also began to apply his skills of construction to help find decent homes for nearly 10,000 people in Chattanooga. I met Bob Corker 25 years ago. It was 1993. His friend Jimmy Haslam, who was his roommate at the University of Tennessee, called me and said he had this friend who was thinking about public service, and he wondered if I would talk to him. Jimmy Haslam is today the owner of the Cleveland Browns.…”