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Shelby emerges as new 'Senator No'

December 16, 2008 — Any sense that the meltdown of the U.S. automobile industry is a disaster from which the South benefits in any way has to be tempered by Toyota’s announcement Monday that it is suspending the opening of its new Prius plant in Blue Springs, Miss.

Like Honda’s U.S. cuts last week, it’s a sign that jobs everywhere are being lost in the economic slowdown. But the specific issue of bailing out the domestic auto industry has become as sharply regionalized as any in recent memory.

After the election there was some discussion about what the new face of the Republican Party would be. It turns out none of the new faces have lipstick. Instead they are the Southern Republicans – Richard Shelby of Alabama, newcomer Bob Corker of Tennessee and survivor Mitch McConnell of Kentucky – who last week stood athwart the effort to get a domestic industry bailout through the Senate.

Of that group, the one who has emerged as the most ironclad symbol of opposition is Shelby. He has been the focus of the most ire from the Rust Belt, with a retired GM engineer putting up a “Boycott Alabama” site to protest Shelby’s opposition to just about any kind of auto bailout proposal.

As a past chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and Intelligence Committee, Shelby has forged an important Washington career. But it appears that after 22 years in the Senate, eight of them as a Democrat and 14 as a Republican, Shelby is taking on a new and sharper-etched identity.

 He’s emerging as the new “Senator No,” as the late Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina came to be known for his predictable and unapologetic opposition to anything that strayed from his conservative principles. Plenty of lawmakers in both parties have voiced reservations about the deal, Shelby has been notable for announcing his opposition even before hearing any testimony in support of the measure.

The issues may differ slightly with time, but the combination of deep conservatism with outspoken views on foreign policy and the economy make Shelby as deserving an heir as anyone. So does the anger he engenders.

“I’m sure that’s what he really believes. It’s open and shut to him. But it’s also good politics in Alabama, in a non-union state with foreign automakers,” said Emory University professor Merle Black.

On the record, Shelby can point to his opposition to the financial services industry bailout and the 1979 Chrysler bailout as evidence he is not narrowly serving the interests of foreign automakers, as some of his critics contend. He also has a long record of federal pork for his home state which may be more difficult to square with his views on the auto buyout.

Not that this does him any harm in Alabama. Shelby has proven strikingly adept, since he knocked off first-term incumbent Republican Jeremiah Dent in 1986, in avoiding real competition. No name Democrats have emerged to take him on in 2010, and it’s not likely the air time Shelby’s gotten with his opposition to a bailout aimed at the Midwest is going to prompt any to step forward soon.

"He's strong as rope over here. He's just an incredible fundraiser and maintains incredible constituent relations. I don't know that he says no to everything, but he's very careful about spending the taxpayers money and that endears him to people in Alabama," said state House Minority Leader Mike Hubbard, who also chairs the Alabama Republican Party.