Republican Sen. Bob Corker said Monday his party’s popularity has taken a hit in recent days after a failed strategy to defund Obamacare led the GOP into the “box canyon” that he predicted “several months ago.”
But Mr. Corker, of Tennessee, said the debate to reopen the government and raise the debt limit has shifted back to fiscal issues, on which his party can excel.
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“All of us now are talking about spending, which is where we should have been in the first place,” Mr. Corker told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Mr. Corker declined to comment on the chief architect of the Obamacare strategy, Sen. Ted Cruz, after a MSNBC host asked him to name the freshman Texas Republican’s top accomplishments in the Senate.
With a laugh, Mr. Corker said it would be “uncouth” to pile on criticism that should be left to pundits.
He also expressed hope that Republicans could turn around the party’s reputation before the mid-term elections.
“I think there is going to be a crop of really great candidates” that care about national security and fiscal issues, he said. “We’re going to get back to where we need to be.”
