A year ago, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., was given the choice of joining the Commerce Committee or the Banking Committee.

Against the advice of most of his colleagues — “Nine out of 10 said, ‘Oh, Corker, whatever you do, don’t go on the Banking Committee. It’s the most boring committee here,” he recalled — Sen. Corker chose what appeared to be the less colorful path. But his assignment thrust him into the limelight in recent weeks.

Since he joined the committee, the country’s credit market has melted down and banks have had to be rescued. Now the nation faces a crisis in the auto industry.

First gaining national attention for grilling Big Three automaker executives during a Banking Committee hearing in late November, Sen. Corker became the lead Republican negotiator on a bailout package. His proposal was the focus before talks collapsed Thursday.

“I’ve certainly found myself in a place with a lot of issues, which I enjoy,” said Sen. Corker, who hits the Sunday morning talk shows today. “I’m concerned about our country’s situation right now, and I think it’s going to be difficult for some time. But trying to work through those issues, to me, is very intellectually engaging, challenging and substantive.”

Freshman senators don’t typically have much influence or voice in the Senate, and Sen. Corker’s central role in the bailout battle earned him both respect and scorn from those involved in trying to avoid bankruptcy by the U.S. auto companies.

In scathing remarks Friday, United Auto Workers leaders blasted Sen. Corker for demanding that automaker wages and benefits be cut to be competitive with those of foreign-owned carmakers.

Union leaders already had conceded ground in recent years on wages, health care benefits and layoffs in collective bargaining agreements with the Big Three. They were unwilling to agree to further pay cuts in 2009, instead offering 2011 as a target date. Negotiations broke down.

“Sen. Corker and the rest of the Republicans have turned their back on Main Street and the middle class,” said Mike O’Rourke, president of UAW Local 1853 at the General Motors plant in Spring Hill, Tenn.

But others credit Sen. Corker with trying to bargain for concessions that could save the struggling industry short of bankruptcy reorganization.

Even Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., an ardent supporter of the auto industry rescue plan, praised Sen. Corker for working to find an acceptable middle ground. So did Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Unlike many of his Republican colleagues, Sen. Corker wasn’t philosophically opposed to helping the auto industry. But the businessman-turned-politician said he didn’t want to provide federal loans until the industry had a more sustainable business plan.

“At the end of the day, what you want is good policy,” he said. “We were three words away from what I think was an outstanding policy. I’m still, today, feeling a sense of surrealness that we didn’t get to that point.”

DELVING INTO ISSUES

If his new-found fame — or notoriety, as the case may be — has gone to his head, he doesn’t let on.

“We shouldn’t get too full of ourselves here,” he said. “Next week it’ll be a different issue, and there’ll be another one of my colleagues who is doing an outstanding job taking the lead on that.”

Looking relaxed in his office Friday, a day filled with media interviews, he said he learned early in his Senate career that his time would be better spent focusing on a few core issues and delving into them deeply.

Energy was one such issue, health care another. Economic policy was a third, and as the domestic auto industry teetered toward collapse, he said he dedicated himself to learning the problems and potential solutions, flying to New York to meet with GM bondholders, Chrysler stockholders and industry analysts.

Armed with that information, he came back to Washington in deal-broker mode.

“We’ve got a significant problem in the auto industry,” he said. “I decided to dig in, to understand it and to offer something that was thoughtful.”

Sen. Corker, a 56-year-old former real estate developer, state finance director and Chattanooga mayor, tried to negotiate a plan of concessions from debtors, workers and executives that he thought would work.

His rescue plan called for significant debt restructuring by the Big Three and wage and benefit concessions from the UAW. It emerged as the primary alternative to the House version of the rescue plan, which most Democrats and Midwest senators supported. The Senate voted down the House bill Thursday after the bailout negotiations failed.

AGGRESSIVENESS MADE LABOR LEERY

In the talks to help America’s auto companies, Sen. Corker was uniquely positioned to look at both sides of the issue.

Tennessee is the only state that is home to U.S., Asian and European auto assembly plants: the UAW-represented GM factory in Spring Hill, a nonunion plant and North American headquarters for the Japanese-based Nissan Corp. and the future home of what will be the only U.S. production plant by Germany-based Volkswagen in Sen. Corker’s hometown of Chattanooga.

The Volunteer State also has hundreds of auto suppliers that feed parts to GM, Nissan and other automakers with operations in the South.

During the Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Corker urged Chrysler to merge with General Motors, GM bondholders to agree to accept 30 percent of their debt, and the UAW to cut wages and benefits and end its job bank program.

He warned that if the companies went bankrupt, even more draconian measures were likely for workers, debtors and shareholders.

Sen. Corker insisted that his aggressive questioning was intended to save the industry. But his central role earned him some unfriendly attention: He was pictured on the front page of Friday’s Detroit News under the banner headline, “Rescue Collapses.”

Labor leaders accused him of wanting to be a union buster, not an industry savior, and said they were leery of dealing with him.

“We did not know who Senator Corker was representing on the Republican side and if he could reach an agreement (and) if he could deliver votes,” UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said. “Quite frankly, we wondered if we were just being set up.”

FROM BUSINESSMAN TO POLITICIAN

His supporters said Sen. Corker’s role as a key Republican negotiator reflects his pragmatic approach. As a developer and politician, Sen. Corker has frequently worked to create deals by negotiating concessions from all parties.

As Chattanooga mayor, he brokered deals to keep BlueCross BlueShield downtown, rather than relocating to the suburbs. He also served as chief fundraiser for a $120 million waterfront improvement plan.

In his first year in the Senate, Sen. Corker negotiated to end an impasse over federal Medicaid payments to Tennessee, and he helped TVA and a Chicago investment firm reach a deal to keep the utility’s power headquarters in downtown Chattanooga.

This spring he used his North Chattanooga home to wine and dine Volkswagen officials and help Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen and others cut a deal with the German automaker to build a $1 billion plant in Chattanooga.

“Bob is a fixer,” said Mike Compton, a former business associate who was Mayor Corker’s chief of staff from 2001 to 2005. “He sees a problem and can bring both sides together to make a deal that everyone can live with. It’s the deal and putting it together that Bob loves.”

BlueCross President Vicky Gregg spent months with then-Mayor Corker when the city was trying to woo BlueCross to build its corporate campus downtown. She said “the Corker experience” of tireless negotiations and deal-making ultimately convinced the company to build atop Cameron Hill rather than move to Lupton City.

Sen. Corker credited his negotiating prowess to his background as a businessman.

“Really, the roll-up-the-sleeves part started when I was a construction superintendent, working on building projects out on the site,” he said. “It moved to me being in business all these years. I’ve always been someone who’s really dug in on issues.”