Democratic donor: Corker lobbied White House for Bredesen

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

photo U.S. Senator Bob Corker is seen in this file photo.

A prominent Democratic Party donor who says U.S. Sen. Bob Corker is trying to help former Gov. Phil Bredesen get a top job in the Obama administration has urged the White House to resist the senator's pleas.

Real estate mogul Bill Freeman wrote to White House chief of staff William Daley on Dec. 28, saying he had learned on a recent trip to Washington that Bredesen, a Democrat, had asked Corker, a Republican, "to make calls to the administration on his behalf." Freeman, co-founder of Freeman Webb Co., wrote that Bredesen was seeking a senior position in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where Bredesen was a candidate for the top job after President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

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