It was a long time coming. <$NoAd$>But Rep. John Tanner (D) of Tennessee is out of the Fainthearted Faction.

TPM Reader Rex Leatherwood attended Tanner's townhall meeting last night and sent in the following ...

I attended a John Tanner Town Hall Meeting tonight at Union University (a Southern Baptist University) in Jackson, Tennessee. Congressman Tanner made it quite clear that he was against the President’s plan. Here are some quotes: “We’re (the Democrats) not going to negotiate with the President until he takes this bad idea off the table” and “We need to fix the floor (Social Security) and then give preferential tax treatment to savings outside Social Security.” When talking about the necessity to borrow over a trillion dollars to finance the President’s plan, he said “I think it’s immoral to leave young people this debt. I believe my generation should pay as it goes.”

Rex's account is confirmed by this article in this morning's Jackson Sun. The Sun quotes Tanner saying this about private accounts: "Don't play the stock market with money you can't afford to lose."