Sen. Lamar Alexander’s High-Flying Plan

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and other senators head to the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 29, 2016, to vote a... Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and other senators head to the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 29, 2016, to vote as a rescue package for debt-stricken Puerto Rico, just two days before the island is expected to default on a $2 billion debt payment. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), a public servant devoted to safeguarding the union, is finally making progress on blocking a ghastly prospect from ever becoming part of American life: phone calls on commercial flights.

According to a Tuesday Roll Call report, he is trying to finagle the ban into the Transportation Department budget after fretting about hypothetical airborne phone chatters for years.

“I would suggest that any senator who opposes banning cell phone conversations on flights be sentenced to sit next to a loud businessman talking to his girlfriend on a six-hour flight between New York and California,” Alexander reportedly said Thursday. “Keeping phone conversations off commercial flights may not be enshrined in the Constitution, but surely it is enshrined in common sense.”

Per Roll Call, the possibility has been a thorn in the senator’s side for years, leading to an impassioned speech in 2014. “Stop and think about what we hear in airport lobbies — babbling about last night’s love life, next week’s schedule, arguments with spouses — and then imagine hearing the same thing while you’re trapped in 17-inch-wide seats thousands of feet above the ground,” he said then.

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  1. Lamar Alexander, still a pompous asshole.

  2. It takes a true misanthrope to want to rule over people. Hardly surprising he fits the mold.

  3. Who says Republicans can’t occasionally have a good idea…

    Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then…

  4. Per Roll Call, the possibility has been a thorn in the senator’s side for years, leading to an impassioned speech in 2014. “Stop and think about what we hear in airport lobbies — babbling about last night’s love life, next week’s schedule, arguments with spouses — and then imagine hearing the same thing while you’re trapped in 17-inch-wide seats thousands of feet above the ground,” he said then.

    Admittedly I don’t fly much but I’ve never experienced this.

    Sen Alexander sure is a magnet for unpleasant experiences. I wonder why? :eyes:

  5. “I would suggest that any senator who opposes banning cell phone conversations on flights be sentenced to sit next to a loud businessman talking to his girlfriend on a six-hour flight between New York and California,” Alexander reportedly said Thursday.

    Lamar’s red-state, Fox-viewing, rural constituents fly between New York and California all the time!

    Truly, a man in touch with the pulse of the common folk of Tennessee.

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