A hometown crowd of over 500 welcomed junior U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Chattanooga) at a noon luncheon Tuesday to give a report on what he is doing and learning in Washington.

“I am so proud of this city,” said Sen. Corker at the Chattanoogan.. “Cities across Tennessee have adopted me and I’ve adopted them, but there’s no place like home.”

High up on Sen. Corker’s list is healthcare. He said he has vowed to “try to move Republicans in a direction that really allows us to solve this problem.” Sen. Corker’s method is to preserve competition and technology advances, he said, and provide ways for everyone to access private healthcare.

“Big companies in America are roaming the hallways,” he said, and they are trying to promote a single pay system that lets employers off the hook. “Healthcare is a burden for them,” he said, but Sen. Corker said he will push for private healthcare for everyone.

“When it comes to a close call… I’m going to vote on the side of needy children,” he said, and added that he gets a lot of flack for that.

Sen. Corker said he supports Tennessee’s S-Chip bill, a state children’s healthcare plan that was to be backed 100 percent by BlueCross, in part to change Tennesseans’ healthcare mentality; to get the idea of coverage for everyone out there. He also explained the merits of the Every American Insured Act, saying it would immediately insure 27 million Americans and does not add to the country’s deficit.

Sen. Corker said 800,000 Tennesseans and 47 million Americans have no healthcare. He agreed that some have chosen not to have healthcare, but that “regardless of how you want to quibble,” representatives have a moral obligation to give every American the opportunity for healthcare.

- Energy

Senator Corker said energy is the biggest mid- to long-term issue in Washington. “The demand for oil is outstripping the ability to produce it,” he said. He broke from party leadership and supported an energy bill that has the most stringent energy caps in history and supports developing advanced bio-fuels.

An audience member asked how Washington planned to repair and build the mostly rocky-at-best relationships with countries that supply energy to the U.S. Sen. Corker answered that communication is the key. He hopes to help the U.S. work with other third-party countries to soften the hard feelings between the U.S. and countries like Venezuela. He stressed “soft power;” straying from military methods and focusing on humanitarian and economic aid to win these countries over.

-- Iraq --

“I was very under-whelmed,” Sen. Corker said, with White House efforts to delve into the complexities of the War on Terror. He said while some are focusing on military efforts, he believes that there is no coherent effort to build goodwill in the Middle East.

Sen. Corker praised General David Petraeus, commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, and said that since his appointment, Iraq “is more secure. There’s just no question.” He said the big question is whether or not Iraqis can act like Iraqis first and Sunnis or Shiites second. He also said if prime minister Nouri al-Maliki doesn’t change his ways soon he’ll be booted.

Sen. Corker said when he arrived in Washington just over 10 months ago he realized his was the “race watched around the world.” He was the only Republican freshman senator elected, though he was quick to say that he represents all of Tennessee: Democrats and independents, too. “I want to do that to the best of my ability,” he said.

He said he understood very quickly that the way to get things done is through the Senate’s committee lunch meetings. “I wish the American people could see what happens in these meetings,” he said. Sen. Corker is a member of the armed services, foreign relations and energy committees, and he says he asked to be on the last two because he believes they are closely related.

The former Chattanooga mayor closed with reports that he has opened six or seven new offices across Tennessee and is working hard to personally answer mail to make his office more approachable. He also said “Baloney!” to the traditional idea that a senator’s chief of staff should come from Washington and praised his from Chattanooga - Todd Womack.