Bart Gordon blinded him with science

The first part of a two-part interview with Congressman Bart Gordon in today's Daily News Journal discusses the 6th District Democrat's commitment to MTSU and Science education and his assessment of the Obama campaign in Tennessee.

He is refreshingly candid about his skirmish with UT's president over funding for a science building at MTSU:

Q: As you mentioned, you're a graduate of MTSU, a huge Blue Raiders fan. When UT President John Petersen was lobbying against MTSU's science building funding, did you sort of threaten to cut off some federal funding for UT?

Gordon: I didn't sort of. It was very explicit, and it wasn't so much the parochialism of it, it's just he was doing the wrong thing. MTSU had played by the rules. The science building, which is going to be very important to the school, had gone through all the process and become the No. 1 priority and he was trying to undercut that, and I made it very clear to him. Unfortunately, I had to do it twice, but he apologized and said he would back off, and I think they've done that now. Now we've got to go through the process and get this funding.

On his support of the Obama campaign:

Q: On a different subject, are you endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president and will you be campaigning for him actively?

Gordon: I will be supporting Sen. Obama. The fact of the matter is their campaign has made it clear that Tennessee is not targeted, and so they don't expect to win Tennessee, and I don't expect that there's going to be much activity in Tennessee in the presidential race.