Updated: 5/1/2008 12:22:02 PM
By BILL THEOBALD
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON -- Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is improperly blocking the renomination of two Tennesseans to the Tennessee Valley Authority board, Republican Sens. Lama Alexander and Bob Corker charged Thursday.
The two Tennessee senators spoke on the Senate floor and Alexander released an exchange of letters with Reid of Nevada.
CLICK HERE to read Alexander's letter to Reid
Reid wrote April 14 that he didn't support renominating Bishop William Graves of Memphis and Susan Williams of Knoxville because President Bush had failed to nominate a Democrat for the board.
Alexander fired back in a letter Wednesday that the failure to reappoint Graves was an insult to Memphis and blacks in the seven-state region served by the utility. Graves, appointed in 2006, was the first African American named to the board Alexander accused Reid of "disheartening playpen partisan politics."
Reid said that when the TVA board was expanded in 2004 from three to nine members he hoped the president would use one of those slots for a Democrat.
