Corker and Alexander have never explained themselves on this matter, except by saying they want a nominee with "credentials better suited to the TVA Board." They've offered no guidance as to what they might mean.

Brown's credentials are a better match to TVA's mission than anyone else on the board. She is a Georgia Tech professor with expertise in energy policy. She served on the TVA Board for more than a year, giving the Senators ample opportunity to critique not just her qualifications, but her on-the-job performance.

Instead, they sit in cowardly silence behind a nonsensical excuse. Presumably it is shame that keeps them from commenting further on the matter, since they can only dig themselves deeper from where they stand.

Dr. Brown has been renominated by President Obama.

I must have missed it.

We tend to take what TVA does right for granted, but our valley's grid maintenance was far beyond most of the rest of the nation's about ten years ago when that issue was at the forefront.

That is not to say that it is impervious to failure, indeed, the biggest threat at the time was the grid systems we were tied to, but still, it's not all bad.

TVA is not the private sector though and to achieve its mandate it cannot be run like a private entity. In a nutshell, that is TVA's problem.