Dear Lamar Alexander,

As the United States Senate begins the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, I can't help but remember a conversation I had with you in 2014.

You probably don't remember but you were at MTSU for the Windham Lecture Series April 17, 2014, to discuss author Keel Hunt's book, "Coup: The Day the Democrats Ousted Their Governor, Put Republican Lamar Alexander in Office Early, and Stopped a Pardon Scandal."

Afterward, I asked you if you thought the parties could come together today and do what is right for the county, if they could be true statesmen, like you once were.

Before I get to your answer, I's like to give a little background for those who don't know how the two parties came together to save Tennessee and make you governor early.

Picture it: Nashville 1979

Tennessee was in the midst of a constitutional crisis as then-Gov. Ray Blanton signed 52 executive clemencies, including pardons for a political pal’s son and 20 other convicted murderers, amid a growing federal investigation into a clemency-for-cash scandal. Blanton was even considering pardoning James Earl Ray, infamous murderer of Martin Luther King Jr. if the price was right.

Enter the state's Democratic leaders, who had learned of Blanton's plan to issue even more pardons before the newly elected governor Republican Lamar Alexander was to be sworn in Jan. 20, 1979.

Working with the state attorney general to determine whether an early inauguration was constitutional, Alexander had only a few hours to work across the aisle with Speaker of the House Ned Ray McWherter and Lt. Gov. John Wilder to find a solution.

They did.

Alexander took the oath of office three days early in the Tennessee Supreme Court chambers, and the bipartisan scramble effectively prevented anymore early releases for dangerous criminals.

Picture it: 2020

Now picture it today. What would happen if a Republican leader had broken laws to benefit himself? Would lawmakers work across the aisle to do what was best for the country?

When I asked you, you said you thought they could put petty politics aside and do the right thing.

I disagreed, saying the partisan divide had grown to wide.

We agreed to disagree.

Now is your chance to prove me wrong.

I'm not asking for you to convict the president.

I'm just asking that you do your Constitutional duty and live up to the oath you took.

To allow witnesses and evidence to be presented and then to consider it with an unbiased eye.

To be a statesman instead of a Republican.

So now, five years later, I ask: Will you do as your oath of office and the oath you swore to be an impartial juror demands of you? Or will they follow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's lead and collaborate with the White House to defend Trump?