As a result, states pretty much have a free hand in determining how nominees are selected. Utah has a two-step process whereby a candidate must clear a 60 percent threshold in the state convention to avoid a statewide primary election; if no candidate receives 60 percent of the vote, the top two candidates move on to a primary. In 2010, this process resulted in incumbent Republican Robert Bennett, one of the ablest U.S. senators to serve in a long time, not even making it onto a primary ballot. By most counts, Bennett would have easily won a primary, but in a Tea Party-packed convention process, he came up short -- his vote in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program was his biggest sin.

Virginia has an odd system in which the parties decide whether the state holds a convention or a primary each election cycle. Neither Utah nor Virginia has a process that should be emulated; indeed, with cynicism about government increasing, is this really a good time to cut voters out of the process? Why let state legislators choose who should be the Senate nominee?

What's interesting is that this idea is advancing in Tennessee, not say, Delaware, where GOP voters in 2010, in their infinite wisdom, chose Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell to be their Senate standard-bearer, over an infinitely rational Rep. Mike Castle. Again, chalk that up to the halcyon days for the Tea Party movement in 2010, when heretics were to be burned.

But in Tennessee, we see a state with two top-notch senators, Lamar Alexander in the senior position and Bob Corker as the junior senator -- both Republicans and both highly regarded among their colleagues inside and outside the Senate. Corker, a former state commissioner of finance and administration, as well as a former mayor of Chattanooga, was first elected in 2006, defeating two sitting House members to win the GOP nomination and then beating Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. in a hotly contested general election. In my judgment, it was one of the rare contests where had it gone either way, the state still would have gotten a first-rate senator. One of the stated reasons for switching to the system in which the state Legislature determines Senate nominees is that last year the Democratic nominee against Corker was Mark Clayton, a fringe candidate with fairly exotic views who was denounced by the party. My response to that: It really didn't matter too much who was nominated by the Democrats; he or she wasn't going to beat Corker anyway.

State Democratic Chairman Roy Herron was quoted by columnist Tom Humphrey in Knoxnews.com as saying that Nicely's proposal would "turn back the clock a century or two." Humphrey quoted state GOP Chairman Chris Devaney as saying, "You can always count on Senator Nicely to come up with innovative proposals conservatives can be proud of. This is another step in that direction, and I certainly think it is an interesting idea."