Where is Perry on Senate leadership issue? Where is Cruz?
There doesn’t seem to be much love lost between the governor and the state’s soon-to-be senior U.S. Senator John Cornyn. When Perry was contemplating a race for president in 2011, Cornyn’s comment was a lukewarm, “The field is already pretty full. There have been a lot of people working at it for a number of years.”
Now Cornyn is widely presumed to be interested in a major Senate leadership post–most likely, whip–if Republicans regain majority control of the Senate. Currently, Cornyn is a member of the GOP leadership team as vice-chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. The post of whip will be vacant, as John Kyl of Arizona is retiring from the Senate.
U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz likewise has shown little enthusiasm for Cornyn’s ambition to move up the Senate leadership ladder. Cruz has shown more interest in internal Senate politics–in particular, efforts by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina to seek the position of whip for himself or to get an ideological conservative elected to the post–than in helping to elevate a fellow Texan to a position from which he can use his influence to better his home state. In the Texas Senate race, DeMint is a strong supporter of Cruz, who has ducked the issue of whether he would support Cornyn, saying it would be “presumptive” of him to take a position at this point in time.
Perry, meanwhile, remains mum about the fight. He and Cornyn are not close, Cornyn having been aligned with George W. Bush and not Perry during their formative years in Texas politics, and of course both men are former Rove clients. When Perry ran for governor in 2010, Cornyn was asked about how much credit Perry deserved for Texas’ economic strength during the nationwide economic downturn. “He’s entitled to some credit, but not alone,” Cornyn said.
Now Perry is backing Dewhurst in the Senate race, while Cruz has aligned himself with DeMint and his Senate Conservatives PAC. Meanwhile, the Cornyn-Perry disc0rd simmers. After Perry halted his presidential campaign last spring, Cornyn, speaking on a conference call with reporters, said, “[Perry] should get back to work governing Texas. That’s stood him in good stead and given him high approval ratings, and I think that’s the best thing he could do — if he were interested in my advice.”
It will be a travesty if Cruz wins the Senate race and votes for a non-Texan as whip in preference to Cornyn.
Robert Morrow says:
“It will be a travesty if any Texan goes to the polls on Tuesday and does not vote for Ron Paul, the last remaining Texan on the presidential ballot.”
Same logic. But you are entitled to do back flips in support of Sen. John Cornyn who you like. It is still entertaining to watch the gymnastics, though.
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Texian Politico says:
I agree with Morrow here. Burka reflects the parochialism that calls for more and more pork to be delivered home to the states with those members of congress that can bring it at the expense of the rest of the nation. Why should Cruz vote for Cornyn over DeMint? What has Cornyn done to help Cruz? Even more, how does having Cornyn as a whip help the U.S. instead of having DeMint in that role? Besides, being whip in the U.S. Senate is pretty meaningless in terms of real power. Its not like being a whip in the House.
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Alan Reply:
May 26th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
The problem with people like Jim DeMint is that they forget they are elected to represent the interests of their state and the people who live and work in it, not the interests of an ideology or a group of activists.
I would hardly call returning Texas tax revenues to us in the form of things that benefit us “pork.” We get roughly the amount of money back in federal spending that we pay – often a little less. NASA isn’t pork. The Houston Ship Channel isn’t pork. KBH was enough of a realist to understand that. She didn’t put out-of-state activists ahead of her constituents like Jim DeMint does, and she didn’t put her name on every dollar of appropriations she got like Robert Byrd used to do.
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Robert Morrow Reply:
May 27th, 2012 at 5:10 am
“NASA isn’t pork.” wow. Military spending is the mother of all pork and NASA is the biggest waste of money in human history.
ALL NASA is is military pork barrel.
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Heavy Eyelids says:
(yawn…)
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Brian says:
Paul – Cornyn is running for party whip regardless of majority/minority status. Also, he gave up the Republican conference vice-chair position back in 2009 in order to run the campaign committee (a post that he still occupies). And Texian, being whip when you’re in the majority does come with real power since the majority whip spends a great deal of time tending to floor activity on a day-to-day basis.
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What Travesty says:
I don’t dislike Cornyn, really, but what’s the travesty. Support the best candidate for the job, not the hometown boy. Cornyn has struck me as a pushover in his time in the Senate. What has he accomplished, other than climbing their internal ladder?
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Alan Reply:
May 26th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
Part of being an effective senator is being able to work well with the other senator who represents your state. Openly backing someone else over your fellow senator is extremely disrespectful and makes it harder to work well with them. You either support them or you remain neutral.
Jim DeMint might as well have himself listed as the Senator from the Club for Growth on his stationery. He does more for them than he does for South Carolina or the Senate.
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Robert Morrow Reply:
May 27th, 2012 at 5:11 am
Someone has to look out for the “big picture” which obviously has not been done in America for decades vs. “me, me, me, me, me, borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow”
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I Wish says:
I wish Cornyn would concentrate on being the new senior senator from Texas. It is time to work more for the state than party.
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Esther, the maid. Reply:
May 29th, 2012 at 9:26 am
Republicans don’t do that.
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Kenneth D. Franks says:
“I wish Cornyn would concentrate on being the new senior senator from Texas. It is time to work more for the the state than party.” Now, that is a comment I can agree with.
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Anonymous says:
Am i missing something? Why would Perry ever be asked to take a position on a Senate leadership election he doesn’t get to vote in? What’s next, attacking Perry for not endorsing a candidate in the Mexican presidential election?
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Cow Droppings Reply:
May 26th, 2012 at 9:48 am
this is just Paul trying to stir up trouble where it doesn’t currently exist.
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paulburka Reply:
May 26th, 2012 at 9:57 am
So it’s OK for a Texas senator to support a non-Texan for a high Senate position that a Texas senator is seeking? Isn’t it better for the state to have a Texan in a position of influence? Or is ideology all that matters?
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Cow Droppings Reply:
May 26th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
it depends on whether you are talking about Perry or Cruz. yes, Cruz would be wise to reconsider his position if elected. But your slap at Perry is gratuitous at best, based on no evidence that he doesn’t support cornyn for the position. It was truly a blog about nothing…at least nothing substantiated as it related to your headline.
It just goes to show how far you will go to cast Perry in a negative light. I know you will deny it because you think you are bipartisan and have no ideological agenda. Of course, no one else who reads your work actually believes that claim.
RINO says:
I agree with the other commenters – I’ve not seen Cornyn do a thing to benefit Texas. But worse, in my opinion, is that I have written to both he and Senator Hutchison on several occasions – I have received a reply from Hutchison’s office every single time – from Cornyn’s, not even once. They may be form letters, but I like to feel as though the person who is representing me at least acknowledges my existence.
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Robert Morrow Reply:
May 25th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Hutchison’s office never answers the phone. I know, I have *tried* to call her many, many, many times. At least Cornyn’s folks answer the phone.
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Alan Reply:
May 26th, 2012 at 5:54 pm
Her staff probably got tired of hearing monologues about the Kennedy assassination.
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Maybe says:
Morrow, maybe KBH has caller ID.
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Robert Morrow Reply:
May 27th, 2012 at 5:13 am
Many, many activists have told me they can not get through to Kay Bailey’s Wash DC office on the phone; you have to call local to speak to a human if you are lucky.
KBH does not really care to hear from Texans.
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anita says:
SHE HAS ID MORROW
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anita says:
It’s kinda sweet to watch R’s like Cruz complain about the “racist” ad that the Dew is now running. What happened to their colorblind society? There’s no more racial discrimination, right?
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Esther, the maid. Reply:
May 29th, 2012 at 9:28 am
Cruz is for voter ID. Turnabout is fair play.
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Paul Stekler says:
Paul did you just write “or is ideology all that matters?” Exactly what is happening in the governance of Texas right now that’s not basically “ideology is all that matters”?
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anita says:
Agreed.
And I’d ask CD directly — what the hell has Perry done for Texas? He’s used us for his ill-fated disaster of a presidential run, kept us from using RDF monies, etc. He’s all ideology. He’d sell our state down the river if it benefitted his personal agenda.
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Cow Droppings Reply:
May 27th, 2012 at 7:45 am
And what does that have to do with asserting a riff between Cornyn and Perry that doesn’t exist?
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Robert Morrow says:
Rick and Anita are for the “topless bar pole tax” – that and Rick’s hypocrisy is the number one source of my opposition to THEM.
Someone needs to write a book about Anita’s role in the recent spectacular kamikazee mission.
Rampant “crony capitalism” and toll roads is my #2 reason to oppose Perry.
And having said that, I would vote for him over the Bushes…
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