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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

An SCHIP Off The Old Block

John Cornyn is taking a beating for voting against the SCHIP expansion. I imagine he is surprised by that.

He's engaged in the back-pedal approach, saying that he actually supports giving kids health insurance, but that this was a big bad bill that went too far. So I guess that means he only voted against it a little?

I enjoyed this quote, in which he requests that people not make a big deal out of it, or whatever:

"My hope is this will not be used simply as a political football," said Mr. Cornyn, who is seeking a second term next year. "We should get down to the business of insuring low-income kids and cut out some of the posturing."

Translation: Please don't hold me accountable for the way I vote on things. After all, I'm just the junior Senator from the State of Texas.

I will say this about Cornyn — he has picked a course and he is sticking to it. In what feels like a political lemming train, John Cornyn steadfastly refuses to stop drafting George Bush in a race to the bottom, following almost every policy edict the President issues. In the case of SCHIP, Cornyn's argument was identical to Bush's, as it has been on issue after issue, again and again. Now he has people protesting outside of his office on a Thursday night.

Dr. Cal Jillson, the goto guy among social scientists for the Dallas Morning News, brings up an excellent point about a recent turn for Cornyn: that he has been on the defensive on many issues for months.

SMU political science professor Cal Jillson pointed out that Mr. Cornyn's job-approval rating is below 50 percent and that this issue makes him even more vulnerable – mostly because he is defensively explaining his position.

He pointed out an old political truism: "If you're bragging, you're winning; if you're explaining, you're losing. And this is a vote that he has to explain."

This isn't Cornyn loading the bases when he's ahead by three and then giving up the Grand Slam, but it isn't good for him, and it isn't good for Texas Republicans in general.

John Cornyn

For years I never heard from Senator Cornyn. He never answered any of my letters. Now all of a sudden I'm getting all sorts of correspondence from him. Has the leopard changed his spots?

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