CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
Jan. 26, 2009 – 8:46 p.m.
Wary of GOP Losses, Cornyn Draws Hard Line
By Bennett Roth, CQ Staff
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the new chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is staking out a sharply partisan approach to the task of rescuing his party from the steep losses it suffered in the last two election cycles.
Cornyn, who once shared former President George W. Bush ’s hard-edged political consultant Karl Rove, has already gone after some of President Obama’s Cabinet nominees. Now he intends to target Democratic senators who vote for the economic stimulus package (
“If you talked to any pollster after the election, they would say this was an election based on personalities. This is still a center-right country ideologically,” Cornyn said.
The stimulus package will allow Cornyn to highlight “out-of-control spending,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Brian Walsh.
Cornyn said he plans to continue to stake out principled stands on issues and offer a robust critique of the majority party’s policies to help Republican senators win over voters in 2010.
Cornyn has already repeatedly taken on Democrats with sharp rhetoric and tough tactics.
He briefly delayed the confirmation of former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton , Da?`N.Y., as secretary of State, and he objected to the seating of Democratic senatorial contender Al Franken of Minnesota, who edged ahead of Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in the final recount.
Cornyn also was one of the GOP senators who helped to delay until Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee’s consideration of Eric H. Holder Jr., Obama’s nominee for attorney general.
Supporters say Cornyn, as the party’s chief fundraiser and recruiter of Senate candidates, needs such an aggressive approach to invigorate a demoralized Republican base. But some warn that he risks turning off moderates in swing states that the party will need to retain or make gains with in 2010.
“A lot of people want some time out from the rhetoric,” said Tom Rath, a longtime GOP activist from New Hampshire, where Republicans have lost both House seats and one Senate seat in the past two cycles. Rath noted that Sen. Judd Gregg , R-N.H., who is up for re-election in 2010, has emphasized his willingness to work with Obama.
But Rath also said there is a place for Cornyn’s strategy of drawing lines in the sand. “There is a role for someone who calls us to our principles and says you don’t abandon them because you lost an election,” he said.
Some Resistance to Tactics
One Republican who disapproved of holding up Clinton’s confirmation was Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the party’s unsuccessful 2008 presidential nominee. McCain issued a stinging rebuff to Cornyn when, in supporting Clinton’s nomination, he told colleagues, “We had an election. I think the message the American people are sending us now is they want us to work together and get to work.”
For their part, Democrats are clearly irritated at Cornyn’s salvos. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., said that Cornyn’s obstructionism was aimed at ginning up the Republican fundraising machine. But Manley said the Texan “has overplayed his hand” and that his actions are “at odds with what the American people want right now.”
Cornyn agreed that one of his goals is to improve fundraising for the NRSC, which raised $93 million last year, compared with $155 million raised by its Democratic counterpart.
“I have run enough elections to know that if you have more money, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to win,” Cornyn said. “But I sure would prefer to be the one with the most money in any election.”
At the same time, he acknowledged that some of his tactics, such as the brief delay of Clinton’s confirmation, did not go over well, even with some Republicans.
Cornyn said he had underestimated “the stampede to try and confirm all of Obama’s nominees immediately.”
“People didn’t have much of an appetite to talk about serious things. They just wanted to move on down the road,” he said.
Big Challenges for Republicans in 2010
Ross Ramsey, the editor of the Texas Weekly, a political newsletter based in Austin, said that connections in Texas — Bush’s home state — position Cornyn well to improve the NRSC’s finances.
“He’s from one of the big ATM states,” Ramsey said. In his own re-election campaign, Cornyn raked in $13.7 million last year, compared with $4.1 million raised by his Democratic opponent, Rick Noriega.
Cornyn is also trying to recruit popular House Republicans, such as Michael N. Castle of Delaware, to run for what are expected to be open Senate seats.
Senate Republicans clearly face challenges in 2010, forced to defend 19 seats compared with Democrats’ 17. Among the more vulnerable will be open seats in swing states such as Ohio, Florida and Missouri.
Terry Madonna, a pollster at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., said Cornyn could be detrimental to candidates in a swing state such as Pennsylvania, where Obama won by a large margin and GOP Sen. Arlen Specter is up for re-election.
“The Republicans have to be careful about the face of their party, because that hard-edged face has not done well in ’08 and ’06,” Madonna said. On the other hand, he said, if Cornyn placates the base with red-meat rhetoric, it takes some of the pressure off Specter to be a loyal partisan.
The Senate GOP leadership has put its faith in Cornyn, who started his second Senate term this month. Aside from his role at the NRSC, they recently awarded him a coveted seat on the Finance Committee.
The previous two senators to chair the NRSC — John Ensign of Nevada and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, who lost her own re-election bid last year — took a more low-key approach, with not very good results. Since 2006 the Republicans have gone from the majority in the Senate to now holding 41 seats, not counting the contested Minnesota seat.
Ensign said he and Cornyn have “very different styles.” He added, “His style can be very, very effective.”
Sen. Jim DeMint , R-S.C., applauded Cornyn’s gun-slinging approach. “We call him ‘Big John’ for a reason,” he said.
Cornyn, 56, began his political career in 1984 when he won a district court judgeship in San Antonio. Six years later he won a seat on the Texas Supreme Court and in 1998 was elected state attorney general.
At the time, Rove, Bush’s sharp-elbowed political guru, was Cornyn’s consultant.
After winning an open Senate race in 2002, Cornyn strode around the Capitol in his cowboy boots and was an unflagging Bush supporter, earning kudos from Texas conservatives but making moderates in his party nervous. He clashed on immigration with McCain, who got into a shouting match at one point with Cornyn.
Cornyn said he did not believe his strong links with Bush, who left office as one of the most unpopular presidents, would hurt his ability to help Republican candidates.
“He’s gone,” Cornyn said of Bush. The public, he said, will be focused on other issues in 2010.
Comments
John McCain is talking out of both sides of his mouth in a typical 'maverick' way. He said he would support the Treasury nominee, but voted against him. Cornyn's very partisan rhetoric is sure to allow all voters just exactly what the GOP is going to do for America. I hope he continues his obstructionist tone and talk, and I recommend that all GOP senators do the same. Let's put words and deeds in the mouths of those who run for reelection. Better to have the truth than the doubletalk of McCain. So much for bipartisanship and the GOP.
If Obama is popular in 2010, no one will care what Cornyn did or said, the GOP will probably loose more senate seats because of the circumstances (which states are up and which are open). If, on the other hand, Obama has Clinton '94 style ratings in 2010 or worse, again, what Cornyn did or said will still be irrelevant. But the GOP will fare far better at the ballot box.
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