Dear Sen. Cornyn : You Have Pork for Brains

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). Image by Bill Narum / The Rag Blog.

Senator Cornyn: 'Your political ambitions are clearly far more important to you than the well being of ordinary Americans who are losing their jobs in the millions.'

By Sarito Carol Neiman / The Rag Blog / February 9, 2009

I just sent Sen. John Cornyn [Very R-TX] an email to tell him the biggest piece of pork I saw in the neighborhood of the economic stimulus plan was the pork in the place where his brains should be, and mentioned that it's called being "pigheaded.”

I told him:

Your political ambitions are clearly far more important to you than the well being of ordinary Americans who are losing their jobs in the millions. If you really want to fix everything with tax cuts and let the state budgets, education, alternative energy solutions, and affordable health care continue to be in the hands of the so-called "free market". . .

Well. . . then I threatened to camp out on his lawn in a tent and hunt squirrels for dinner if it got to that point, and suggested if he gets his way he won't be able to find a cop to throw me off his lawn because they'll all be out preventing food riots.

It was fun, a kind of catharsis.

Being a gentleman, he wrote right back to thank me "for contacting his offices” and attached my letter in case I might have forgotten what I had just said. He closed with his “warmest regards.”

I sent KB Hutchinson a much nicer note, trying to shame her into looking at herself in the mirror and doing what she knows is the right thing. Girl talk, you know.

Geez, these people make me so mad!!

As an officially "unemployed" person, I wish we could've organized a "million-person unemployed vigil" on the mall today. Or at least a few people holding up a continuous string of paper dolls representing each of the 3.5 million unemployed plus their 2.5 (or whatever it is these days) children. The numbers don't have faces and the Republicans don't have any shame.

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Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas : Big Bad Dawg (Video)

Sen. Corndog : All Hat and no Cattle


Thanks to Telebob / The Rag Blog / Posted August 21, 2008

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Big, Bland John : Republican Senator from Texas Can Be Beaten

The Hon. John Cornyn of Texas. Illustration courtest of the Texas Observer.
How a dull exterior masks one of the most conservative records in the U.S. Senate
By Dave Mann

Democratic strategists in Texas have been telling anyone who will listen for the past year that they can defeat John Cornyn, the state’s junior U.S. senator, in November. This is big talk for a party that hasn’t won a statewide race since 1994 and hasn’t held Cornyn’s senate seat in 47 years. But they have some fancy polling data to back it up. More than a third of Texans wouldn’t know their junior senator if he fell on them. They call this “name ID” (or lack thereof) in the political consulting business. Cornyn’s is abysmal for a politician who’s served as a Texas Supreme Court justice, state attorney general, and, for the past six years, U.S. senator. Of those who do know Cornyn, fewer than 50 percent view him favorably—dangerous territory for an incumbent seeking re-election. Some of those same polls show him running closely with Democratic opponent Rick Noriega.

But you don’t need polling data to know that Cornyn can be beaten. Just watch him give a speech. “Dull” is an understatement.

When Cornyn spoke at the Republican state convention on June 13, for instance, the excitement level—even among the 5,000 ardent Republicans assembled in a downtown Houston convention center—resembled a chamber music recital more than a rock concert. They offered Cornyn polite applause, but nothing near the standing ovations for the state’s senior senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, or for former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

Cornyn looks like a senator: He’s tall and lanky, with wispy white hair over the kind of broad, distinguished face that makes him look deliberative all the time. He’s also blessed with the bearing and charisma of a tax attorney. He doesn’t connect with audiences; he talks at them. In Houston in June, his deadpan delivery rendered the convention speech instantly forgettable.

The most memorable moment of Cornyn’s convention appearance was the “Big John” video that introduced him—an over-the-top spoof showing the lawyerly Cornyn in cowboy attire on a horse. A Jimmy Dean imitator crooned in the background about the exploits of Big John: “He rose to the top in just one term, kept Texas in power, made lesser states squirm—big John ... big, bad John.” Cornyn looked ridiculous, an irony given that he actually spent a lot of time on a ranch as a child and regularly hunts and rides horses. Nonetheless, the video was universally mocked in newspapers and blogs, and, predictably, on the Daily Show.

Cornyn seemed to sense the ridicule to come. “I hope you got a smile out of that video,” he told the crowd. “My staff convinced me it would be a good idea. Maybe I need a new staff.” It was his best line of the day. He immediately turned once more to stone. “It was an attempt to bring a little humor to a subject I take very seriously.” He went on to detail his record in the Senate. Perhaps his speech deserved more attention. The record he must defend is so conservative that few Texas political observers—many of whom viewed Cornyn as a Republican moderate during his time in state government—would have foreseen it six years ago. With his bland style and senatorial looks, Cornyn doesn’t strike you as a right-wing ideologue. His record suggests just that.

“My policy on the war on terror is similar to Ronald Reagan: We win, they lose,” Cornyn told the assembled GOP faithful. (Indeed, he has voted consistently in the Senate to cede power to the executive branch. He voted to strip terrorism detainees of their habeas corpus rights and against congressional oversight of the CIA’s terrorist detention facilities. He backed the president’s secret wiretapping program and once remarked, in a debate over the PATRIOT Act, “None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead.”)

“I have protected the sanctity of human life,” Cornyn told the crowd. (He voted to strip funding from abortion and family planning services, and against increased access to birth control.) “I’ve opposed immoral experimentation done in the name of science.” (He’s opposed federal funding for stem cell research.)

“I have supported judges who respect the Constitution.” (He backed the nominations of both Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts, and a host of controversial judicial nominees, including Texas’ own Priscilla Owen.)

“I have supported the traditional family.” (He was a main proponent of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.)

When he finished, Cornyn didn’t linger on stage to bask in the crowd’s muted applause. He offered two quick, perfunctory waves to the crowd and ducked backstage.

One major aspect of Cornyn’s first term in the Senate that he didn’t mention: George W. Bush. No one has done more to propel Cornyn’s career than Bush. In turn, Cornyn has offered near complete fealty to the president. No other U.S. senator has voted so reliably with the White House in the past six years.

Now that Bush is one of the most unpopular presidents in American history, Cornyn is trying to distance himself. Even in Texas, Bush polls below 50 percent. Add to that a dissatisfied electorate—polls show about 80 percent of Americans say the country is on the “wrong track.” The historic candidacy of Barack Obama has energized Democrats, who seem poised to make big gains in Congress. This would seem a disastrous year for an incumbent senator who doesn’t excite even members of his own party.

Yet the Democrats seem wholly unprepared to take advantage. Republicans still hold an edge in Texas, and Cornyn has raised nearly 10 times more campaign money than his Democratic opponent. Despite his blandness and a record that borders on too conservative even for Texas, Cornyn may sneak into a second term.

Read all of this story here / Texas Observer / Posted August 8, 2008

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Corn Dog's Coat -- and Big Bad Jew

The video above from the Daily Show includes excerpts from John (Corn Dog) Cornyn's video, "Big Bad John," -- already a thing of legend -- previously posted and discussed on The Rag Blog.

But the best part is a faux spot for Cornyn's alleged opponent, a tea-sipping Semite. (He's a big city boy from an Ivy League school... / He's running for Senate / He's an elitist Jew... Big Bad Jew.)

Thorne Dreyer / The Rag Blog

Cornyn's Coat Calamity

Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, is hot under the collar because Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, mocked a coat he wore in his latest TV ad. Not fair, said Cornyn: that was a traditional Tamaulipeca jacket, and Schumer's a racist for saying anything and he needs to apologize to the entire Hispanic community (including, we can only presume, Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, who is running to kick Cornyn out of Senate). So, nothing to do with the fact that he got completely destroyed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show this week?

For anyone humming along, the song in Cornyn's ad spoofs Jimmy Dean's mining disaster classic 'Big Bad John'. What may make music historians ponder is the way that Cornyn's press people have turned a song about a "quiet and shy" blue-collar worker into self-aggrandizing bluff and bluster ego fluff about how a professional pol "Fought heathens and hellions" and "Kept Texas in power, made lesser states squirm."

Funny, there's quite a few Texans squirming at Cornyn's cornball cowboy antics. Not least the strained rhyming of "more" and "foe". For the full cringe-worthy experience, try the original Cornyn version.

Richard Whittaker / June 27, 2008

Source. / Chronic / Austin Chronicle online

See the full "Big John" video on The Rag Blog.

And go to Ride 'em, Corn Dog! / The Rag Blog / June 17, 2008

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Dems Just Love That "Big Bad John"

Ride 'em Corn Dog : Already a Classic

Cornyn video is campaign gold mine;
Race in virtual dead heat
By John Moritz / June 27, 2008

AUSTIN — The sight of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn wearing cowboy threads while an ol’ boy with a Lone Star twang sings his praise was designed to fire up his party’s base.

There was only one hitch in Cornyn’s get-along: The wrong party got fired up.

Turns out the video bio of Cornyn shown at the state GOP convention this month was panned as corn pone by more pundits, bloggers and other smart-mouthed know-it-alls than could fit in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

And it’s the Democrats who are making sure that anyone with a laptop has a chance to see and hear the campaign clip they call "Big Bad John," complete with a takeoff on Jimmy Dean’s classic song with the same name.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee posted the video on its Web site and suggested it shows that the urbane and courtly Cornyn is, well, all hat and no cattle.

Here’s a sample of the lyrics: "He rose to the top, in just one term. Kept Texas in power, made lesser states squirm. Big John."

"We figure it helps our cause more than his," the Democrats say on their Web site.

The posting came on the heels of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show spoofing the spot, with host Jon Stewart suggesting that Cornyn’s outfit might have come from a store for oversize kids.

Some left-leaning Web sites have called the video Cornyn’s "Michael Dukakis in the tank" moment, recalling the blistering reviews drawn by the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee when he wore a helmet and stood up while riding in a military armored vehicle.

The then-Massachusetts governor ended up looking more silly than soldierly.

Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice and state attorney general, is in what one poll shows to be a tight race with Democratic state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston.

A poll of 1,000 likely voters by the nonpartisan Texas Lyceum, a statewide leadership group and think tank, showed Cornyn leading Noriega 38 percent to 36 percent.

The remaining 26 percent of respondents were undecided.

The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Daron Shaw, a pollster at the University of Texas at Austin, said he made an extra effort to ensure that the random sample was reflective of the state’s demographics.

Other polls have shown Cornyn with wider leads.

The same poll showed Republican presidential hopeful John McCain to be running ahead of Democrat Barack Obama in Texas by 43 percent to 38 percent.

If the senator was worried that the video’s reviews would make his campaign more difficult, he wasn’t letting on.

"I think it’s hilarious," he said with a laugh during a conference call with reporters Thursday.

"This was a good-natured introduction we did at the Houston convention a couple of weeks ago."

When the video was shown at the convention, Cornyn told delegates: "My staff convinced me that it would be a good idea. Maybe I need a new staff."

Source. / Star-Telegram

Also see Ride 'em, Corn Dog! / The Rag Blog / June 17, 2008

Thanks to Harry Edwards / The Rag Blog

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