INSIGHTS FROM A SENATE INSIDER
— An open letter to Texas GOP primary voters re the Cornyn/Paxton/Hunt Donnybrook —
If you’ve watched a confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court Justice, you’ve seen the row of lawyers sitting behind the Senators to furnish research, recommend questions, pass notes, and whisper advice in their ears.
I was one of those people for years. It’s the best job I ever had! I enjoyed it more than blowing things up with my Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s 25mm M242 Bushmaster chain gun when I was in the Army.
After working on the Bush-Cheney Recount Team & serving the Bush Admin. at the Dept. of Labor (under Secretary Chao & Solicitor Scalia), I worked on Capitol Hill for a decade.
Before I worked for several Texas Congressmen plus Louisiana Rep. Jeff Landry, I was a Counsel to the Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
That means I sat behind the Republican Senators, including John Cornyn, during the Bush-Obama era.
I had a front row seat for Cornyn’s legislative priorities. Needless to say, I was not surprised when, years later, Trump used social media to: (1) describe Cornyn as a “RINO,” (2) nickname Cornyn “The Stiff,” (3) ask whether Cornyn was worse than Mitt Romney (seriously, that happened), and (4) predict Cornyn would lose the 2026 primary if he inexplicably sought a fifth six-year term (folks, that’s 30 years).
And I sometimes had a back stage pass for the policy positions Cornyn advocated when he huddled behind closed doors with other Senators (e.g., in the anteroom or a “secret hideaway”).
(FYI. I was no longer on the committee staff by the time Ted Cruz became a Senator in 2013. However, I did donate to Ted’s campaign to succeed Greg Abbott as Texas AG (after KBH pledged to resign to primary Gov. Rick Perry), voted for Ted in 2012, and was a Louie Gohmert staffer when I celebrated Ted’s victory at his Election Night Party in Harris County.)
Texas GOP primary voters deserve to know my ex-boss — Rockefeller Republican Arlen Specter — was delighted when he discovered Cornyn was a moderate like Kay Bailey Hutchison (KBH).
You also deserve to know my other ex-boss — immigration hardliner Jeff Sessions — was disappointed when he discovered Cornyn was NOT a conservative cut from the same bolt of cloth as his predecessor, Phil Gramm.
(Gramm was my wife’s boss long before
@dalytweet earned
@CPAC’s Ronald Reagan Award & served the Trump 2016 campaign as an authorized media surrogate.)
Would YOU like to know WHY Senate GOP leaders (such as McConnell protege Cornyn) voted to put Thom Tillis on the Judiciary Committee in December 2014?
WHY they did that even though Tillis isn’t a lawyer &!even though it wasn’t on the short list of committee assignments Tillis requested?
I bet
@realDonaldTrump would like to know since that fateful decision a decade ago is why Tillis is now in a position to veto
@POTUS’s nominations of courageous MAGA conservatives such as
@EagleEdMartin.
(Thank God
@HarmeetKDhillon was confirmed as AAG for
@CivilRights before Trump supporters drove Tillis to retire rather than face the wrath of North Carolina’s GOP primary voters.)
The answer is this. Pro-amnesty Tillis was put on Judiciary to help amnesty champions Cornyn, Graham & Flake cancel out the votes of amnesty opponents Sessions, Lee, Cruz & Vitter.
Speaking of cancelling out the votes of conservatives, I am one of the very few people who has personally eyeballed every single roll call vote cast by Cornyn from 2003 to 2025.
Try these real statistics on for size …
In the 2023-2024 session, Cornyn cancelled out the vote of
@VP/
@JDVance a whopping one hundred nine times (109x)!
In 2023-2024 alone, Cornyn cancelled out the vote of fellow Texas Senator
@tedcruz one hundred two times (102x).
Part 1 of 2 … continued
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@realMAGAmartyr if you’re a politico who appreciates inside baseball.