Watching Republican Senator John Cornyn is why my whipsaw. The man has gone from being a leader, to being a follower, to being neither. Cornyn is an example of what can happen to a man who loses his moral compass and recovers it again only after getting lost.
Cornyn has been a senator from Texas for over 20 years. For most of this time he was widely regarded as an establishment Republican, staunchly conservative but able to work across the aisle. But when Donald Trump became president, especially the second time, Cornyn morphed. He went from being a leader to being a follower. Rather a craven follower at that who, to secure Trump’s blessing for his reelection to the Senate, jumped when the president said jump.
Cornyn posted a photo of himself reading Trump’s book, Art of the Deal. He proposed legislation to rename a stretch of the interstate in Trump’s honor. And in a failed effort to please the president he reversed himself on the filibuster. These are just some examples of what one Senate watcher called his “political gymnastics.” As Cornyn’s former Senate colleague, Jeff Flake put it, “You look at the positions he took to please the president and the groveling and whatever, it was rather painful to watch.” It was painful to watch Cornyn do summersaults – to vault from respected leader to pitiful follower.
Predictably it did Cornyn no good – his sad subservience was for naught. Trump withheld his papal blessing and bestowed it instead on Ken Paxton. Which is why the Texas Republican primary was lost by the widely respected Cornyn and won by the widely disrespected Paxton.
After Cornyn’s ignominious loss his abject behavior came to a grinding halt. He was no longer a Senate leader – but he was also no longer a Trump follower. He was neither. Last night he secured a win by reaching a deal with the White House in exchange for his vote to advance the president’s nomination for Attorney General. But best way to think of it is as Cornyn’s last hurrah. He will exit the Senate in limbo.