Houston Chronicle - Ambitious Cornyn Gains Clout in Capital

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Houston Chronicle - Ambitious Cornyn Gains Clout in Capital

As Texan fights to keep Senate seat, some predict even higher posts
By STEWART M. POWELL

"I think my responsibilities will do nothing but increase," Sen. John Cornyn says. "I feel like I'm ready, and I am certainly willing."

The closed-door meeting of senators was tense.

With a comprehensive immigration reform proposal hanging by a thread in the spring of 2007, Republican presidential candidate John McCain used a barnyard epithet to accuse Texas Sen. John Cornyn of trying to sink the carefully constructed compromise.

Cornyn, who was pushing a provision that some said would make it difficult for many illegal immigrants to secure citizenship, maintained his cool in front of stunned colleagues but did not mince words with his powerful and volatile colleague, who had just returned from the campaign trail.

"Wait a second, here," said the Texan, a longtime friend of President Bush. "I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations, and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line." McCain's fury abated.

Though the immigration compromise eventually fell apart, the story of the confrontation speaks volumes about Cornyn's personality and his desire to be in the middle of the action in Washington. To remain there, the 56-year-old conservative must win re-election on Nov. 4 in a national political environment that is hostile to Republicans in general and friends of Bush in particular.

During his first term in the Senate, the former Texas attorney general and state Supreme Court judge has transformed himself from a cheerleader for Bush to become a force in his own right — a member of his party's leadership and an authority on issues ranging from judicial nominations to open government.

Friends and detractors alike describe the San Antonio lawyer as a man of great ambition who might one day run for president or become a nominee for the Supreme Court.

"The sky's the limit," says Cornyn adviser David Beckwith, a GOP operative who once served as press secretary to Vice President Dan Quayle.

Gaining power

Cornyn's opponent, Houston state Rep. Rick Noriega, has portrayed the senator as a Bush clone and a right-wing extremist out of touch with the kitchen-table realities of average Texas families.

"If Cornyn wants to be a player at the national level, he has to demonstrate that he's completely safe and secure in reliably Republican Texas," says Robert Stein, a political scientist at Rice University.

If the incumbent manages to get by Noriega, he is poised to become the most powerful Texas Republican in Washington after the departure of Bush on Jan. 20 and the expected resignation of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2009 to run for governor .

"I think my responsibilities will do nothing but increase," Cornyn told the Houston Chronicle. "I feel like I'm ready, and I am certainly willing."

Cornyn, who masks political ambition with a genteel, aw-shucks manner, hopes to climb the next step following the election. Currently vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the fifth-ranking GOP leader, he is contemplating a bid to lead the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which raises money for Senate candidates. It could be a good platform for a prospective GOP presidential candidate to build contacts with contributors.

"I am interested in helping the Republican party rebuild," says Cornyn, who wrote a $250,000 check to the committee in June.

Thomas R. Phillips, who served with Cornyn on the Texas Supreme Court, praises his dedication to mastering the complexities of each new job.

"John may be something like what Abe Lincoln said — 'I may be a slow walker but I never walk backwards,'" says Phillips, who served with Cornyn on the court for seven years. ''John gets better at whatever task he's doing every year."

While Cornyn has been a reliable Republican vote — he's sided with his party between 95 percent and 99 percent of the time each year — he has also forged tactical alliances with Democrats to advance his own legislative priorities, particularly after they took control of the Senate in 2006.

He's worked with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., on giving the Food and Drug Administration jurisdiction over tobacco; with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on open government legislation; and with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on anti-gang legislation.

"John has impressed Senate colleagues as a pragmatic conservative," says Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who worked with Cornyn on legislation after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Cornyn has built a reputation in the nation's capital as a trusted Bush loyalist on national security, criminal justice and judicial appointments. He used his seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vigorously support Bush's three nominees for the U.S. Supreme Court — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who won confirmation, and White House counsel Harriet Miers, who withdrew.

Cornyn also has offered consistent support for the invasion of Iraq, the troop surge and the war in Afghanistan from his perch on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

But Cornyn has broken ranks with Bush on issues including greater public access to government documents and illegal immigration.

Cornyn's position on immigration has been nuanced, swayed in part by living in San Antonio. He has favored comprehensive immigration reform and guest-worker legislation and has opposed military patrols along the border. But he also has backed stepped-up immigration enforcement within the country, increases in the Border Patrol and construction of a border fence where appropriate.

His opposition in 2007 to allowing illegal immigrants to pursue U.S. citizenship without returning to their homelands for a "touchback," helped deal a fatal blow to the last coordinated effort to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.

He touts free enterprise without adding sweeping new federal regulations in response to the current financial crisis fanning talk of a deep recession. Take the dire economic forecasts from Washington with ''a grain of salt," Cornyn counseled a gathering of Realtors in Austin last week. "We are not always going to have times of boom," he said.

Presidential run in future?

Working alongside Sen. Hutchison, whose skill in securing federal money for Texas is legendary, Cornyn says he, too, has brought home the bacon to Houston and Texas.

His spokesman Brian Walsh says the senator's staff has closed nearly 7,000 cases of constituent service so far this year, including issues involving immigration status, Social Security benefits and eligibility and veterans benefits.

His office provided a list of 10 Houston-area projects secured by Cornyn that totaled nearly $60 million for the current fiscal year, including flood control projects for Brays and Sims bayous.

Cornyn insists that despite his durable lead in the polls, he has taken nothing for granted.

If McCain loses to Democrat Barack Obama on Nov. 4, says Ornstein, "It would leave a political vacuum. A popular conservative from a large Republican state would be a major contender" for the White House.

Cornyn leaves the door ajar for an eventual presidential bid.

"But my first focus is on getting re-elected to the Senate," he says. "I've seen people look beyond their immediate goal to the goal down the road, and sometimes they miss that first goal."

stewart.powell@chron.com

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