Cornyn Is Unwavering in Support for Bush on Iraq

In a rare Saturday session, the Senate failed once again to advance a nonbinding resolution to the floor for a vote that would have condemned the President's Iraq escalation. The latest proposal floated in the Senate was identical in wording to the House resolution that passed earlier in the week.

The United States Senate met for a rare weekend session Saturday to vote on taking up a House-passed resolution opposing a troop increase in Iraq. And, just as they did last week in a similar vote, Senate Republicans managed to block the resolution from consideration.

The measure picked up several Republican Senators who deferred to pressure from Republican leadership in the last debate - including Snowe, Hagel and Warner. Of course, both Texas Senators voted against advancing the resolution. Senator John Cornyn has been especially strident in his support of the administration, sticking like glue to Bush's failed war policies. Despite falling poll numbers, Cornyn hasn't softened one whit on his stance on the war - whatever George Bush wants, George Bush gets.

He is certain that President Bush's decision to send more troops into battle is the right move. He is certain that Democratic war thinking is wrong. Despite the growing misgivings of so many GOP lawmakers, Cornyn is certain that the United States should stay in Iraq until the job is done.

Stay until the job is done....can someone please define what that means? Because it sure sounds as though he's advocating for an indefinite stay.

He not only supports Bush's troop-increase plan, he describes any alternative in the starkest possible terms. "Are we going to allow Iraq to become another failed state which will then serve as a launching pad for future terrorist attacks, perhaps including against the United States?" Cornyn asked during a recent Senate floor speech.

That might have been a good question to ask a few years ago, when there was still hope of avoiding the hard choices brought on by civil war. But it ignores the reality on the ground, which is that Iraq is already one of the most dangerous places on earth, and it happened on our watch. As stated in a previous post...

".....stay the course" is no longer the Republican mantra, but other than semantics, nothing has changed. The administration still has no plans for a troop drawdown, no idea how to quell the sectarian violence, no definition for victory and no intention of admitting the truth. In the face of the recent meltdown, the Republican candidates' grim determination to keep uttering nonsense about "winning" is supposed to be viewed as being resolute. Actually, such obstinacy only serves to reinforce the reality that they cannot be trusted to manage the mess that they created or to level with the American public about our limited options. This is political posturing at its worst.

And as for the overwhelming public disapproval on the conduct of the war, Cornyn seems not to notice.

The freshman senator is such a throwback to the early days of GOP fealty to Bush that his Senate Web site includes a "compassionate conservatism" link. Choosing survival over solidarity, other Republicans are seeking political cover. Cornyn, 55, is one of 20 GOP senators up for re-election in 2008, but he is trying a different strategy from most of the others: unwavering loyalty......

Cornyn is a favorite at the White House, where he remains a Bush insider and close friend of Karl Rove. But his unalloyed defense of Bush's Iraq policies have some back home wondering whether he has gone too far.

"He's pretty much married himself to the president and to Karl" Rove, Bush's top political adviser, said Harvey Kronberg, editor of the Quorum Report political newsletter. "I'm just speculating, but we like to see a modest amount of independence here in Texas."