Titanic Republican shift in key Senate race (Funny Stockman comments on Rove, Cornyn)

It is a monumental shift in major race that could be sending shock waves through the GOP establishment.

Underfunded and targeted by GOP strategist Karl Rove, Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, has defied the odds in his long-shot bid to topple the second-most powerful Republican in the U.S. Senate, and he’s on the verge of forcing a crucial runoff with incumbent Sen. Jon Cornyn, R-Texas, in the Texas GOP primary.

According to the results of a stunning new poll, Cornyn has fallen from 50 percent to 43 percent.

That means Cornyn would have to gain eight points in the next two weeks to break the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff, but he seems to be losing ground, fast.

Cornyn, the minority whip in the Senate, was introduced at a fundraiser in Longview, Texas, on Sunday by Rove.

Stockman told WND, “Rove got on stage and said, ‘John Cornyn is the second-most conservative senator,’ which begs the question, who is first? Who is the most conservative senator? Is it Mike Lee? Is it Rand Paul? Is it Ted Cruz?”

Answering his own question, the congressman continued, “No, in 2010 the National Journal ruled that John McCain was the most conservative member of the Senate. So it puts my opponent in an awkward position, because it means John Cornyn is more liberal than John McCain.”

Stockman pointed out that Rove and Cornyn do not mention who did the ranking. Indeed, it was the National Journal that declared McCain the Senate’s most-conservative member in 2010.

The congressman also pointed out that the conservative Heritage Foundation ranked him and Cruz as the most conservative Texans.

Stockman oughta ask Cornyn where he gets the time to govern. Cornyn has to spend an awful lotta time overseeing his vast holdings....and his tax liabilities. Unless Cornyn employs a bunch of snarky investment advisors to "aggregate the number$." (/snix)

Sen. Cornyn Reveals Not One, Not Two, but Three Public
Pensions Atop His Congressional Salary, By Shane Goldmacher

(NOTE: plus taxpayers pay ALL of his living expenses including his healthcare)

The Texas Republican earned $65,383 in retirement benefits last year; and he amended his disclosure statement to show he's been collecting one pension since 2006.

Texas Republican John Cornyn supplemented his Senate salary with a trio of public pensions last year from his days as a Texas judge and elected official—a practice some fiscal watchdog groups have attacked as “double dipping.”

Cornyn, who is the minority whip and the No. 2 ranking Republican in the Senate, reported collecting $65,383 in public retirement benefits in 2012 in addition to his $174,000 salary as a U.S. senator. Cornyn’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Elected to the US Senate in 2002, Cornyn is a former district judge, Texas Supreme Court justice, and state attorney general. In 2012, he collected pensions from three separate state retirement programs.

The biggest of Cornyn’s pensions—$48,807— is from the Judicial Retirement System of Texas. He served on the state Supreme Court from 1991 to 1997.

He reported another $10,132 in retirement benefits last year from the Employees Retirement System of Texas—the pension fund for state elected officials and workers. Cornyn served as Texas attorney general from 1999 to 2002.

In a series of financial-disclosure amendments that he began filing last July, Cornyn disclosed that he had actually been collecting that $10,132 annual pension as far back as 2006. He had not listed it on his original disclosure reports from 2006 to 2010.

Cornyn also reported a $6,444 retirement distribution from the Texas County and District Retirement System. He was a state district judge from 1985 to 1989, according to his official bio, when the governor appointed him presiding judge for the Fourth Administrative Judicial Region of Texas, where he oversaw judicial administration for a 22-county region.

Cornyn, 61, is not the first or only prominent Texas Republican to draw both a public pension and a public salary. In December 2011, it was revealed that Texas Gov. Rick Perry was supplementing his $150,000 governor’s salary with a state pension of more than $92,000.“I think it would be rather foolish to not access what you’ve earned,” Perry said in the midst of the 2012 presidential primary.

Cornyn, unlike Perry, is drawing his pensions and salary from different levels of government. His salary is supported by the federal government, while his pensions come from state and local government. Cornyn is up for reelection in 2014.

SOURCE June 18, 2013, edition of NJ Daily. http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/sen-cornyn-reveals-not-one-not-two-but-three-public-pensions-atop-his-salary-20130617

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