Cornyn optimistic about primary - Calls primary campaign 'strange'

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, spoke to students of KIPP San Antonio's University Prep high school during a short visit Friday and told them the most difficult part of his job is his schedule.

Trying to organize fellow Republicans in Texas might be a bit tougher. Fellow Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has not publicly endorsed him for re-election.

"This is all more or less to be expected and it's manageable, but I hope after the primary is over we can all come together and be unified, because then we're much more likely to be successful," said Cornyn. "The Republican coalition is composed of libertarians, social conservatives, Tea Party, fiscal conservatives, national security hawks and we need as many people to come within that umbrella to vote for our candidates and to vote in order to be able to govern."

Nearly every faction seems represented on the ballot, with seven other challengers -- only one of whom Cornyn has met.

Chris Mapp, a candidate from Port O'Connor, has spoken out before against Cornyn for not siding with Cruz during the battle against the Affordable Care Act.

"Our current U.S. senator is not bringing unity to our party," said Mapp. "We can no longer as conservatives accept the status quo establishment politician. It's time for a fresh voice."

Retired Army Lt. Col. Ken Cope discussed Cornyn's immigration record as a need for change.

"Twelve years in the United States Senate on the immigration committee and he has watched immigration go from a social problem to a national defense issue on the border. And he's done nothing," said Cope. "He's been basically just warming the seat and not standing up and fighting for Texans."

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn says the most difficult part of his job is his schedule.

His schedule? Heck, I figured Cornyn's bank-hopping to cash all his govt checks would be a problem.

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His opponents oughta ask Cornyn where he gets the time to govern. Cornyn must 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

RINOs are so easy to spot. They're the ones that always tell us we have to "come together" after they've bull s***ed their way onto the ballot. They are the ones that have no moral compass. They lack a spine. The only difference between them and their liberal brethren is the way they deliver their crap. Instead of being straight up and telling you what they believe (like both liberals and Conservatives do) they use their mealy mouthed silver tongues to dance around telling you how they're really going to vote (most often with the demoncraps) and then... when caught voting contrary to the way they led their constituents to believe they would vote they then explain to said constituents that it's the constituents fault for not understanding what the RINO was really saying. In other words, you, the constituent are too stupid to understand the complexities RINOs (and liberals) have to deal with when making tough decisions on simply issues.
RINOs, like their liberal brethren, lack any semblance of common sense which make the common man/woman irrelevant in their mind.

John Cornyn is a RINO.

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