Nuclear Option

GOP Incensed At Reid's 'Tyrannical' Hardball Tactic

Brian Beutler | October 7, 2011, 10:14AM

Harry Reid (D-NV)

As explained at length here, Harry Reid's Thursday night power play set a very narrow new precedent in the Senate. But it was a power play nonetheless. Setting aside its less-than-modest real impact, it required using the same "nuclear option" tactics Republicans threatened in 2005 during the fight over judicial filibusters. If in 2005 the GOP was threatening to detonate a massive H-bomb over a major city, last night Harry Reid set off a rusty old fission devise in the empty desert. Both nukes, very different impacts.

But Republicans are steamed. Steamed doesn't really even begin to describe it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was practically trembling in anger Thursday night. On Twitter, NRSC chairman John Cornyn (R-TX) called the move "tyranny". And a Senate GOP leadership aide sent me the following remark, suggesting Republicans will remember this whenever they take the majority.

"Democrats are remarkably short-sighted--they forget they'll be in the minority someday and will have to live with THEIR rules," the aide said.

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Warren Buffett

On Capitol Hill, Rise Of The Warren Buffett Birthers (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 22, 2011, 1:38PM

Warren Buffett and President Barack Obama

Republicans on Capitol Hill have found a new hidden document conspiracy to push to now that President Obama's long-form birth certificate is a matter of public record. Warren Buffett, they demand, show us the tax return!

The Hill reports big names in Congress are starting to say Buffett "needs to reveal his finances if his views on tax rates are going to serve as the basis for Obama administration policy."

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Debt Ceiling

Dems And GOP Seek Way Out Of Public Showdown On Debt Limit -- And Prepare For The Worst

Brian Beutler | July 26, 2011, 6:00AM

In a prime time address to the nation Monday evening, President Obama urged Americans to call their members of Congress, to pull Republicans back from a dangerous ledge, and bring them on board with new Democratic legislation that would cut spending significantly and avoid a catastrophic debt default. But the dynamic on Capitol Hill is already taking shape, and what Obama said is not likely to dislodge party leaders from their current strategies.

Discussions with senior Congressional aides, and Democratic and Republican Senators suggests leaders of both parties are hoping to avoid a public showdown between the House and Senate as the country careens toward default.

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Florida GOP

FL GOPer: Seniors Shouldn't Succumb To Dem 'Scare Tactics'

Susan Crabtree | July 13, 2011, 4:56PM

Seems like a certain candidate in the Sunshine State got Sen. Jon Cornyn's (R-TX) memo about dissing Democrats and President Obama for allegedly using Social Security scare tactics as leverage in the debt talks and is repeating it almost verbatim.

Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, who is running for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) next year, wasted no time in repeating the contents of the Cornyn memo almost verbatim Tuesday, criticizing President Obama for threatening to stop sending seniors their Social Security checks if the government defaults on its loans and has to stop paying for some government functions.

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Debt Ceiling

Dems Push Back At Republican Claims Of 'Scare Tactics'

Susan Crabtree | July 13, 2011, 11:10AM

John Cornyn (R-TX) and Patty Murray (D-WA)

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-WA) is pushing back against Republicans' most recent memo to GOP candidates telling them not to worry about the dire default-or-else messaging coming from President Obama and the Democrats.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Debt Negotiations At The White House]

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Debt Ceiling

GOP Senators Worried About Constitutional Nuclear Option On Debt Ceiling

Benjy Sarlin | July 7, 2011, 11:40AM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Republicans are pushing back against suggestions from Democrats that the debt ceiling is unconstitutional and can be ignored by the White House.

The notion has generated increased interest among Democrats in recent weeks as debt ceiling talks have lost momentum and rests on language in the 14th Amendment stating that "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law...shall not be questioned." President Obama didn't rule the idea out in his Twitter town hall yesterday, telling the audience that he wanted a deal before it became a relevant debate.

Nervous that Democrats might be saving the move as an emergency option, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John Cornyn (R-TX) are putting forward a Senate resolution affirming Congress' right to determine the debt limit.

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Debt

Senate GOP To Dems On Debt Limit: Give Us Huge Medicare Cuts, Or Raise It Yourself

Brian Beutler | June 28, 2011, 4:07PM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

Senate Republicans are threatening openly to throw up their hands and let Democrats vote to raise the debt limit on their own if President Obama doesn't cave and agree to trillions of dollars in entitlement cuts and zero tax increases. Here's how NRSC chairman John Cornyn (R-TX) put it, speaking to reporters Tuesday:

"I am wondering if as the deadline approaches, whether our Democratic colleagues in the Senate have realized that unless the President's willing to do a grand bargain that's good for the American people how much he's opening his own political party -- candidates running for 2012 in the United States Senate -- to a referendum on his failure to reach a grand bargain," Cornyn said. "Obviously if it's possible to deal with the spending problem and the entitlement reforms, that's our first choice. But if the President and his party refuse to do the right thing, then in the Senate they're going to be required to vote to raise the debt limit and we'll have a referendum in 2012 on that decision. I don't think if I were a senator on the other side of the aisle I would view that prospect with a lot of pleasure."

Translation: give us what we want, or we'll leave it to you to avoid default, then spend the next year and a half running against you on the grounds that you voted to give President Obama a blank check for massive government spending.

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Medicare

Cornyn On Senate Vote To End Medicare: We're Not Ending Medicare

Brian Beutler | May 26, 2011, 9:39AM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has taken issue with the media's coverage of Wednesday's Senate vote on the GOP's Medicare-privatizing budget.

On the Senate floor Wednesday, Cornyn claimed "I will say that Republicans do not want to end Medicare as we know it. That is an intentional falsehood. That is a lie."

In response to two people who tweeted TPM's write up of the vote, Cornyn called the headline -- "Senate Republicans Vote Overwhelmingly To End Medicare" -- a "lie."

As Democrats are fond of pointing out, an early Wall Street Journal article about the GOP budget made the same claim. And the facts bear it out.

To reiterate, the plan 40 GOP senators voted for Wednesday night would do the following:

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Goodwin Liu

Cornyn: Democrats To Blame For Republican Filibuster Of Goodwin Liu

Ryan J. Reilly | May 19, 2011, 2:57PM

Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) and Goodwin Liu

Republicans just filibustered President Barack Obama's judicial nominee Goodwin Liu, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) says Democrats should take the blame.

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John Boehner

Will Senate Republicans Throw Boehner Under The Bus In Debt Limit Fight?

Brian Beutler | May 10, 2011, 3:47PM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Are Senate Republicans prepared to throw House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) under the bus in the debt limit fight?

Some apparently would be -- though they obviously don't come right out and say it. Senate Republican leaders and aides say they will not vote for a debt limit hike without deep spending cuts, including to entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But they also say that defaulting is not an option. That leaves two possible outcomes. Either Democrats fold and agree to dramatic cuts, with no new revenues. Or Democrats hold firm, in which case Senate Republicans would be happy to let Democrats raise the debt limit in an up or down vote.

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John Boehner

Boehner: Republicans Voted To Turn Medicare Into Obamacare

Brian Beutler | April 26, 2011, 3:17PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Another top Republican has admitted what few members of his own party will admit. In fact, it's the toppest-Republican.

According to Speaker John Boehner, the House Republican budget, which passed on April 15, "transforms Medicare into a plan that's very similar to the President's own healthcare bill."

That's from an interview with ABC's Jon Karl. Boehner joins Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) as one of the few high-profile elected Republicans who will admit that the GOP's Medicare privatization plan is similar in many key respects to the health care law they have spent the last two years demonizing.

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Health Care

The GOP Proposes 'Obamacare' For Seniors -- Just Don't Tell Democrats Or Republicans That

Brian Beutler | April 15, 2011, 9:38AM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

If I told you that the chairman of the Republican senators' reelection committee wanted to phase out the existing Medicare system and slowly replace it with Obamacare, would you believe me? No major caveats, no clever tricks. Just a slow transition from Medicare as we know it to the same health care law Republicans have sued and attempted to repeal -- but for seniors only.

You probably wouldn't. But you'd be wrong.

The long-term Republican budget plan proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) phases out Medicare as a guaranteed, universal, single-payer system and replaces it with a government-subsidized private insurance program. If that sounds familiar, it should.

"It's exactly like Obamacare," said NRSC chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Capitol Thursday. "It is. It's exactly like it. Which strikes me as bizarre that you're seeing so much pushback [from Democrats]."

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Debt Ceiling

Republicans Escalate Debt Ceiling Fight

Brian Beutler | March 14, 2011, 9:29AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Senate Republican leaders in recent days have escalated a showdown that has been lurking in the background of the more immediate fight over funding the federal government through September. While the funding issue remains unresolved, Congress will soon have to turn its attention to the need to raise the national debt limit, or the country will default in just a few weeks.

"There are 53 Democrats and 47 Republicans. My prediction is not a single one of the 47 Republicans will vote to raise the debt ceiling unless it includes with it some credible effort to do something about our debt," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Fox News Sunday. "I think to get any of the 47 Republicans, you've got to do something credible -that the markets believe is credible, that the American people believe is credible, that foreign countries believe is credible -- in addition to raising the debt ceiling."

One of McConnell's top lieutenant's, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), was more direct about this. On Twitter, he wrote "[d]ebt ceiling vote is ultimate leverage to get fiscal reform."

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Progressives

New Report Ranks 'Most Liberal', 'Most Conservative' Members of Congress

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 25, 2011, 9:40AM

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown (OH), Barbara Mikulski (MD) and Harry Reid (NV) were among "the most liberal" Senators last year, according to new rankings by National Journal. Republican Sens. John McCain (AZ), Jim DeMint (SC) and John Thune (SD) were among the most conservative.

National Journal is out with its annual congressional voting record rankings, which track the voting patterns of the 535 members of the House and Senate. The takeaway? Congress in 2010 was the most polarized it has been in close to 30 years. Parties in Congress are increasingly working in "virtual lockstep," which the magazine's political guru, Ron Brownstein described as the "decline of individualism in Congress" and the rise of a "a more top-down, parliamentary-style institution."

But there are still members on both sides who represent the outer edge of the party's ideological leanings. Here are National Journal's top conservative and liberal leaders in each chamber.

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Government Shutdown

Back Channel Negotiations Could Forestall A Government Shutdown

Brian Beutler | February 16, 2011, 12:00PM

President Barack Obama meets with Republican and Democratic leaders

Now that President Obama has threatened to veto the House's spending legislation, things will really heat up.

As House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D_MD) reminded reporters yesterday, President Clinton drew some bright lines himself during the budget fight in late 1995 -- and we all know how that one ended. And House Republicans are set to add a bunch of riders to the spending package, which will make it even more toxic to Democrats.

One way out of this for House Republicans would be to set up back-channel negotiations with Senate leadership and the White House and basically take the ball out of the hands of rank-and-file conservatives who want to undermine the administration in unacceptable ways.

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Health Care

How The Health Care Repeal Push Marks The End Of The Universal Health Care Consensus

Brian Beutler | January 18, 2011, 8:51AM

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Here's one case for the individual mandate in the health care law boiled down to two sentences -- both fairly elegant considering they were spoken extemporaneously.

"There isn't anything wrong with it, except some people look at it as an infringement upon individual freedom. But when it comes to states requiring it for automobile insurance, the principle then ought to lie the same way for health insurance, because everybody has some health insurance costs, and if you aren't insured, there's no free lunch. Somebody else is paying for it." -- June 14, 2009

A corollary to that argument is that you can't have a functioning private health care system that treats the sick unless it also draws money from the healthy. In this regard, the individual mandate actually marries two distinctly American priorities -- an obsession with private markets, and the core belief that nobody should go without health care.

Considering just how cacophonous the health care debate has become, it might surprise you to learn that the mystery reformer quoted above is Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the Republicans' health care point man in the Senate who, during the same interview, with great authority, claimed "I believe that there is a bipartisan consensus to have individual mandates."

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Earmarks

Attention GOP Porkers: Hatch Had His Earmark Requests Stripped From Spending Bill

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2010, 3:45PM

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

Republican Senators whose earmark requests pepper the much-maligned omnibus spending bill are having a really hard time explaining how they went from requesting earmarks earlier this year to decrying the legislation... because of all the earmarks. But never let it be said that those requests were baked into the spending package before the anti-pork wave hit in November.

After the Republican caucus voted to impose an earmark moratorium last month, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) -- who's likely to face a primary challenge from the right in 2012 -- asked Senate appropriators to strip his earmarks from the omnibus.

"I did," Hatch confirmed to me this afternoon after a Senate vote, "because I decided I voted for the moratorium, and I thought 'well, I need to do that.'"

He's having an easier day than a lot of Republican senators who are having to answer charges of hypocrisy.

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John Cornyn

Fox News Asks Cornyn: So Are You For Earmarking Or What? (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | December 15, 2010, 1:53PM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) had to do a little rhetorical dance on Fox News this morning to explain why the new omnibus spending bill that he opposes includes millions of dollars worth of his own earmark requests.

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Appropriations

Republicans Make Good On Threat To Force Lame Duck Spending Showdown

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2010, 11:25AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Before the midterms, conservative leaders were warning that they'd force a showdown over federal spending much earlier than expected: in the lame duck session, before the newly elected Republicans come to Washington.

They weren't joking. Republican and Democratic leaders are now engaged in a brinksmanship that could result in a temporary shutdown of the federal government. After the election, Republicans voted among themselves to eschew all earmarks for two years, and now they have to make good on their pledge. Yesterday, Democrats' chief appropriator, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) unveiled what's known as an omnibus spending bill -- a bundled up package of appropriations legislation, earmarks, and other measures -- which would keep the government running for a year.

In response, most Republicans -- even those whose multimillion dollar earmark requests are included in the legislation -- are saying, "Hell no you can't!"

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AK-SEN

Cornyn: I Hope Alaska Can Have Full Two Senators Soon (Really?)

Eric Kleefeld | December 10, 2010, 12:11PM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has expressed his hope that litigation in the Alaska Senate race -- where Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski's apparent victory as a write-in candidate is being challenged by the Tea Party-backed GOP nominee Joe Miller -- ends soon and the state has full representation in the Senate. Hmm...

As Roll Call reports:

"We just have to be patient and wait for the judge to decide," said Cornyn, a former judge. "I understand that could be as early as [Thursday], and I hope it doesn't go on much longer because I think the people of Alaska deserve to have a Senator when we reconvene again in January, and not still have that up in the air."

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John Cornyn

Cornyn Likely To Head NRSC

Brian Beutler | November 15, 2010, 6:22PM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) will run, likely uncontested, to head the Senate Republicans' campaign committee next year.

According to CNN, Cornyn has already secured the support of incoming, Tea Party-backed GOP senators, despite facing criticism from conservatives that he did not do enough to promote the candidacies of several losing Republican nominees.

The GOP will hold their leadership elections, including their new NRSC chairman, behind closed doors tomorrow.

Earmarks

Earmark Fight In Senate Pits Tea Partiers Against Establishment GOP

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 12, 2010, 8:50AM

Jim DeMint

Total opposition to earmarking is a key tea party tenet, and the battle to get Republicans to voluntarily ban it in their ranks is already raging. Establishment leaders like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- who favor earmarking for its time-honored electoral implications -- are clashing with pro-ban Senators led by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), the body's tea party hero.

Lining up behind DeMint in the push to end earmarks are Sens. Jim Coburn (R-OK), John Cornyn (R-TX), John Ensign (R-NV) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) -- along with Senators-elect Pat Toomey (R-PA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Ron Johnson (R-WI).

McConnell has reportedly been fighting behind the scenes to squash the proposed ban, and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) -- one of the Senate's most conservative members -- is publicly blasting his anti-earmark colleagues for hypocrisy.

Who wins the scrum could have broad implications in 2012.

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Tea Party

Tea Party Has Arrived: Predictable Infighting Marks The Movement's Big Day

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 3, 2010, 5:35PM

At a tea party in Kerrville, Texas

The tea party is now officially part of the legitimate political scene. How do we know? After the movement's electoral victories last night, the bickering that goes with political victory has begun. As the various tea party groups try to read the tea leaves from last night, the infighting that marked marked the movement's emergence onto the scene has spilled over into the post-election euphoria.

First, let's take a look at how well the tea party candidates fared last night. Though many of their high-profile Senate nominees -- Sharron Angle in Nevada, Joe Miller in Alaska, Ken Buck in Colorado and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware -- appear to have come up short in the final tally, the tea party has a lot to be proud of. Kentucky's Senator-elect, Rand Paul, is about as tea party as they come and will likely serve as a vocal mouthpiece for the movement in the upper chamber of Congress.

By the numbers, though, the tea party did not do that well. NBC News crunched the data and found that off the dozens and dozens of tea party candidates on ballots last night, about 60% of them lost. Still, with the GOP still running scared from from the tea party, even the 32% of candidates that made it through will be a potent force in the new Republican majority in the House.

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John Cornyn

Cornyn: We Can't Take The Senate

Brian Beutler | November 1, 2010, 9:30AM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

On the Today Show this morning, NRSC Chairman John Cornyn said conclusively that the Senate is out of reach for Republicans this cycle.

"I think we don't get the majority back but we come awfully close, and we finish the job in 2012," Cornyn said.

This has actually been Cornyn's view for months. But this weekend, in what was probably an attempt at expectation-setting, unnamed Democrats started telling reporters they feared they might lose control of the Senate. Cornyn has his own incentives not to inflate expectations, but he's consistently said he thinks 2012 is the year Republicans will return to power in the upper chamber.

Most prognosticators say Republicans are poised to pick up between six and eight seats on Tuesday -- not enough to retake control. Video of Cornyn's appearance below the fold.

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John Cornyn

Cornyn 'Concerned' About Joe Miller's Nosedive In Alaska Senate Race

Brian Beutler | October 31, 2010, 11:50AM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

NRSC Chairman John Cornyn this morning acknowledged that the GOP Senate nominee in Alaska, Joe Miller, is in real trouble. But, he added, his party will be satisfied if incumbent Repbulican-turned-independent Lisa Murkowski prevails as a write-in candidate.

"We are supporting the nominee of our party, which is Mr. Miller, and -- but are concerned," Cornyn said. "I think that polls are very close now between Senator Murkowski and Joe Miller, and what we want to make sure of is that the Democrat doesn't win."

Cornyn was responding to an earlier report that the GOP had largely given up on Miller, who's tanked dramatically in the polls in recent days. Murkowski and Miller are running against Democratic nominee Scott McAdams.

Robert Menendez

Menendez: Temporary Extension Of Bush Tax Cuts Possible

Brian Beutler | October 31, 2010, 10:53AM

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)

Appearing with his Republican counterpart this morning on ABC's this week, DSCC chairman Robert Menendez floated the idea of temporarily extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

"I certainly believe that there may be some opportunity for a temporary approval of some of these cuts, Menendez said. "We well not support...a permanent extension, four trillion dollars."

Congress will have to address the expiring Bush tax cuts during the coming lame-duck session or else all of them will lapse, including on the middle class.

Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | October 1, 2010, 5:37PM

KY Sen. candidates Rand Paul (R) and Jack Conway (D)

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: A town hall on Islam in America, featuring Franklin Graham, Daisy Khan, and others.

• CBS, Face The Nation: Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

• CNN, State Of The Union: Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), former Gore presidential campaign manager Donna Brazile, former George W. Bush aide Ed Gillespie, Pakistan ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani.

• Fox News Sunday: Kentucky Senate candidates Rand Paul (R) and Jack Conway (D).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Will not air, due to NBC's coverage of the Ryder Cup.

DE-SEN

Cornyn Punts On Chance To Defend O'Donnell

Christina Bellantoni | October 1, 2010, 9:02AM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. John Cornyn told reporters that Delaware's Senate race still does not appear to be competitive for the GOP thanks to Christine O'Donnell.

TPM spoke briefly with Cornyn following an event at the National Press Club Thursday, and asked about O'Donnell's recent snafu with her education history and how serious of a problem he deems that to be. Rather than defend her, Cornyn spoke generally.

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WA-SEN

The Good Democrat: Patty Murray Quietly Surging In WA-SEN

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 22, 2010, 9:07AM

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)

While the political earth shifts around her, Sen. Patty Murray appears to have grounded herself in Washington state. While the national press largely passes her race by, Murray -- who at the start of the summer was, according to conventional wisdom, a Vulnerable Democrat -- appears to have built the momentum she needs to comfortably compete for a third term.

Of course, as must always be said at this point, nothing is set in stone. Murray is up against Dino Rossi, one of the few establishment Republican nominee picks to make it past a tea party primary opponent this year. Rossi was, at one time, one of the brightest stars in NRSC chair John Cornyn's 2010 universe, and the party is expected to keep pumping support Rossi's way as long as things stay close.

And they are close.

If Murray was the Vulnerable Democrat in the original Washington state narrative, Rossi was (in the view of most Republican establishment figures) the ideal Formidable Opponent to defeat her. But as election season has proceeded, that storyline has proven to be more and more far-fetched. Murray, quite simply, is winning while Rossi is losing. And it's been that way for awhile.

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2010 elections

Jim DeMint: Picking Horses Is About More Than Primaries

Christina Bellantoni | September 17, 2010, 11:50AM

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Sen. Jim DeMint says he'd rather be in the minority with a bunch of rock-ribbed conservatives than be part of a ruling group of RINOs. He might just get his chance.

Some Senate Republicans have been privately trashing DeMint, whose track record with his Senate Conservatives Fund endorsing long-shot conservatives in this year's tough GOP primaries has been better than leadership's. The argument among some -- in very quiet whispers -- is that DeMint is not their kind of Republican and his candidates might have blown the GOP's chances at retaking the Senate this fall.

It only bubbled to the surface in news reports after this week's stunning Delaware race in which Christine O'Donnell shellacked Rep. Mike Castle, prompting analysts to shift the state back into the Democratic column from the likely Republican pickup it would have been with the far more moderate Castle as the nominee.

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Bush Tax Cuts

Wiggle Room: Cornyn Suggests He'd Back Temporary Tax Cut Extension (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | September 17, 2010, 11:46AM

Are Republicans starting to see some wiggle room on a vote over the Bush-era tax cuts? Sen. John Cornyn suggested as much in an interview this morning on MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" by noting he'd back something that "temporarily" extended the tax cuts.

Cornyn (R-TX) said he wouldn't go with the Democrats' plan to extend the tax cuts for only the middle class - a cut on the first $250,000 of every taxpayer's income - because he views letting the ones for the wealthy to expire as a tax increase.

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DE-SEN

Cornyn: NRSC Sending $42K To O'Donnell (After Washing Hands Of Delaware)

Eric Kleefeld | September 15, 2010, 11:35AM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and candidate for U.S. Senate Christine O'Donnell (R-DE)

Remember all that talk last night about how the National Republican Senatorial Committee was cutting bait in the Delaware Senate race, and wouldn't waste its resources backing nominee (and conservative activist) Christine O'Donnell? Well now the NRSC has taken quite a contrary action -- with chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) announcing that the committee is sending her $42,000.

"Let there be no mistake: The National Republican Senatorial Committee - and I personally as the committee's chairman - strongly stand by all of our Republican nominees, including Christine O'Donnell in Delaware," Cornyn said in a statement released just now.

"I reached out to Christine this morning, and as I have conveyed to all of our nominees, I offered her my personal congratulations and let her know that she has our support. This support includes a check for $42,000 - the maximum allowable donation that we have provided to all of our nominees - which the NRSC will send to her campaign today."

A GOP source had previously told us that O'Donnell would have to prove that she is a viable candidate -- and her Tea Party backers would have to fund her -- before the NRSC got involved. This of course immediately sparked a backlash from those same Tea Party activists. But now the NRSC is getting on board with O'Donnell, despite the clearly long odds.

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DE-SEN

National GOP Looks West: NRSC Washing Hands Of Delaware After Christine O'Donnell Win

Christina Bellantoni | September 15, 2010, 12:14AM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

The national Republicans who whispered for weeks that Christine O'Donnell was unelectable are done with Delaware.

A National Republican Senatorial Committee source told TPM tonight that the party will be sending money and support elsewhere since O'Donnell, not moderate Rep. Mike Castle (R), is the nominee. O'Donnell, a perennial candidate who has never held political office, trails Democratic nominee Chris Coons.

NRSC officials say that if O'Donnell proves she is viable as a candidate in what is considered to be a blue state, "we would hope Sen. Jim DeMint and the Tea Party Express would invest in her race." If that happens, the NRSC would consider spending for O'Donnell.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Christine O'Donnell: Anti-Masturbation Crusader. Witchcraft Dabbler. Republican Senate Nominee.]

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AK-SEN

Joe Miller Warns DC Establishment To Stay Out Of Alaska During Vote Counts

Christina Bellantoni | August 27, 2010, 3:33PM

Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller (R)

As elections officials collect absentee ballots and lawyers descend on Alaska, insurgent Senate candidate Joe Miller has a message for the National Republican Senatorial Committee: Back off.

We've been closely following this Republican primary race, the results of which hang in the balance as Miller leads Sen. Lisa Murkowski by 1,668 votes and she's got nothing to do but wait. But the NRSC sent a lawyer to help Murkowski should voting questions arise as absentee ballots are counted, and a new report surfaced today suggesting the state party was secretly supporting the senator despite a promise to stay neutral.

Miller issued a statement accusing Murkowski of trying to "pull an Al Franken" by lawyering up. He warned the NRSC to stay on the sidelines, saying the party committee is intended to elect Republicans, "not to pick favorites amongst those running, nor is it to send lawyers to try to manipulate the outcome."

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NV-SEN

Cornyn: Angle Campaign 'A Work In Progress'

Eric Kleefeld | July 23, 2010, 12:02PM

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has admitted that work remains to be done on Nevada GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle's campaign against Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"We continue to work with them, but it's a work in progress," Cornyn told the Hotline on Thursday.

"We've been working with her campaign," Cornyn said. "We're still working it ....While running for election is not rocket science, it does require knowledgeable people. It does require some discipline and that's always a struggle for any first time candidate. While she's not a first time candidate, I think when you're running against the incumbent Majority Leader, this is the, it's the Super Bowl and they're gonna come at you with everything they've got and it would be a challenge for anybody to withstand the negative attacks."

The TPM Poll Average currently gives Reid an edge of 44.0%-43.1%, thanks in large part to recent Angle missteps.