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WASHINGTON - Otilio Osorio was just 22 in October 2010 when he purchased a Romanian-made Draco AK-47 pistol in Joshua, just outside Fort Worth. There was nothing remarkable about the sale until the gun, with its serial number obliterated, was identified as one of three weapons used to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata on a Mexico highway four months later. Documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle show that at different points in 2010, two Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms divisions - Dallas and Phoenix - had evidence implicating Osorio well before drug gangsters gunned down Zapata...

First there was Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in his lonely quest to get answers from Attorney General Eric Holder about Project Gunwalker. Then Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) got on board and through his chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held hearings. Now Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is asking questions of Eric Holder as it appears Texas had its own version of Operation Fast and Furious. Below is the letter he sent to Attorney General Eric Holder today. August 11, 2011 The Honorable...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee gave $43,100 to Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch’s campaign, despite recent pleas from Tea Party activists that the organization wait until a Republican nominee is selected before supporting a candidate. New filings show that the NRSC also contributed the same amount to Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar, who is also facing a GOP primary challenge. That candidate, Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, also enjoys the support of Tea Party activists. A spokesman for the NRSC said its standard practice for the organization to give money to incumbent senators. “The NRSC would not exist were it not...

Bill - S. 1323: "Mr. REID introduced the following bill; which was read twice and ordered to be placed on the calendar" "Sense of the Senate- It is the sense of the Senate that any agreement to reduce the budget deficit should require that those earning $1,000,000 or more per year make a more meaningful contribution to the deficit reduction effort." The Final Vote was 69-27 in favor. 17 "Republicans" joined Reid in support of his Class War ideology propaganda game (a vote which carries not weight). 24 Republicans wanted no part of this (along with 1 Dem) So who...

Republicans would accept a "mini" deal with the Obama administration on raising the debt limit, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican leader, said. Cornyn said today on "Fox News Sunday" that while Republicans would prefer a long-term settlement, they would accept a shorter-term agreement if that's all they could get done. The U.S. Treasury Department has projected that on Aug. 2 the U.S. will no longer be able to meet obligations if the legal debt ceiling isn't raised

July 3, 2011 2 Republicans Open Door to Increases in Revenue By JOHN M. BRODER WASHINGTON — Two senior Republicans said Sunday that they might be open to raising new government revenue as part of a deal to resolve the dispute over the federal debt ceiling, but they warned that there was little time to enact a comprehensive deal. One of the senators, John Cornyn of Texas, said he would consider eliminating some tax breaks and corporate subsidies in the context of changes in the tax code, provided there was not an overall increase in taxes. “I think it’s clear...

A "mini-deal" to extend the debt ceiling for the short term may be the answer for Republican lawmakers and President Obama to reach an agreement on raising the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline to avoid a government default on its loans. President Bill Clinton offered up the suggestion during an interview Saturday night, and in the absence of any other agreement, at least one GOP lawmaker didn't outright dismiss it. "The problem with a mini-deal is we have a maxi problem. And these -- the big problems -- aren't going to go away if you cut a mini-deal....

Record labels are clamoring for a chance to have their artist lip-synch alongside 16-year-old YouTube sensation Keenan Cahill in, of all places, his bedroom. But could a proposed amendment to the federal copyright infringement law potentially land Cahill, or any person lip-synching copyrighted material in a YouTube video, behind bars? Senate Bill 978, a bipartisan measure introduced last month by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.), is backed by supporters who say it closes glaring loopholes in current copyright infringement law created by the realities of the digital age. “As technology rapidly evolves,...

Former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says the Federal Elections Commission has dropped a campaign finance complaint filed against last year her by the state’s Republican Party. Writing on Twitter early Thursday afternoon, the tea party-backed Republican announced “Breaking News! FEC dismissed the DE GOP Ex-Chair’s complaint against me.” O’Donnell’s Christine PAC did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. The complaint against O’Donnell alleged that she and the Tea Party Express had violated campaign finance rules barring coordination between PACs and candidates.

While the budget for the current fiscal year remains in limbo, Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, fired the first broadside of next year's budget debate on Sunday. Ryan spoke publicly -- albeit without many details -- about his budget proposal which is to be released on Tuesday. Asked about the scale of his budget's spending reductions, Ryan said they would exceed $4 trillion. "We're looking at more than that right now," Ryan said on "Fox News Sunday." "We're fine-tuning our numbers with the Congressional Budget Office literally today, over the weekend. But we're going to be...

Republicans in Washington are trying to recruit Joe Scarborough to run against Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) next year. Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), told The Hill on Thursday that he has talked to Scarborough a couple times about a Senate bid. And he indicated he’s still working on persuading the MSNBC host to run for the upper chamber. “I’d be delighted to talk to him a third time,” Cornyn said. In 2005, Republican campaign operatives tried to get Scarborough to challenge Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) in the Senate GOP primary. Scarborough passed, and...

WASHINGTON -- The new White House executive order on detainees at Guantanamo Bay has baffled critics, who say the administration needs to issue a clear decision on where it will try Sept. 11 terror mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. "I hope the president's new thinking on Guantanamo and military tribunals also signals a willingness to expedite the military prosecutions of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who praised the decision to restart military tribunals and hold prisoners indefinitely at Guantanamo. "The families of those who died have waited 10 years, and they deserve,...

Jon Kyl's sudden retirement announcement has set off a domino effect on the ambitions of several Senate Republicans.  When Senator Kyl retires in 2012, he will be vacating the position of Senate (Majority, most likely) Whip, in addition to his Arizona Senate seat.  Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (RINO, TN), the 3rd ranking member in the GOP leadership, has announced that he will seek the Whip position.  Senator John Cornyn, the Chairman of the NRSC, will challenge Alexander for that key leadership role.  Also, if Alexander vacates his current position as Conference chair, there will be a race to succeed him....

This is one award Sen. John Cornyn certainly did not want to add to his mantle. At a Republican-sponsored Hispanic Leadership Network conference in South Florida last week, Cornyn thumped his chest as a strong advocate for immigration reform. At the event, according to POLITICO, Cornyn "reiterated his commitment to overhauling immigration, saying a broken system serves neither 'our interests or our values.'" Cornyn said that "It is easy to be skeptical about the prospects of immigration reform when both the White House and the United States Senate have been in hands of Democratic leaders who make promises they have...

ENOUGH! Call the Congressional Switchboard and ask for your Senator's office. NO MORE OUTRAGEOUS SPENDING! NO more hidden projects and sneaky laws passed inside the budget. Tell them (politely of course) IT IS TIME TO STOP. This bill will cost $1.1 TRILLION. There are 1,924 PAGES. EACH PAGE represents $575 MILLION. There are at LEAST 6,488 earmarks. Included in this bill is funding for the beginning of the health care legislation. CALL (202) 224-3121 NOW!!!

Senator John Cornyn appeared on FOX News with anchor Bill Hemmer and hoped to discuss his strong opposition to the massive spending bill proposed by Democrats. Hemmer, however, would not let him escape without addressing Cornyn’s own contribution to the bill: $16 million worth of earmarks. Cornyn said he was in favor of an earmark moratorium yet considered his earmarks “individually defensible.” Hemmer rightly said “I’m confused.” First Cornyn described passing the spending bill at this time as “completely tone deaf . . . after coming off this election when the American people said very clearly that this runaway Washington...

Senate Republican leaders are taking heat for millions of dollars worth of earmarks they requested in a $1.1 trillion spending package on deck for passage this month. GOP Policy Committee Chairman John Thune (S.D.) and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) convened a Wednesday morning press conference to criticize Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for trying to speed the package through the Senate before Christmas. But Thune and Cornyn faced a barrage of hostile questions about their earmarks by reporters from NPR, ABC News and NBC News. “Going through this bill, there is earmark after earmark from...

Election? What election? "The twelve bills included in this package fulfill the Congress' most basic responsibility, to exercise the power of the purse," he said in a statement. "This measure reflects a year's worth of work by members of both parties. Together, we have closely scrutinized the president's budget request, held hundreds of hearings, thousands of meetings, and asked literally tens of thousands of questions to each and every federal department and agency seeking justification for how taxpayer dollars are being spent." Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, responded in a statement, saying that after neglecting to pass a budget, "today we...

In case there was any doubt, Linda McMahon’s political career may not be over.   The former wrestling executive turned Connecticut GOP Senate candidate has scheduled a personal meeting with National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) on Capitol Hill. The date and purpose of the meeting, however, is unclear.   “I don’t know what her message is going to be, but I sort of suspect she isn’t finished,” Cornyn said in a recent Roll Call interview when asked about McMahon, who garnered 43 percent of the vote in Connecticut’s recent Senate contest against Democratic Sen.-elect Richard Blumenthal.  ...

Delaware’s Republican Party both violated its own Bylaws and caused the Delaware Republican Party’s losses in the November 2, 2010, general election, a new analysis reveals. The Bylaws of Delaware’s Republican Party require in Article X, Section 1 that: “These rules of the Republican Party of the State of Delaware shall be in compliance and consistent with the Rules of the National Republican Party….” However, Rule No. 11 of the Rules of the National Republican Party states: “(a) The Republican National Committee shall not, without the prior written and filed approval of all members of the Republican National Committee from...

Roll Call: Sen. John Cornyn said during a closed-door meeting Tuesday that he expects colleagues to bring their concerns to him about candidates he recruits as National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman — and not to help mount challenges against them, Republicans familiar with the meeting said Thursday. Although not mentioned by name, the Republicans said the Texas lawmaker’s speech was clearly intended for the ears of Sen. Jim DeMint. [MORE]   Cornyn can save his breath. Challenges to Cornyn’s RINO picks are pretty much out of Jim DeMints hands. This is because the conservative base has become activists and is not going to...

John Cornyn took a lot of criticism for his handling of the NRSC, especially in the Florida race, in the 2010 cycle. Cornyn later admitted that he’d made a mistake in backing Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio in an open primary, and avoided picking winners in primaries through the rest of the midterm primary season. The end result was a pickup of six seats — enough, apparently, for his colleagues to unanimously confirm Cornyn as NRSC chair for another term:

(CNN) - Sen. John Cornyn is expected Tuesday to formally make a bid for another two years as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. GOP sources confirm to CNN that the Texas Republican will put his name up for nomination for re-election as NRSC chairman, as the Senate Republican Conference meets behind closed doors. According to the sources, the two-term senator is not expected to face any opposition in his bid to remain as NRSC chairman, and has already secured the support of a number of new Republican Senators, including Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rob...

Whadda-deal for John Cornyn... what did the kid get us in return? That's right... the same John Cornyn that tried -and failed- to screw-over Rubio in Florida by putting-in the fix for Sunkist Crist is now running unopposed... and Marco Rubio reportedly supporting his bid to remain NRSC Chairman! Predictably, conservatives aren't taking the news too well... Other McCain: Sen. John Cornyn is expected Tuesday to formally make a bid for another two years as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.  GOP sources confirm to CNN that the Texas Republican will put his name up for nomination for re-election...

Sen. John Cornyn is likely to sign up for another election cycle as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, say GOP sources. Cornyn has won plaudits from colleagues for his fundraising and the gain of six Republican Senate seats on Election Day. NRSC spokesman said Cornyn won’t make a final decision for another few days, but Senate GOP aides widely expect him to take the helm in 2012. Aides say he wants to help Republicans win control of the Senate, a realistic prospect in an election cycle when 21 Democrats — and two independents allied with the Democrats —...

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." The Republican establishment would do well to learn from William Congreve's famous line in "The Mourning Bride" (1697) and even more from the accurate reading of his line: "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." "Stop Sarah Palin" is the battle cry of establishment Republicans, according to Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei in Politico: "Top Republicans in Washington and in the national GOP establishment say the 2010 campaign highlighted an urgent task that they will begin in earnest as soon as...

The National Republican Senatorial Committee spent $3 million in the week before the election on the ill-fated campaign of Carly Fiorina, despite polling that showed her trailing by 9 points to the tiny Marxist Barbara Boxer (Fiorina ended up losing by... 9.8%). In the mean time, Ken Buck lost by a tiny margin in Colorado; Nevada's Sharron Angle lost by a similar narrow vote total, Dino Rossi was edged by Patty Murray in Washington, 27,000 votes swung the election against Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and and Joe Miller is hanging by a thread in Alaska. In Alaska, the final results...

*snip* Compare this with the House campaign body, the NRCC. After getting clobbered over the NY-23 race and Dede Scozzafava, the NRCC took a hands off approach and let local voters choose their candidates. Not the NRSC. It doubled up around the country igniting a civil war with the grassroots — a civil war that would have never happened but their getting into Florida and doubling down. The NRSC’s argument amounts to telling the world that voters exercising their right to pick their candidates are stupid and Jim DeMint is stupid for siding with the voters. One final thought —...

Be polite: Ask Senator Cornyn Why he has yet to contact Joe Miller and offer him resources and a legal team for the Alaskan recount to take place on November 10th? 202 224 2934

Here’s a quick round up of the latest developments regarding Joe Miller’s take on the uncomfortable wait for a decisive winner in the race for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat. The website Politicsdaily.com is reporting that Miller, in a conference call with bloggers Thursday morning, is imputing the loyalties of the state’s top elections official. It quotes Miller: There are a number of fights that are going to have to be undertaken, in part, due to the fact that the division of elections (is) headed up by the lieutenant governor. The lieutenant governor is effectively the same [as] what you might...

There is a singular event that shoved the Republican Senate car over the cliff. That event was the primary victory of Christine O'Donnell. This morning she used a phrase that is right on the money. That description is "Republican Cannibalism." I personally hold Karl Rove to blame, followed closely by Senator John Cornyn. Rove is an establishment Progressive Republican of the first order. Following O'Donnell's message of values victory in Delaware, Rove started slinging mud in her direction because he realized she was a woman that couldn't be bought & sold on a D.C. street corner. It was Rove who...

Long-simmering tensions within the Republican Party spilled into public view Wednesday as the pragmatic and conservative wings of the GOP blamed each other in blunt terms for the party’s failure to capture the Senate. With tea party-backed candidates going down in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada, depriving Republicans of what would have been a 50-50 Senate, a bloc of prominent senators and operatives said party purists like Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) had foolishly pushed nominees too conservative to win in politically competitive states. Movement conservatives pointed the finger right back at the establishment, accusing the National Republican Senatorial...

In a piece earlier this morning An Insomniac's Recap of the Elections, I wrote a brief analysis of the Nov. 2010 elections. During the ensuing discussion, freeper LS came up with a *very* important point which has been lost in the Palin-Rove pissing match by proxy. The relevant quote is:Some good points. I think in DE, CA, AK, and possibly CA, the races were NOT sufficiently nationalized. The feeling was to take it local, so O'Donnell kept talking about DE. Well, the House races for the most part were nationalized. And it showed. So the first rule of successful waves...

Let's not be distracted. If the Ruling Class cheated in Delaware, they must be held accountable. O'Donnell was going against all of the Democrats, all of Big Carbon, all of the globalists and all of the Ruling Class. It wouldn't make sense if they didn't at least try to cheat. I don't know how much of the outcome in Delaware was legitimate. but if there were anywhere the Soros crowd and others would make sure cheating worked, it would have been in Delaware to stop Christine O'Donnell.

Thanks Karl Rove. Thanks Mike Castle. Thanks GOP elites. Conservative Christine O’Donnell carried the tea party voters. She bested the bearded Marxist with independents. But, she did not carry enough REPUBLICANS to win in Delaware tonight. What an absolute shame.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Senate Republicans would "welcome" any Democrats who wish to switch parties and caucus with the GOP. Cornyn, the head of Senate Republicans' campaign efforts, floated the possibility that the GOP might target Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, or another Democratic senator if Republicans come close to winning a majority but fall short. "I think he votes like a Republican on those areas, and we would certainly welcome him or any other Democrat who wants to switch sides of the aisle and caucus with us," Cornyn said of Lieberman during an...

With Delaware’s Democratic Senatorial candidate Chris Coons maintaining a commanding lead over his Republican counterpart Christine O’Donnell, the Tea Party favorite cannot help but turn to the National Republican Senatorial Committee for more help. What’s ironic, according to ABC News, however, is that O’Donnell’s message to the national GOP is “strangely mixed,” as she is both fighting them and asking for their help. ABC News reports, “At the debate at the Wilmington, Delaware Rotary Club, O’Donnell ended her closing statement not with a message of party unity, but with one of defiance: ‘If you want a senator who has had...

As I write this, the $64 question is how to appraise the Senate race in Delaware. If the public polls are to be believed, then the race is pretty much over, although Christine O'Donnell in the two most recent polls has narrowed the gap to 11 points (Rasmussen) and to 8 points (The Conservative Journal) as of October 14, with 17 days to go. Apparently the NRSC believes the polls and is not expending any money or providing any significant help to O'Donnell. But ARE the polls to be believed? How accurate have they proven so far this cycle? Or...

Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell of Delaware is calling out the Republican establishment in Washington for not helping her underdog campaign. In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that aired Sunday, the tea party favorite said she has asked the National Republican Senatorial Committee for help but that the group is standing on the sidelines even though her Democratic rival, Chris Coons, is getting a boost from his party. A spokesman for the Republican committee, Brian Walsh, has noted that the group gave O’Donnell the maximum direct contribution of $42,000 and is working with her campaign. The committee is not...

Republicans might need one more election to build a majority in the Senate, the man in charge of the GOP's Senate campaign arm said Sunday. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told "Fox News Sunday" that his party will "fight for every seat we can possibly get" on Nov. 2. But with most forecasters far more confident about a GOP takeover in the House than in the Senate, Cornyn said the party might have to wait until 2012 to seize an all-out majority in Congress. "I'm not predicting we're going to get back the majority,"...

Presumptive answer: Because she’s down by 20 points and resources aren’t infinite? O’Donnell’s comments in her exclusive interview with Fox News followed an offhanded remark she had made in her ninety-minute exchange with Coons: “I’ve had to fight my party to be here on this stage to win the nomination, and to some extent I am still fighting my party.”…But when this reporter asked O’Donnell herself how she is fighting her own party, the Republican nominee was ready to cite chapter and verse. Tthe Democratic senatorial committee is running ads against me. The Democratic Party is running ads against me,”...

Two years ago, Barack Obama and congressional Democrats rode a wave of voter disenchantment into power. Many Republicans, even in some traditional strongholds, were swept aside. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was an exception. She didn’t defeat Democrat Tom Allen. She trounced him, 61-39 percent of the vote, a landslide victory political analysts attributed to Collins’ popularity with moderates, a standing shared by her Maine colleague, U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, also a Republican. Two years later, the same moderate image that protected Collins from the blue wave could make Snowe vulnerable to the red one advanced by the tea party....

Twenty. That’s how many rhino are being lost to South Africa every month through poaching. A creature that first emerged during the Eocene and lumbered through the aeons to walk the Earth today is being shot and hacked in numbers that are truly terrifying. The horn that makes it among the most distinctive creatures on the planet — the one we knew instantly back when the icing on Iced Zoo biscuits was applied with greater finesse — is also the mark that sentences it to death. It’s not as easy to get emotional about rhino as it is about elephants...

(CNN) - The National Republican Senatorial Committee blasted out an email to reporters Wednesday afternoon with the headline that Sen. John McCain has offered $1 million to the organization. The promise comes as the party committee is looking to pick up at least 10 seats in order to take back a majority in the Senate. NRSC Chairman Sen. John Cornyn praised McCain, saying, "It's very encouraging to see Sen. McCain step up and do this. Republicans have historically not done this like Democrats have, and that has been a real competitive advantage that they have had." (snip) McCain's resources are...

When Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) agreed to attend a fundraising dinner in Washington for the Log Cabin Republicans, many social conservatives were outraged. The group has long urged the GOP to be more accepting of gay rights, and some Republicans worried that the appearance by Cornyn, a party leader in Congress, would further legitimize its views. The senator not only attended the Log Cabin event at the Capitol Hill Club last Wednesday, he also accepted an award from the group, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to do so. After his speech, though, the group's president, R. Clarke Cooper, privately told Cornyn...

In a week in which the Republican establishment faced withering criticism from voters, perhaps the strangest turn of events occurred Friday evening when Washington insider Karl Rove declared his endorsement of South Carolina Democrat Senatorial candidate Alvin Greene. In announcing his unconditional support, Rove stated, “It’s become obvious to me that in 2010 voters are looking for unconventional candidates, and nobody says ‘unconventional’ like Mr. Greene.” Rove added that Greene’s opponent, Senator Jim DeMint no longer stands for what the Republican Party represents and has shown no loyalty to Washington. “It’s patently obvious,” continued Rove, “that Mr. Greene’s loyalties...

Cornyn: GOP's stance on social issues alienating independents A striking admission from NRSC chair John Cornyn, buried in today's New York Times article about the GOP and the Tea party: Mr. Cornyn, who has been on the receiving end of anti-establishment anger, argued that the Tea Party had helped Republicans in one important respect, by moving the debate away from social issues. While Tea Party supporters tend to be socially conservative on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, most say they don't want to talk about them; they believe that by spending so much time on those issues, the Republican...

There's still room for centrists in the Republican Party, the party's Senate campaign chief said Friday. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said relatively centrist GOP senators should feel welcome in the party despite the spate of primary defeats this cycle for similar incumbents and candidates by conservative challengers. "Absolutely," Cornyn said when asked if centrists are welcome. "People have to understand that this country is a big, diverse country, and not every region and every state is the same." "I think what matters is what the voters in Maine and what the...

Americans are asserting their right of self-government with enthusiasm we have not seen in years. Many have participated in public rallies like those during the fight for independence more than two centuries ago. Others have made their voices heard through social networks, blogs, and other technologies of the modern era. Millions have already participated in competitive primaries across the nation. They have made clear that if Washington does not change its ways, then they will change Washington this November. The midterm elections are only one way the American people are seeking to reform their government. Earlier this year, Florida legislators...