John Cornyn Over Lamar Alexander for Senate Whip

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.

For most of the past few months, we have focused on the House and its committee and leadership structure.  As jarring as the flaws of the Republican leadership in the House are, the Senate is much worse.  It is therefore imperative that we begin pressuring Republicans to make the right leadership choices in 2012.  This will be especially cogent as the GOP is likely to gain control over the Senate. 


Being that the Whip is charged with rounding up the necessary votes for our side, it is vital that the new Whip vote the right way in the first place.  Ideally, we would want somebody in the mold of Jim DeMint or Jeff Sessions.  However, if it becomes a choice between Lamar Alexander and John Cornyn, as it appears to be, the decision is simple.  Although John Cornyn is far from perfect, Lamar Alexander is a RINO who has no business representing such a conservative state to begin with, much less serve in leadership.  Let's compare their voting records.



Here is a list of major votes over the past few years in which much of the Republican Conference was split between those voting with the Democrats and those voting with conservatives.  A vote that is highlighted green indicates a vote with conservatives.  A red mark indicates a vote with the Democrats.  As you can see, Lamar Alexander is only one step above Olympia Snowe.  He has an especially egregious record as it relates to corporate cronyism and the bailouts.

We need to begin our battle for the Senate leadership before the 2012 elections.  A good start would be an unambiguous declaration: No Lamar Alexander for Whip!  Then, we ought to focus on unseating him in 2014.

 

Legislation	John Cornyn	Lamar Alexander
START Treaty	No	Yes
DADT Repeal	No	No
FDA Food Safety Bill	No	Yes
Audit the Fed-Vitter AMDT	Yes	No
Reform of Freddie and Fannie-Ensign AMDT	Yes	No
DOI approps 2009	No	Yes
Cash for Clunkers	No	Yes
2009 Approps for HUD and DOT	No	Yes
Travel Promotion Act of 2009	No	Yes
Confirmation Sonia Sotomayor	No	Yes
Earmark Moratorium-DeMint AMDT (motion to table)	No	Yes
Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act	Yes	No
DeMint AMDT- strike excess funding of IMF	Yes	No
Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2009	Yes	No
Helping Families Save Their Homes Act	Yes	Yes
End Auto Bailouts-DeMint AMDT	Yes	No
Serve America Act 2009	No	Yes
Prohibit Eminent Domain AMDT- (Motion to table)	No	Yes
David Ogden Confirmation (deputy AG)	No	Yes
Hilda Solis Confirmation	No	Yes
Eric Holder Confirmation	No	Yes
SChip Expansion of 2009	No	Yes
Confirmation of Geithner	Yes	No
Free Choice to Unionize-DeMint AMDT (motion to table)	No	Yes
Republican Resolution Capping TARP	Yes	No
Fair Pay Act of 2009 (cloture motion)	No	Yes
Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009	No	Yes
TARP	Yes	Yes
Mortgage Bailout	No	Yes
Override Bush’s Veto of Farm Bill of 2008	No	Yes
2007 Ban of Incandescent Light bulb	No	Yes
Embryonic Stem Cell Research Funding of 2007	No	Yes