This work is dedicated to the specific topic called “Annotated bibliography on a Texas politician”. It consists from summarizing and analyzing the information and thoughts, given in different works about this theme. The essay sheds light on the main argument of the life and bibliography of a Senator John Cornyn, who is a Texas politician.
Detailed overview can allow getting the main ideas, advantages and disadvantages of a big amount of thoughts and arguments. Our core focus will be on the determining main standpoints of such questions: what is the bibliography of this politician, his life and workplace and other. Thus, I am going to show and illustrate all sides of a Texas politician’s life through this paper.
As far as I am concerned, since November 2008 John Cornyn, who born on 2 February in 1952, take the position called National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman. The place, where he was born is San Antonio in Texas.
Strictly talking, Cornyn studied in the Trinity University (Texas, 1973), St. Mary’s Law School, (1977), and at last University of Virginia (1995). He follows the Church of Christ, however. History of his career includes many different positions, further still, they are Senate Republican Conference Vice-Chair (which he was at since January 2007), then Texas Attorney General (taking this position from 1999 to 2002), and Justice on the Texas Supreme Court (from 1990 to 1997). Thus, it must be admitted that Cornyn faced with difficulties, but they certainly did not stop him in reaching his aims and goals. It was only the basic dates and facts about John Cornyn’s life and way of being, but the purpose of this paper is to make a detail overview of this person, what I am going to do through this paper and notice below.
Cornyn brought in the judiciary of Texas a strong conservative ideology, moreover, a developed view of the U.S. Constitution. Indubitably, being a friend with the President George W. Bush, a politician was in fact one of the former president’s most ardent supporters on issues ranging from judicial nominees to taxes to the war in Iraq.
Cornyn seemed to be named the Bush’s judicial nominees in his first term; definitely, great challenge Cornyn faces now, being a head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 2010 election cycle with Democrats claiming as many 60 Senate seats, possibly, comprising a nearly filibuster-proof majority. Klein, Rick (2009) stated, “Cornyn was emboldened by 2009 election results that saw Republicans win in New Jersey and Virginia. Despite controversial moves that saw him back more moderate Republicans like Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) in 2010, Cornyn has stated the NRSC won’t invest any money in GOP primary fights”.
The path to power of John Cornyn is worth of attention, as I think. His father was an Air Force pilot who spent time in a German POW camp after being shot down. After coming back, he became an Air Force dentist, thus all the family, including Cornyn, moved around a lot – from El Paso, Texas, to Biloxi, Miss., to Washington. Consequently, he finished high school in Tachikawa, Japan. Then college in Texas, after which he should become a doctor, helped Cornyn to found that he didn’t have a passion for medicine and switched his major to journalism, taking in account the Trinity university. During the studying in law school at St. Mary’s in Texas, Cornyn meet his future wife Sandy.
Two years later, they married. Working for the San Antonio law firm of Groce, Locke & Hebdon, certainly, Cornyn defended a slew of doctors and lawyers in malpractice suits, which, however, shaped his judicial philosophy.
According to Falkenberg (2002), “His political career began when friends approached him at a Super Bowl party just before the filing date and encouraged him to run for Bexar County district court in 1984. Bexar County was heavily Democratic, but Cornyn managed to pull out a shocking upset”.
Moreover, during 1995, this politician wrote a majority opinion upholding the constitutionality of the Texas school system’s “Robin Hood” strategy of taking money from districts with high property taxes and using it for schools in areas with lower property taxes. The main Cornyn’s issues can be defined as proposing constitutional amendments to ban flag burning and same-sex marriage, and giving strong floor speeches attacking Democrats. Strictly talking, Cornyn was consistently conservative, wanted an immigration bill that was harsher on illegal immigrants than the one the George W. Bush proposed. In addition, it is said that Cornyn broke with Bush by criticizing his attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, for his handling of the 2006 U.S. attorney firings, thus he stopped short of calling for subpoenas of White House staff and e-mails, as well. Cornyn, being a proponent of a strong national defense, has followed the President Bush’s ideas about the Iraq war, in fact, advocating for a troop surge in Iraq and, further still, opposing a measure to set a timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal. Cornyn argued that Democrats are “advocating a policy of retreat”.
Eventually, Cornyn accused Democrats of playing politics with the subpoenas of White House aides. In fact, a politician criticized Gonzales, including the administration’s handling of the situation and even supported hearings to investigate the matter; nevertheless, Cornyn did not stop to oppose subpoenas of White House e-mails, and even testimony from Karl Rove and Harriet Miers. It must be mentioned that having a degree in journalism, Cornyn was definitely strong in supporting the Freedom of Information Act even before joining the Senate. Gonzalez (1999) has found that, “As Texas attorney general, he dramatically improved the rate of response for Freedom of Information requests, and he was presented with an award for efforts to promote open govern”. Later, in the Senate in 2005, Cornyn worked across the aisle with Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy in order to propose a bill to curb neglected FOIA requests. Definitely, Cornyn’s person is worth of attention, because he is a significant person in the history.