Cornyn’s talk of bipartisanship a welcome tune

Michael A. Lindenberger says even as GOP senator credits Democratic leaders on new NAFTA’s progress, nobody embraces baby-step politics.

Much to his credit, Sen. John Cornyn has long had a habit of holding an anythinggoes conversation with news reporters from Texas every couple of weeks. The chats are by phone, and sometimes too brief, but they are on-the-record and usually offer an opportunity for a level of giveand-take not available in other settings.

On Friday, Cornyn shifted gears a bit and invited Texas’ opinion editors, rather than just-the-facts-reporters, to jawbone with him on issues he feels get ignored in the Capitol’s klieg-light-obsession with impeachment. It was classic Cornyn: two steps forward and a couple back.

Let me explain and we’ll see if you agree. Cornyn wants credit for bipartisan legislation he’s been working with Democrats to get passed. He deserves it. His results over the years have been mixed, but he’s long kept a reliable focus on moving legislation and working with Democrats to do so. When so much of Congress is locked in partisan battles, he offers a welcome reminder that even in the midst of all the fracas some members still try to right wrongs and make good policy.

I’ve been pretty tough on Cornyn, whom I see as one of the more disappointing characters in American politics. But let me tell you what he’s focused on now. Top priority? Passing the new NAFTA, something that has been hung up in the House by labor concerns. Cornyn is optimistic and reports that his closest ally on the cause is a “blue Dog Democrat” from South Texas, Rep. Henry Cuellar. In his next breath, he credits Speaker Nancy Pelosi for “negotiating in good faith.”

Can we stop for a moment and credit that, too? Maybe a decade ago that wouldn’t have been notable, but these days, working with the other party, and bragging to home state writers about it? Well, it’s rarely done. And complimenting Pelosi? Rarely seen behavior.

But Cornyn wants the agreement to be ratified, and the closer we get to 2020, the harder that becomes.

“I’d hate to see this become a victim of politics,” he said.

Legislation frequently does, of course. Take the efforts to reduce prescription drug prices. As Cornyn says, when the Republicans are for it, the Democrats are for it, and the White House is for it, and it still can’t get done, something is screwy. “But it’s the way things are here,” he added.

So Cornyn has teamed up with a Democrat on a small bill that would tackle socalled patent thickets, a legal approach that drugmakers use to prevent competition. Fixing that might bring the cost down for some drugs, and it’s hard to argue it’s not a good bill.

But it exemplifies the heart of what can be so disappointing about Cornyn’s leadership. He blamed Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer for blocking his bipartisan bill. Schumer knows there are many bills in play that would reform prescription drug pricing, and he’s holding out for more — even though the drug manufacturers have their knives out.

It’s an old play by Cornyn. He’ll sign on to a smaller bit of a major reform, and champion that — and when the other side who wants more rejects it, he’ll say they stood in the way of progress. Sometimes the other side is his own party, as when some conservatives wanted to go big on criminal justice reform — a bona fide Cornyn priority — and he got caught arguing for baby steps. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, stuck it out for the bigger win and hit pay dirt when the White House finally signed on.

“Sometimes the stars do align and we can do big things,” he conceded Friday. “But I would say in the meantime while we are waiting for the big things, I believe incremental progress is good.”

But sometimes incremental progress can look like a dodge. Take his gun control stance. Unlike many of his GOP colleagues, he went to work after Sutherland Springs, and his bill helped improve the federal database for background checks. But at the same time, he signs straight on to the NRAhoisted fallacy that the Second Amendment prevents any restrictions on guns owned by law-abiding citizens.

As a lawyer, he knows it’s not that simple. In the most important gun-rights ruling in a century, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote explicitly that the Second Amendment did not preclude reasonable gun restrictions. Saying it does is a dodge.

Still, in these times, just talking about, much less bragging about, bipartisanship puts a Republican heading into a red-state primary in unusual territory.

Maybe Beto O’Rourke’s oomph in 2018 has put some fear into Cornyn, but whatever the cause, I’ll score it as progress.