John Cornyn (R-Texas)

Judicial Nominations and Attorney General Firings

When President Bush announced Justice John Roberts as his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Cornyn backed Roberts 100 percent. When the president announced former White House counsel Harriet Miers as his second nominee, Cornyn again was a strong supporter. And when that nomination failed, Cornyn criticized those who doubted Miers, but supported the nomination of Samuel Alito just the same.

He was a key Bush ally during the contentious fight over both circuit court and Supreme Court nominations, vigorously backing all of Bush's Supreme Court nominees. He said he thought Justice Roberts could "hit the ground running," and dubbed reports that he was a member of the Federalist Society as being "an overreaction." When Miers was nominated, Cornyn said criticism from the right was "premature," and he predicted a smooth confirmation process.

After a handful of U.S. attorneys were fired in 2006, allegedly for political reasons, many Democrats called for then-Attorney General Gonzales to be fired and for top White House aides to appear before Congress. Cornyn initially backed the administration from his perch on the Judiciary Committee, accusing Democrats of playing politics with the subpoenas of White House aides.

He ultimately criticized Gonzales and the administration's handling of the situation and supported hearings to investigate the matter, but he continued to oppose subpoenas of White House e-mails, and testimony from Karl Rove and Harriet Miers. ''I'll join Senator [Patrick] Leahy in getting to the facts and following the facts where they may lead,'' he said. But he warned of falling ''into basically a political witchhunt." He opposed the decision by the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold Rove and then-White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolton in contempt of Congress in December 2007.

Immigration

Cornyn co-authored an expansive 2005 immigration bill that was one of his few major breaks with George W. Bush, who supported a more lenient bill to allow guest workers to stay in the U.S. and work toward citizenship. Cornyn's bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), would have required illegal immigrants to return to their home countries before re-applying to be a guest worker or a permanent U.S. resident. The bill would have fined immigrants who didn't leave. Cornyn's bill was not very popular and did not pass.

Later, when he was working on another immigration bill in 2007, Cornyn got into a heated argument with Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) that involved cursing over a provision that Cornyn thought would allow criminals to become U.S. citizens.

The Economy

Cornyn reluctantly supported the $700 billion bailout in the fall of 2008. Before the Senate voted on the bill, Cornyn said, "I have serious reservations about asking those who played by the rules to bear the burden of those who made irresponsible and risky financial decisions." But when the bill finally came up for a vote, Cornyn felt like he needed to vote for it to protect average citizens.

FOIA

Cornyn, who got a degree in journalism, was a strong supporter of the Freedom of Information Act even before joining the Senate. 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 government.

Then, in the Senate in 2005, he worked across the aisle with Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) to propose a bill to curb neglected FOIA requests. The bill required FOIA-exempted provisions to be explicitly stated and mandated a response within three weeks.

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