Sen. John Cornyn on the Low Road

This week President Barack Obama called the U.S. Senate’s 54-46 vote for improved background checks on gun buyers, which wasn’t enough to enact a measure overwhelmingly supported by the American public, a “pretty shameful day for Washington.”

As The Hill reported, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) responded on the Senate floor:

When good and honest people have differences of opinion about what policies our country should pursue when it comes to the Second Amendment…the president of United States should not accuse them of having no coherent arguments or caving to political pressure. The president could have taken the high road…but instead he chose to take the low road…

Cornyn’s complaint about being blamed for “caving to political pressure” comes two months after this New York Times dispatch from February on how members of his own party see him changing political positions because of political pressure:

Mr. Cornyn seems to be shifting discernibly right, as evidenced, Republican observers say, by his recent positions on everything from cabinet appointees to a bipartisan immigration plan.

Of course, Cornyn is already firmly on the political right and has been since supporting George Wallace as a high-school student. But to avoid a primary fight he needs to be even more obstructionist.

Does Sen. Cornyn actually understand how “good and honest people have differences of opinion”? Last week he made a speech on the Senate floor to explain why he wouldn’t even vote to debate gun laws, and FactCheck.org concluded, “Cornyn is putting words in Obama’s mouth that he never said, and then calling them false.”