Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) recently sat down for an interview with The Texas Tribune during which he expressed his worry that President Obama is too “detached and disengaged” to actually get meaningful legislation passed in Washington.
“I just worry with a president who’s so detached and disengaged and apparently disinterested in doing the grind work that goes along with passing legislation that it would be hard to do anything, impossible to do anything really big and meaningful and a lot of those things we really need to do,” explained Cornyn.
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He cited that for the Keystone XL pipeline as a prime example of legislation that may not be easily passed under Obama.
“What I worry about the most is that we’re talking now about things like the Keystone XL pipeline which are important, but it’s not like passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Cornyn worried.
The White House said Tuesday that, should a bill authorizing the Keystone XL’s construction pass Congress, Obama would veto it.
Cornyn didn’t save all of his criticism for the president, though. He also has a soft spot of disdain for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who is currently recovering at home from an alleged exercising accident.
He characterized his time as minority whip while Reid served as majority leader as “a pretty miserable experience.”
“All of us have been enormously frustrated by being in the minority and by Harry Reid not allowing us to do our job and to represent our states,” the Texas senator added.
But, now that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) holds control, Cornyn is optimistic.
“I think there’s high hopes that while we expect the first few weeks to be a little bumpy that I think there’ll be bipartisan appreciation for the opportunity to actually participate in the legislative process,” Cornyn explained.
