Cornyn’s silence on Trump is deafening

In these odd times, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is a canary in the conservative coal mine. Our state’s senior senator is a reasonable, level-headed Republican plagued these days in a party that gave us a president whose head often does not seem level.

Cornyn, who so far has been unwilling to chirp up about President Donald Trump, is among the Repubs who will go a long way in determining Trump’s fate, including in passing the president’s desired legislation and whether he finishes his term. When Cornyn and his ilk leave this listing ship, Trump’s sunk.

I’ve always thought the thoughtful Cornyn thinks Trump is an unqualified amateur at best and an incompetent, dangerous loose cannon at worst. But, like many congressional GOPers, Cornyn has embraced the notion that at least they have one of their own — sort of — in the White House and should be able to win legislative battles lost while Barack Obama was president.

So far legislative success has been elusive. And Trump’s behavior reached a new low this week with post-Charlottesville comments that gave comfort to racists.

Cornyn’s lack of enthusiasm for Trump was evident last November when he voted here in Austin. “I voted for, uh, Mr. Trump, my party’s nominee,” Cornyn told me, the “uh” saying a lot.

I asked whether Trump is “the leader America has been looking for for many years?”

Cornyn, knowing a wise guy when he hears one, replied, “Ha, ha, ha. I’m voting for Mr. Trump because it’s a binary choice, and I know Mrs. Clinton is not that leader.” Welcome, senator, to the unfortunate reality in which we sometimes vote for someone more for who they’re not than who they are.

“Well, we had 17 choices in the Republican primary, and he wasn’t my first choice,” Cornyn said of Trump.

I tell you all this to show that Cornyn is a Republican who never loved Trump. And that’s what makes him a canary in the conservative coal mine. It’s one thing for Democrats to assail Trump. It’s another thing — a more important thing — when Republicans start doing it. It’s time for Republicans to take sides: for him or against him. The time for silence or mushy middle ground is gone. From Charlottesville to Pyongyang, there’s too much at stake.

U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, is among the few in his party who have full-frontal condemned Trump for his comments post-Charlottesville. “Nobody should doubt whether the leader of the free world is against racism, bigotry, neo-Nazis and anti-Semitism,” Hurd told CNN. “I don’t think anybody should be looking at getting props from a grand dragon of the KKK as any kind of sign of success.”

I’ve been listening for Cornyn’s reaction. Would this be the moment he’d publicly express what I’m pretty sure are his long-held private concerns about Trump?

Two GOP senators did comment Thursday on Trump. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Trump “has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to be successful.” And Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said Trump has “compromised” his “moral authority.”

So far, I’ve heard nothing from Cornyn about Trump’s bizarre, backpedaling comments on Tuesday about what now, unfortunately for a great city, is short-handed as “Charlottesville.” It’s important that we hear from Cornyn on this. I emailed his press aide Wednesday and asked to speak with Cornyn or get a statement from him or be pointed to a press report with his response to Trump’s Tuesday tirade likening Confederate leaders who went to war with our country to the fathers who founded it.

Cornyn aide Libby Hambleton sent me this Wednesday: “Sen. Cornyn said the following about the violence in Charlottesville. I’ll let you know if I’m able to chat with him today about the president’s most recent comments.”

Attached was a Saturday tweet by Cornyn reacting to what happened in Charlottesville that day: “No place for the bigotry & hate-filled violence in Charlottesville. These actions should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”

I heard nothing more on Wednesday when Cornyn, the Senate majority whip, was out of the country, I asked again Thursday morning.

“He hasn’t been ‘silent,’” Hambleton replied. “As I said, here’s his statement from Saturday condemning white supremacists and the violence in Charlottesville.”

That was Saturday. A lot has happened since Saturday. In the Trump White House, a lot seems to happen since any given Saturday. So we know Cornyn opposes bigotry and hate-filled violence. That’s good. But where is he on a president whose comments on those detestable things have further divided a nation sorely in need of unity?

Cornyn’s term extends through 2020, so, politically, he has plenty of time to wait to see where Texans are on Trump when re-election time rolls around. But this isn’t a time for silence. Even a relatively faint tweet of derision from respected Republicans like Cornyn could go a long way toward signaling what’s to come for a president who has talked himself into trouble. And when a president is in trouble, we’re all in trouble.

Strategic patience hasn’t worked in dealing with North Korea’s erratic leader. Sadly, ditto for ours.

A final note, one brought into focus by Trump’s Thursday tweets in defense of Confederate monuments. He’s correct. The Confederacy and its leaders are part of our history and should not be forgotten.

That’s why it’s even clearer now that the University of Texas was wise in moving the Jefferson Davis statue from the campus into the school’s Briscoe Center for American History.

The Old South should not be forgotten. It’s part of our history. That’s why its monuments belong not in places of honor, but in places of history. kherman@statesman.com; 512-445-3907