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Friday, December 1, 2006

Hutchison & Cornyn: Too Close for Comfort?

By Tara Copp | Friday, December 1, 2006, 05:30 PM

Is Washington’s political stage getting too small for Texas’ two powerful senators?

Sen. John Cornyn’s office was just slightly miffed this morning to read on the front page of the Waco Tribune-Herald that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, had jointly announced they expected good news on Waco’s VA Hospital, that the hospital’s doors would remain open.

Keeping the hospital is huge news for Waco, something that Edwards had made a top priority ever since the VA announced in 2003 it was considering closing the facility.

During his campaign this fall, Edwards promised to deliver as the new Democratic chairman of the House military appropriations subcommittee on military quality of life and veterans affairs.

Only problem was, according to Hill staffers, all three offices were involved. And because of the political sensitivity involved, they planned to hold a joint press conference in Waco a few weeks from now.

But scheduling requests started to tip off the Trib, and yesterday reporter Dan Genz was pushing each office to confirm the good news.

And that’s where the polite tip-toeing got a bit more political.

Cornyn’s office Thursday afternoon put out a statement that didn’t confirm the news, but said he was hopeful a welcome decision would be made before the end of the year.

Hutchison and Edwards’ staff waited to see if there would be anything more concrete to report, and at 8 p.m. “got word from the VA on what it was we could actually say,” Edwards office said.

So they quickly issued a response to Genz - not an official media-wide release, which in this politically sensitive arena is an important detail. But they didn’t call Cornyn’s office back to get him in on the development, either.

They didn’t include Cornyn because “we saw their statement and they’d already spoken to the press,” Hutchison’s office said.

Edwards’ office was surprised that there would be ill feelings about the news coming out. “As far as we knew we were coordinating with everybody. All three parties worked together on this pretty nicely,” said Edwards spokesman Josh Taylor.

From Hutchison and Edwards points’ of view, Hutchison was chairman of the Senate’s military construction and veterans affairs appropriations committee last session, while Edwards was ranking member of the sister committee on the House side. The two had worked together frequently on protecting the hospital.

But that’s not how Cornyn, who’s on the Armed Services Committee, saw it. And on Friday morning the senator distanced himself from the other two offices by announcing alone that the save was official.

The elbowing between Hutchison and Cornyn seems to be escalating.

It’s not the first time this year tensions have risen between the two offices on who has jurisdiction over important Texas issues.

In April, Cornyn found himself on the sidelines of another VA story where Hutchison enjoyed similar leading press, with the announcement that the VA would not close Big Spring’s hospital.

This summer, tempers flared again, when Hutchison independently announced an immigration reform compromise - after Cornyn had been taking the lead on the issue through his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee.

“It’s not the first time” Cornyn’s felt that Hutchison is trying to take credit for everything, said a Republican Hill Staffer familiar with the situation.

Even in non-committee work, the two offices continue to get too close for comfort. They’re now No. 4 (Hutchison) and No. 5 (Cornyn) on Senate Republican leadership, and both have future political ambitions.

So who gets the press counts.

Cornyn’s spokesman Brian Walsh said despite the way the communications came about, Cornyn was excited for Waco.

“Senator Cornyn is concerned far less about how this news came out than with the all important fact that this hospital was saved and Veterans benefit because of a great team effort by all the parties involved.

“Frankly, its only natural that news as good as this will spread quickly.

“Now that both he and Senator Hutchison are in the Senate leadership, he’s more excited than ever to be working side by side with her and working together to continue delivering for the State of Texas.”

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