How Rick Noriega can close the gap on John Cornyn

Both John McCain, against either Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and John Cornyn, against Rick Noreiga, are polling below 50 percent right now.

Especially with Cornyn being an incumbent, he and the GOP have to be worried about that.

Cornyn has vulnerabilities, beginning, of course, with Iraq. And every Democratic activist knows Noreiga’s story of National Guard service in Afghanistan, so I won’t go into the details other than to say this is a big wedge issue.

Cornyn’s also on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Noriega can hang the most controversial recent Supreme Court decisions, as well as the actions of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, on him.

Cost overruns, bad troop quarters, the horrors of Walter Reed, etc., beyond being connected with the stupidity called Iraq, can also be laid at Cornyn’s feet given that he’s also on the Armed Services Committee.

And, Cornyn’s failure to get an immigration bill through the Senate is a personal legislative failing.

Other recent votes up for exploitation include his opposing S-CHIP expansion, his opposition to federal stem cell research, and his support of tax breaks for Big Oil.

With anger over rising gas prices, that last one is a no-brainer. With the recession hurting incomes, so is the first.