John Cornyn, R-TX

John Cornyn of Texas is another first-termer who’s already racked up an impressive record of diehard obstructionism in the Senate. He’s considered to be one of the four most conservative Senators by most rankings, and is a staunch ally of George W. Bush on practically every issue that arises. This is hardly a surprise, considering that he was the Texas Attorney General before running for the Senate, and has even more ties to Big Oil than the President’s daddy does.

It’s also probably why Cornyn has managed to land several key committee positions after only a few years in Washington, including serving as the ranking member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, on the Armed Services and Budget Committees — and, of all things, as Vice Chairman of the Ethics Committee.

He’s resolutely anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-worker, anti-healthcare, anti-environment, anti-choice, anti-education, anti-tax, and anti-civil liberties. In fact, he’s anti-almost everything except drilling in ANWR, building more border fences, giving big subsidies to big business, and keeping our troops mired down in an unwinnable war Iraq for as long as humanly possible.

Cornyn is famously argumentative and eager to go on the attack against anyone that gets in his way. He’s managed to offend nearly everyone outside of a small group of equally obstreperous far-right warhawks in just one term as Senator. That’s a pretty impressive record, though it’s impressive for all the wrong reasons. And it’s given him dismal approval ratings in the Lone Star State.

Whenever the Roadblock Republicans need somebody to lead the charge against anything progressive in the Senate, Cornyn is their number one go-to guy. And that’s why he’s got to get gone for good in 2008, before he does even more damage to the Constitution, the rule of law, and rights of citizens in America.