John Cornyn

I don't really think it's appropriate for me to be picking and choosing in the primaries. It's pretty dumb politics for a Republican to choose between Republicans in a contested primary because obviously you're going to be offending some people.

Nothing makes the minority leader more mad than when his side is forced to play by its own rules.

It doesn't hurt to show some empathy.

Why is it that half of the households in America pay zero income tax? We need some real tax reform.

And if you like 14.4 percent unemployment, if you like the fact that 70 percent of home mortgages in Nevada are underwater, then stay the course. Vote for Harry Reid.

But I think the - what the tea party movement demonstrates, and I think the, the, the enthusiasm that we're seeing from independents and Republicans, is that if Washington isn't going to change itself, then we're going to change Washington. And I think that's what we're seeing.

But last year there were 540,000 people, roughly, detained coming across the border illegally. Forty-five thousand of them came from countries other than Mexico, demonstrating the fact that Mexico itself now is a pathway into the United States for people all around the world, and we don't know what their intentions are.

I don't know whether John Roberts has a twin, perhaps a sister or, uh, someone with a Hispanic last name.

If there is a nuclear tactic being used here, I submit it is the use of that obstruction where a willful minority blocks a bipartisan majority from voting on the President's judicial nominees.

I am pleased to report that Texas is known for having one of the strongest set of open government laws in our Nation. And ever since that experience, I have long believed that our federal government could use 'a little Texas sunshine.'

The enemy is not just terrorism. It is the threat posed specifically by Islamist terrorism, by Bin Ladin and others who draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within a minority strain of Islam that does not distinguish politics from religion, and distorts both.

Justices are not politicians. They don't run on a political platform, and senators should not ask them to do so.

Those who feel a little insecure about our border have some reason to feel that way.

I don't know what 'operational control' of the border means, but I do understand the English language. And as I understand that phrase, that's not true. We do not have operational control.

The enemy is not Islam, the great world faith, but a perversion of Islam.

I think many people simply feel like they don't recognize their country anymore.

I think that what people want is for government to function... not through temper tantrums and saying we are not going to participate, we are not going to play ball.

When it rains, it pours - figuratively and literally.

We need a straitjacket around Congress when it comes to spending so that they are forced to do what 49 states are required to do and what every family business and every family is required to do, and that's live within their means.

My goal has always been to figure out how we can advance the conservative cause.