‘Big Bad John” Has a Staff Shake-Up?

Texas junior senator John “Big Bad John” Cornyn has a little problem.

Cornyn has had a music video made of him. I never mentioned it when it came out because I thought it would be one of those flash-in-the-pan events that everyone would be talking about for 24 hours, and then forget about it.

I didn’t know then what kind of legs this story has.

I first noticed it when the Noriega campaign posted its parody of the video on You Tube. Then Barbara Boxer announced that Rick Noriega had won her “Choose a Challenger” contest, and urged everyone to view the video. Then Jon Stewart aired his own Cornyn parody video on The Daily Show, “Big Jew”. Now The Chron has a piece about the ad, noting the stir it is making, but the Cornyn people are calling it a "winner"And finally, this morning as I was reading my email in another room, I could hear the video being played on CNN.

And they were all laughing.

On CNN.

Then next I heard about some rumors that there has been a shake-up in the Cornyn campaign, and that political consultant David Beckwith has been shown the door. Beckwith, it is largely thought, was responsible for the content of the video.

I guess when the laughter didn’t die down after 24 hours something had to be done. But there is no mention, not a peep nor a word about any of this from the Cornyn campaign.

You know, it’s bad enough when your own voting record is such a train wreck that anyone paying any attention at all to it becomes an embittered, vengeful voter. But now, when his own paid consultant takes that squeaky clean image and turns it into a lampoon, a lampoon that hits the airwaves from coast to coast, you have to wonder if Rick Noriega leads a charmed life.

I don’t think it could have worked out any better for him than if Beckwith was his hired mole.