Word just out that the No. 2 Republican senator, Jon Kyl of Arizona, plans to retire at the end of 2012. That triggers a leadership scramble, and speculation about a contest between Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander to be the next GOP whip.
Alexander holds the No. 3 leadership post, and he quickly announced plans to seek a promotion. But that's hardly automatic.
Cornyn is in his second two-year term chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee. That's technically the No. 5 post. But No. 4, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, is eyeing a presidential bid. That would take him out of contention, making it easier to see Cornyn leapfrogging up the ladder.
It's also the case that Cornyn, despite some tension with the Jim DeMint/tea party wing over Florida and other races last year, has more conservative street cred than Alexander.
Politico has a good handicapping of the Cornyn-Alexander tussle here.
"Sen. Cornyn's focused on serving the people of Texas and winning back the majority in the United States Senate," Cornyn's spokesman, Kevin McLaughlin, told me, echoing what he told Politico when asked about the speculation his boss will make a play for a promotion.
As for the Kyl vacancy, independent handicappers at the Rothenberg Report just moved the seat from solid Republican to "lean Republican," reflecting a bit of uncertainty about the party's prospects in an open-seat contest with no clear front-runner. That's the second GOP retirement announced for 2012 (the first was Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison) and Cornyn, wearing his NRSC hat, said in a statement that he's "confident that this seat will remain in Republican hands. ...It's clear that no matter who the Democrats nominate, that person will find it very hard to sell voters on the Democrats' agenda of reckless spending in Washington, and their failure to create jobs while driving our national debt past $14 trillion."
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/kyl-to-retire-fueling-chatter.html
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