GOP's Jon Cornyn Skips Out on Senate Stimulus Vote

Gotta love those highly principled Republican senators. Take Texas Sen. Jon Cornyn, for instance, a major conservative blowhard on the Obama stimulus proposal now before the Senate.

So when the cloture vote came tonight, a reasonable person might expect Cornyn to vote "no." But Cornyn was nowhere to be found.

Oklahoma's Republican senators, Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn, voted the wrong way, of course, but at least they voted.

Here's how Politico.com reported Cornyn's disappearance:

Cornyn was the only no-show -- except for Commerce Secretary nominee Judd Gregg, who recused himself.

So where was Cornyn?

"He had a long standing commitment and since it was cloture vote and no vote is like a "no" vote, he stuck to it," wrote spokesman Kevin McLaughlin in an E-Mail to Politico. "Obviously [he] is against [it] and will vote no on final."

We followed up, wanting to know why Cornyn skipped what we described as an "enormously consequential" vote.

"It was a cloture vote," McLaughlin replied, "How was it 'enormously consequential?'"

Three Democrats -- Ted Kennedy, Tim Johnson and Robert Byrd -- all suffer from infirmities that limit their mobility, but made it to the chamber for the 61-36 vote that cleared the way for an up-or-down vote on the package.