What does Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank have against Texas Senator John Cornyn? For two days in a row, Milbank has published inaccurate or misleading statements concerning Cornyn and President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee.

In a story yesterday, Milbank wrote, “Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) issued the text of a speech praising President Bush's selection of Clement as the next justice.”

One problem: There was and is no Cornyn speech on Clement. Cornyn Communications Director Don Stewart tells me, “Several reporters called asking what Senator Cornyn’s response to a Clement nomination would be. I sent them some embargoed points on Clement that were to be held until after Bush’s announcement. If he picked Clement, these reporters were going to write a story on it and wanted some information for their stories.”

“Somehow, this information got back to Dana Milbank. First, he broke the embargo. Second, he referred to it as a speech when there is no speech.”

Meanwhile, in today’s column Milbank praises Democrats for what he sees as their non-partisan response to Roberts’ nomination. However, Milbank paints a portrait of Cornyn looking for a fight:

The Democratic acquiescence flustered the pugilistic Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex). He visited the Senate press gallery to say he sensed a Democratic "game plan" to defeat Roberts. "I'm just pointing out some troublesome signs . . . that I find disconcerting," he warned. But his evidence of this was thin: a Kennedy statement asking whether Roberts is "on the side of justice and individual liberties."


Cornyn, sitting on the edge of an armchair and revealing cowboy boots with a Texas seal, tried for indignation. "Judges are not to be on anybody's side," he said.

Kennedy’s statement reads: “The Senate's role will be to establish clearly whose side John Roberts would be on if confirmed to the most powerful court in the land.”

Stewart responded, “The senator was saying we don’t need to know ‘whose side he’s on.’ We don’t pre-determine judges.”