Democrats who want to run against Sen. Cornyn

Houston Chronicle:

The Democratic U.S. Senate race got off to a swift start Saturday as Houston state Rep. Rick Noriega moved to position himself as the party's presumptive nominee.

Noriega, who became the Democratic front-runner when San Antonio millionaire Mikal Watts dropped out of the race last year, made his case Saturday in a joint appearance before Sun City Democrats with one of his trio of opponents: Corpus Christi schoolteacher Ray McMurrey.

For Noriega, fending off three primary challengers without a runoff would be a demonstration that he has the political strength to take on incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, some political observers said. And it also would show the party's ability to deliver for a candidate, they said.

McMurrey, who has complained about the Democratic leadership rallying around Noriega before giving other candidates a chance to establish themselves, advised the crowd of about 100 to listen to all the candidates before making a choice.

He said he is running because he believes in an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, public financing of elections and a single-payer national health care system.

"This is not about who deserves the seat. This is not about who is connected to the party. This is not about the party bosses picking the next senator," McMurrey said.

Noriega spent most of his speech giving his personal history as a legislator who had served in the National Guard in Afghanistan. He focused his criticisms on Cornyn, ignoring McMurrey.

But Noriega appeared miffed when the moderator tried to limit his speech to the same 10 minutes that McMurrey received.

"After five terms in the Texas House, I'm going to take my time. I'm going to practice my filibuster skills," Noriega said, before speaking an extra five minutes.

Noriega later grew irritated with reporters who asked repeated questions about his primary campaign, instead of talking about Iraq.

"We had two guys killed the day before yesterday," Noriega said. "John Cornyn has to be challenged in a way that holds him accountable for his non-leadership. ... We take our eye off the ball all the time. This is bull."

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What a pathetic lot. McMurray is wrong on all three of his big issues and Noriega is wrong on Iraq in a profound way. His focus on the misfortunes of two soldiers where were killed demonstrates his lack of comprehension of warfare and strategy. Losing the war in Iraq would be much more costly than the sacrifice of two soldiers. It would empower a wicked enemy who wants to subjugate the entire world into his weird religious cult and kill those who do not bow down to them. If Noriega does not understand that, he does not deserve a seat in the US Senate.

Cornyn has been one of the best senators in Washington and deserves reelection.