President Barack Obama is too "detached and disengaged" to get anything major accomplished in the new Congress, according to the Senate's No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
"I just worry with a president who's so detached and disengaged and apparently disinterested in doing the grind work that goes along with passing legislation that it would be hard to do anything, impossible to do anything really big and meaningful and a lot of those things we really need to do," Cornyn told the Texas Tribune.
Cornyn said that Obama has never called him to lobby for legislation, a common complaint among lawmakers. Although, Cornyn said he has received calls from some Cabinet members.
"I've never gotten a call from the president directly," he said. "I've gotten some calls from some Cabinet members, which is kind of amazing to me."
Contrasting Obama with President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cornyn said: "He does not seem particularly engaged," Cornyn said of Obama. "I think of a model of a successful, engaged American president, like an LBJ - who had his own way of doing things, to be sure - but he actually could produce, working with Congress, produce results."
"What I worry about the most is that we're talking now about things like the Keystone XL pipeline which are important," he added. "But it's not like passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
Cornyn also took aim at another Democrat - House Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada - who Cornyn said did not allow for adequate debate of legislation.
"All of us have been enormously frustrated by being in the minority and by Harry Reid not allowing us to do our job and to represent our states," he said.
"That's going to be different. I think that it will be an enormous relief valve for pressure that's been built up over the last few years."
According to Cornyn, he and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will be taking a different, more bipartisan approach.
"I think there's high hopes that while we expect the first few weeks to be a little bumpy that I think there'll be bipartisan appreciation for the opportunity to actually participate in the legislative process," he said. "It's been a pretty miserable experience."
