Web Posted: 10/20/2008 12:00 CDT

Cornyn focused on Senate race, keeping a high political profile

Stewart M. Powell - Houston Chronicle

AUSTIN — The closed-door meeting of senators was tense.

With a comprehensive immigration reform proposal hanging by a thread in the spring of 2007, GOP presidential candidate John McCain used a barnyard epithet to accuse Texas Sen. John Cornyn of trying to sink the carefully constructed compromise.

Cornyn, who was pushing a provision that some said would make it difficult for many unauthorized immigrants to secure citizenship, maintained his cool in front of stunned colleagues but did not mince words with his powerful and volatile colleague, who had just returned from the campaign trail.

“Wait a second here,â€