Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, is hot under the collar because Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, mocked a coat he wore in his latest TV ad. Not fair, said Cornyn: that was a traditional Tamaulipeca jacket, and Schumer’s a racist for saying anything and he needs to apologize to the entire Hispanic community (including, we can only presume, Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, who is running to kick Cornyn out of Senate). So, nothing to do with the fact that he got completely destroyed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show this week?

For anyone humming along, the song in Cornyn’s ad spoofs Jimmy Dean‘s mining disaster classic ‘Big Bad John’. What may make music historians ponder is the way that Cornyn’s press people have turned a song about a “quiet and shy” blue-collar worker into self-aggrandizing bluff and bluster ego fluff about how a professional pol “Fought heathens and hellions” and “Kept Texas in power, made lesser states squirm.”

Funny, there’s quite a few Texans squirming at Cornyn’s cornball cowboy antics. Not least the strained rhyming of “more” and “foe”. For the full cringe-worthy experience, try the original Cornyn version.

This article appears in June 27 • 2008.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.