Leadership Quote by John Cornyn

“When it rains, it pours” is the kind of folksy proverb politicians love because it feels like wisdom while saying almost nothing specific. Cornyn’s add-on, “figuratively and literally,” is doing the real work: it tries to preempt the eye-roll. He’s signaling that he knows the phrase is a cliche, but he’s going to use it anyway because cliches are useful in politics. They sound like common sense, and common sense is a shortcut to credibility.

The intent is usually damage control for a narrative of compounding problems. By framing events as a sudden downpour, Cornyn shifts the story from “someone mismanaged this” to “this is what happens sometimes.” Rain is impersonal; it doesn’t pick targets or assign blame. That’s a subtle rhetorical move that launders accountability, especially when the “pouring” refers to political setbacks, bad headlines, or crises piling up.

The “literally” also hints at a context where actual weather, disasters, or infrastructure failure is in the mix. That lets him bridge the emotional register between metaphorical chaos (Washington dysfunction, a campaign spiral) and material stakes (flooding, storms, emergencies). It’s a neat bit of double exposure: you can hear it as a wry aside if you’re following politics closely, or as a grounded acknowledgment if you’re living through the real-world consequences.

The subtext: things are out of control, but not necessarily because of us. And if it sounds like a dad joke, that’s not accidental; corny can be a shield.