Posted on 05/27/2004 6:30:01 AM PDT by wjersey
Dr. Tom Coburn, the plainspoken obstetrician from Muskogee, Okla., was back in Washington briefly last week. Republican senators greeted him with mixed emotions. He is their best hope for keeping an Oklahoma seat Republican in the closely divided Senate. The bad news is, he would be as prickly as he was during his six years in the House (1995-2000).
Coburn's problem is that he takes seriously the professed Republican agenda: limited government, entitlement reform and anti-abortion advocacy. He was a rare sincere GOP supporter of term limits, leaving the House after three terms as he promised to do. The result is scant support for Coburn from the Republican establishment.
That situation suggests the current realignment cycle in American politics is nearing an end after 36 years, with the Republican Party displaying symptoms of a nervous breakdown. The party's leadership, from President Bush on down, went out of its way to push the undependable Republican Sen. Arlen Specter to victory against a staunch conservative in the Pennsylvania primary because he was considered a stronger general election candidate. In contrast, dependably conservative Coburn gets no establishment support in the contested Oklahoma primary, though he is the best bet in November.
The Oklahoma Senate seat was safely Republican until Sen. Don Nickles surprised everybody by not seeking re-election. Nickles, Sen. James Inhofe and the state party apparatus got behind former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys. Conservative Republican Rep. Ernest Istook wanted to run but was squeezed out. The only problem was that Humphreys looked like a loser against Rep. Brad Carson, a clever Democrat who votes with the liberals two-thirds of the time but sounds like a moderate in Oklahoma.
With a Democratic victory in sight, Coburn on March 1 ended his retirement from politics. Without financing or endorsements, he had a 12-point lead over Humphreys and was running even with Carson, according to the Tulsa World's poll (taken March 26-April 5). Instead of generating support, those numbers intensified the establishment's determination to keep Coburn in Muskogee. Instead of raising money for him, the Republican lobbyist community whispered that Coburn was not solidly for Bush.
All this dates back a decade when Coburn came to Washington as a foot soldier in the Gingrich Revolution. By July 1997, Coburn had concluded that Speaker Newt Gingrich was no revolutionary. He was a leader in the unsuccessful coup attempt to replace Gingrich with then-Rep. Bill Paxon, now the only big-time Washington lobbyist who supports Coburn.
Coburn in the Senate can be expected to act much as he did in the House, when he constantly harassed the appropriators for spending the budget surplus. He would not follow the accepted freshman senator's model of spending his first two years listening and waiting. From day one, he would join John McCain in upbraiding colleagues over their insatiable appetite for pork. He would push immediately for Social Security and Medicare reform. He would make clear his unhappiness over the way the Department of Health and Human Services has been run under Republican management led by Secretary Tommy Thompson.
Coburn was so uncongenial to the go-along, get-along mood that characterized the Republican majority in the House that a conflict-of-interest complaint was filed against him because he went back to Muskogee every week to deliver babies. If he had to choose, he declared, he would give up Congress -- and the complaint was dropped. In his current campaign, Coburn spends two days a week practicing medicine.
In announcing his candidacy, Coburn took dead aim at professional politicians: ''I believe we have a deficit of moral courage in the United States Congress. We have many learned individuals who know what is right but have not the courage to stand against the moral corruption that is now attempting to undermine our republic.'' Tom Coburn is not running to be the most popular senator.
I don't read this article the same way you do. I read it as saying that the Republicans are not choosing their candidates wisely. . .in Novak's opinion.
"At" what ... telling uncomfortable truths? Are there any factual errors in the article?
That's just what the GOP needs.
I think he's right on target in this article.
"I don't read this article the same way you do. I read it as saying that the Republicans are not choosing their candidates wisely. . .in Novak's opinion."
I'm no fan of Novak. I think he's much more into being "Bob Novak" than he is anything else. He despises the Bush family and this President, although he does on occasion try to hide that known fact.
That said, I read the column the same way you do...and I agree with his view concerning Arlen Spector and the Bush campaign.
That said, I don't want another John McCain in the Senate.
Bullshine.
Search McCain on FR and tell us again how this guy would be "another McCain?"
So split the difference and run "another Bob Dole?"
The fact remains that we conservatives need more effective representation in our candidates. Our majority is made up of too many career politicians more interested in getting re-elected than fighting any real position based battles.
No, He is only analagous to McAnus, in that he eschews pork. Coburn is a Real Conservative.
Novak and his crazy desire to have the federal government not eat up all our paychecks. Just lock the loon up right now.
I don't trust McCain. Never bought into his schtick. Never believed he had the support of anyone nationally except the media.
I'll also point out his "big thing" CFR, has to date only helped the Democrats, and the far leftwingnuts of moveon.org.
Sorry, with "friends" like McCain, the Republican President doesn't need enemies.....
Did you read the article, or just the misguided comments provoked by Novaks allusion to McAnus?
Novak is clearly pointing out that Coburn is too Conservative for the rest of the Caucus....
So split the difference and run "another Bob Dole?"
Hmmmm. I don't know enough about the available "talent" in Oklahoma to say for sure.
I just know I'm very tired of the GOP Senate Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight. The performance, or lack there of, of the Senate Republicans is the primary reason I remain a lifelong registered Independent.
This kind of story reminds me why I never give money to the Republican Party - only to individual candidates.
With few exceptions, elected Republican officials are cowards.
Tom Coburn is only like John McCain in that he would oppose high spending. Coburn is as Conservative as they come (endorsed Alan Keyes in 2000).
That's exactly the way I see it:
Novak is pointing out the uncomfortable truth that our GOP congresscritters are little different from their Dim opponents in their appetite for pork and their obsession with re-election and the perks of office.
And that they see any man who behaves differently as a serious threat to their world.
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