Redstate

After Zell left the Senate, Coburn has become my favorite senator.

Hear Hear! Finally someone is being a Republican concerning fiscal discipline. The Republican leaders in the Senate are spending like drunken sailors. The Democrats' only complaint is that they should spend even more, faster.

We cannot continue to finance current consumption on borrowed money. The longer our deficit spending binge lasts, the worse the day of reckoning will be when our creditors deem us no longer credit worthy.

As pointed out in my diary on the economy yesterday (near the end) that one of the biggest applause lines the President got was about eliminating earmarks.

or the right candidates matters?  The right candidate made the "election" possible.

Who do we appreciate?  Tom Coburn.

Seriously, I live about a mile from the OK line and I may yet move over there just so I can have that man represent me.  I like Talent and Bond, but they aren't worth a pimple on Coburn's behind.   (IMHO)

Where the pork gets swept right down the drain...

And the pork-fed pols

In marbled halls

Are smacked with a heck of a migraine.

Who would have imagined that a Senator could rekindle my love of showtunes?

If he slaps Chris Matthews in the face, and challenges him to a duel, then he will be just as good as Zell.

that was poetic

Coming from Texas, I just can't let this go without a little joke.

Q:What is the slowest thing in the world?

A: A Sooner funeral with only one set of jumper cables.

but I give him credit on earmarks and fiscal responsibility- nobody, Democrat or Republican, with the possible exception of McCain, has stepped up and taken responsibility like he has on those issues.  I was cheering for him the whole time during the "Bridge to Nowhere" fiasco, a very strange feeling.  

It is a continual disappointment to me that nobody on the Democratic side of the asle has been as courageous as Sen. Coburn.  The two pork busters are both Republicans, and that bothers me.

Last August after I and my fellow FairTaxers talked to Senator Coburn, he became the first Senator this session to cosponsor S.25 - The FairTax Act of 2005.

Go to your Senator's Town Hall meetings and ask them to be like Dr. Coburn and cosponsor FairTax!

Thank God Tom is a Cowboy (Oklahoma STATE University)!

Peter Fitzgerald (R-Il) lasted one term, and he was

as concerned about operating from principles, and as apt to provoke the old bulls in his own party, as is

Dr. Coburn.

Will the malice from his own side of the aisle become so toxic that it grinds down the Good Dr?  Or so marginalize him (no committee assignments or co-sponsors, etc.), that he would no longer be an effective advocate for spending restraint?

Would that the Legacy Media lionize the Oklahoma maverick the way they have the one from Arizona.

Boomer Sooner!

furious

had to beat the establishment candidate (Mayor Humphries (R)) and relatively moderate Democrat Brad Carson.  Even in OK, he only won over Mr. Carson by a 11 point margin (while President Bush won by over 30 points).

That being said, Humphries would have won the general easily.  Coburn was definitely less electable.  But he won while running on an anti-pork platform (while the D argued for "getting OK's share of the pie").  Reward those who actually campaign on fighting pork since it's much easier to campaign for getting pork.  I recommend Mr. Ricketts in NE as a good example in 2006.

I followed the Coburn campaign closely (and ran my first blog following it) since I am an Oklahoman.  I am pro-life but not nearly as socially conservative as Sen. Coburn.  But I supported him in the primary and general because of his anti-pork work in the House.  His philosophy is that of a part-time legislator.  He term limited himself in the House and is doing so in the Senate.  He argues that the term limits let him do what is right since he isn't trying to stay in office forever.  If he loses in 2010, so be it.  He was going to retire in 2016 anyway.

Side note.  During the election season in 2004, I told the kossites on several occasions that I expected they would find something to like about Coburn before any of the other possible new Republican Senators (Thune, Martinez, DeMint, Vitter, Burr, Keyes, Coors).  And with the bridge to nowhere fight, I think that prediction was vindicated.

It may be a bit much for a left-of-center reader, but I highly recommend his book Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders into Insiders.  It includes his social conservative causes while he was in the House, but it is mainly focused on his passion: fighting pork and political waste.  Reading that book was what brought me around to supporting him.  It became obvious to me that despite his social views and his political foot-in-mouth problems, he would spend every minute of his time in the Senate to fight ever-expanding government and the pork-barreling that causes it.

"The two pork busters are both Republicans, and that bothers me."

As a fiscal conservative first and foremost, this has caught my eye too.  If Ds were trying to pick off voters, one would think they would try to appeal to some group that doesn't normally vote for them.  Anti-pork budget balancers seem to be a natural "good government" constituency for outreach.  Alas, it seems Ds are happy to pork-barrel just as much as the Rs.  At least Coburn and McCain (and Kyl I would add) have put some sunlight on the underbelly of the Senate.

It's OK, not IL.  He already beat an establishment supported Republican in the primary.  Actually he crushed Mayor Humphries something like 70-25.  And Humphries was the favorite.

He's term limiting himself to two terms so he has only one re-election to worry about.  The only possible opponents are REP Boren and GOV Henry.  But first they both may think about Inhofe's seat if he retires.  No matter what, Coburn will be a strong favorite for re-election.

My books-to-read pile is stacked way too high as it is, but with summer break coming up, I'm going to see how big a dent I can put into it.  This book (Coburn's) looks like it's worth at least a skimming, if only because anti-pork screeds by sitting politicians are so rare.  I'll just have to ignore the social issues part (lesbians inflitrating Oklahoma schools?), but some of the other topics look promising...

And you're wrong about which  potential R Senator would have provided the most to like- I would argue that a Senator Keyes would have been the comedic gift that kept on giving.  I wouldn't trade Senator Obama for the weekly laugh riots coming out of Keyes' press releases, but it would be close.  But then I'm on the other side, so maybe he's especially funny to me.

because I see the FisCons as a particularly low-hanging fruit, given the scorn shown to them by the current crop of Republicans.  If congressional Dems had the backbone to divorce themselves from the worst of pork-barelling, they could steal the mantle of "fiscally responsible" from right out from under the Republicans' noses.  It's good policy and good politics- that's a handy constituency right there.

the good breeding shows......

As I pointed out a few months back, for those who need a primer on the 2 major colleges in the land of the BIA:

OU gave us Anita Hill

OSU gave us Barry Sanders

That is all.

Please note the early and strong support of Tom Coburn by the Club for Growth.  So far, Senator Coburn is the best demonstration of why I've started routing my Congressional contributions through the CFG.  Way out here in the northwest-most corner of the lower 48, I wouldn't have found Dr. Coburn nearly as quickly without the CFG's research.

Texas?