When a citizen goes to Congress...

[underdog]

My opinion that the greatest fault in our government is the fact that Congress is mostly comprised of career politicians and not enough citizen legislators was reaffirmed this week by freshman Sen. Tom Coburn.

A genuine Okie from Muskogee, Coburn told folks when he campaigned that he wasn't going to Washington to spend the rest of his life. He wants to change the manner in which we govern. He also said he wasn't going to be cast in the role of a 'freshman senator' and not provide equal representation to his constituents.

He picked a fight with the good ole boys of the Senate this week right out in front of God, cameras and the public. He had the audacity to attempt to knock out pork from legislation in the public eye. This just isn't done because it is too embarrassing. The gentlemen and gentlewomen of the Senate just aren't supposed to behave this way.

Coburn got soundly pummeled, even by the other OK senator James Inhoffe when the freshman senator tried to knock out some "special projects" from a spending bill, including $500,000 for a sculpture garden at a Seattle art museum and another $950,000 for a parking lot at an art museum in Nebraska.

After the good ole boys ganged up on him and beat him bloody, Coburn came back after lunch and picked a bigger fight. He introduced legislation that would redirect spending from the infamous $223 million Alaskan 'bridge to nowhere' to help rebuild the interstate bridge between New Orleans and Slidell that was destroyed by Katrina.

Republican Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska got so mad he told the Senate that he would resign if they passed this measure. Fat chance! Stevens is the Republican that has taken over Sen. Byrd's title of 'King of Pork' since the Republicans have taken over the Senate.

I'm writing a note of encouragement to Coburn this morning. We need more men like Coburn in government.

[boysda]

props to him.

i have mixed feelings on the issue, though. you're abolutely right that many of the career guys get corrupted and jaded by the power. on the other hand, government has become such a massive, byzantine machine, that it almost takes a career to understand and influence it. career bureaucrats can run circles around a "newbie".

not certain if we're better off with a government run by career politicians (with some accountability to the electorate) or career bureaucrats protected by civil service who have accountability to no one.

[cardeer]

I think they all should wear 6 shooters.We cant vote the bad ones out ,they can eliminate themselves

[underdog]

I posted this after reading an article in the Daily Oklahoman. After posting I decided to search Coburn's name and see if this was making news anywhere other than his home state.

Many favorable articles by professional politick watchers. One that is a must read for the Bush bashers who eschew him for the deficit is an opinion piece on Townhall this am. It's written by Mark Tapscott of the Heritage Foundation. It contains a plain-talk description of why we have a larger than necessary deficit.

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/marktapscott/2005/10/22/172467.html

Another from Investor's Business Daily.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20051020/bs_ibd_ibd/20051020issues01

Encouraging that while Coburn's propsal was defeated, a dozen brave senators stood with him and this concept of Congressional logrolling is being picked up by the media and called to the attention of the mostly asleep voting public. With mid-term elections coming up, we should all be watching our elected officials right now and see who is willing to give up pork for real national priorities.

[CalHunter]

Encouraging that while Coburn's propsal was defeated, a dozen brave senators stood with him and this concept of Congressional logrolling is being picked up by the media and called to the attention of the mostly asleep voting public. With mid-term elections coming up, we should all be watching our elected officials right now and see who is willing to give up pork for real national priorities.

I agree and it's good to see that other senators are thinking like Coburn.

[underdog]

Coburn already had the career politician's feathers ruffled last week before the fight on the floor.

The Senate had voted to forego their automatic pay raise for FY 06 and direct the money to the Katrina efforts. While they were twisting their arms out of joint patting themselves on the back for this magnanimous act of benevolence, Coburn had this to say.

"œCharity requires sacrifice "“ a lesson the American people have taken to heart and one I"™m glad to see the Congress is finally learning. I"™m encouraged that my Senate colleagues today rejected their automatic pay raise to put the money toward hurricane costs."�

And then he followed with, "œIn fact, Congress should not receive another pay increase until members have balanced the budget. It is unacceptable for Congress to give itself a pay raise when members have been unable to perform the duties they were elected to do, which include balancing the budget."�

I really like this guy.

[CalHunter]

Me too.

[underdog]

The senators who voted with Coburn to redirect funds from the Alaskan bridge to NO were:

YEAs ---15
Allard (R-CO); Allen (R-VA); Bayh (D-IN); Burr (R-NC); Coburn (R-OK); Conrad (D-ND); DeMint (R-SC); DeWine (R-OH); Feingold (D-WI); Graham (R-SC); Kyl (R-AZ); Landrieu (D-LA); Sessions (R-AL); Sununu (R-NH; ); Vitter (R-LA)

One of the most widely read consevative blogs The Captain's Quarters run by Ed Morrisey has some comments worth reading. He calls attention to how Repub senators have deserted their party's conservative platform to further personal agendas.

From the Captain's Quarters:

A Moment Of Clarity

Fifteen votes out of a hundred.

I haven't written much about the failure of the Coburn Amendment until today, although it has been the topic of some excellent writing in the blogosphere. Start with Mark Tapscott and work your way outward. The only demand that Tom Coburn made of his fellow Senators was to redirect a couple of pork projects from a list of 14,000 towards the rebuilding of New Orleans, rather than go out and look for new revenues -- in other words, new taxes.

What happened when Coburn asked this sacrifice of the Upper Chamber? Hissy fits and threats. As John at Power Line remarked to me in a conversation, whenever Patty Murray and Ted Stevens find themselves on the same side of an issue, the only thing that it can be about is money. Murray stood up and threatened any Senator who dared to vote to kill a couple of pork projects would have their state stripped of any federal programs she and the Appropriations Committee could find. Stevens got up on the floor and bombastically threatened to resign - as if that would be some great loss, with his focus on how to shower Alaskans with federal largesse.

Neither one of them recognized the ghoulishness of insisting on building a $228 million bridge that will service 50 people -- fifty people who already use a ferry to cross to the mainland now -- when we need money to rebuild bridges destroyed in New Orleans that get much more use now than 50 people living voluntarily on an island.
The GOP, which has campaigned on financial responsibility and reining in government spending, should have used this as their moment to take a stand for common sense and a reduction in the government's bite. We asked them to do support the Coburn Amendment to show us that they haven't forgotten that pledge.

What did we get? Fifteen votes out of a hundred. Twleve votes out of 55 Republicans. Of the GOP presidential hopefuls, only George Allen supported Coburn. The rest either couldn't be bothered to show up (McCain) or outright voted against it (Frist, Coleman, Reed, Dole).

We worked our butts off to get a GOP majority in both houses of Comgress for better fiscal management -- and yet in one simple test, only 12 of them vote to support their supposed party platform.

So now we have GOP majorities and capture the White House but can't cut pork, can't confirm conservative attorneys on the Supreme Court, and open up new entitlement programs worth billions of dollars for prescription medication?

Talk about a moment of clarity.