Posted on 10/26/2009 9:06:24 AM PDT by markomalley
For years, Tom Coburn’s lectures on spending have been met with aggressive resistance by fellow Republicans who defend their right to send money back to their home states.
But at a closed-door meeting of GOP senators this month, a tirade by the Oklahoman about the hypocrisy of using deficits to decry Democratic health care plans while voting for pumped-up appropriations bills was seconded by several senators.
If there was dissent in the room, no one voiced it.
“I don’t know that there’s another side,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who argues that Republican rhetoric on deficits is right but the reality isn’t there yet. “We’ve got to start living up to that with the way we vote. ... We’re going to have to start hanging together.”
To be sure, conservatives still find themselves frustrated by what they view as hypocrisy in GOP ranks when it comes to deficits.
One Republican aide recently forwarded a copy of one of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s floor speeches with a passage excoriating deficit spending highlighted. The point was that the Kentucky Republican preaches but doesn’t always practice.
But there are signs that the Republican political winds within the clubby Senate have shifted.
“I’m fresh off a very tough election, and the No. 1 issue was the fact that we’re spending way too much money in Washington,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican who was forced into a runoff before winning reelection to a second term in 2008.
Chambliss added his voice to those of Coburn and Thune at the Steering Committee session, although he characterized his anti-spending sentiments as more general than Coburn’s.
Conservatives say the episode at the senators-only meeting is just the latest sign that things are moving in their direction — if incrementally.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I’d be interested to hear his other faults. As of now, I would like to see him run for President someday. Enlighten me!
And what would those be - especially in comparison to most of the other GOP senators?
Good for Coburn (despite his other faults).
i’m all ears, what’s on your mind...
Anybody in DC for 15 years is going to have faults. On balance, I agree with most of his positions (the one exception I can see is that I understand he recanted on his position on Iraq)...but all politicians have faults...particularly after 15 years in the swamp.
Good for Saxby Chambliss, too. He’s my Senator and I email him regularly. I get email responses too, not just the auto-reply.
Like that's gonna happen.
Spending is why I didn’t vote for Bush the second time or McCain last time. It is a trend and they better pay attention.
Thune should start with himself. One of his first acts after being elected was to hold an important bill hostage until Bush agreed to keep open an unneeded Air Force base open. I soured on him right there.
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