Posted on 05/04/2005 3:38:32 PM PDT by Osage Orange
Doctor's Role Benefits Coburn
By J. Steven Hart
After reading "A senator first; Coburn has plenty to do as lawmaker" (Our Views, April 26), it seems the newspaper's argument comes down to this: Being a U.S. senator is a 24/7 job and seeing patients is a terrible distraction to other important senatorial activities like foreign travel, public forums, speechmaking and talk show appearances.
The Oklahoman, however, makes several curious assumptions about life inside the Beltway that undercut its claims. Having spent nearly 30 years in Washington since leaving Edmond, I qualify as an expert on this topic.
First, the newspaper is focused on the wrong question. It wants to define what "full time" means when it should be asking what makes an effective senator. The Oklahoman surely is defining full time as "24/7" in a figurative, not literal, sense. A senator obviously should not be required to stop eating dinner with his or her family to serve the country.
As long as Sen. Tom Coburn isn't skipping votes or ignoring his legislative responsibilities -- to the dismay of some of his colleagues, Coburn is one of very few senators who reads bills word for word -- The Oklahoman should ask itself whether it really believes seeing patients is less valuable than the other things senators do on the weekends.
I know a lot about how senators spend their weekends and, in most cases, their weekend activities have little impact on their effectiveness. Half go home to their respective states each weekend; half hang around in Washington with their families, even though placing family ahead of the rubber-chicken circuit can be harmful. Hobbies like golf eat up a lot of senators' weekends. It is hard to understand how delivering babies is worse than traveling on a self-directed PGA tour.
If anything, practicing medicine on the weekends makes Coburn a more effective legislator and a more attractive speechmaker and talk show guest. A good example is the asbestos trust-fund bill. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, Coburn is at the center of negotiations over a complex and expensive bill. His status as a practicing, not retired, physician gives him tremendous credibility when grilling witnesses and debating his colleagues.
During my 30 years, the most effective former senators have been Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, and Phil Gramm, R-Texas. These guys scared their Senate colleagues when they came to the floor to debate. They were willing to stop any bill, even a bill they supported, if it would produce a desired result. It's sad to say, but in the U.S. Senate, the nice guys are less effective over the long run.
The Oklahoman should be relieved that Coburn is already politely ignoring Senate protocol that encourages freshman senators to be wallflowers their first year in office. He is offering controversial amendments and espousing conservative Oklahoma values in speeches and on national talk shows like "The O'Reilly Factor."
Oklahomans have a rare gem in Coburn, a guy who will do whatever it takes to win, for all of the right reasons. If his weekend love is doctoring rather than fund raising, why beat him up? The state's largest and most respected paper should aid Coburn in his quest, not hand his opponents a set of talking points.
Hart, Coburn's attorney, is chairman and chief executive of Williams & Jensen, a prominent law firm in Washington.
He stuck it to the Oklahoman....And they needed sticking.
Then why do they take so many long vacation recesses?
-PJ
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