Posted on 07/30/2008 9:09:51 AM PDT by the anti-liberal
How afraid is the Democrat leadership of truly maverick conservative GOP Sen. Tom Coburn, who is waging war with Hapless Harry Reid over binge spending and secrecy?
They’re so afraid of his effectiveness that they are trying to kneecap him with bogus Ethics Committee complaints about his practice of not charging for delivering babies at the Muskogee Regional Medical Center. Coburn continues to serve as an OB/GYN in Oklahoma.
Jill Stanek read my mind: If Sen. Coburn were aborting babies for free instead of delivering them, he’d be getting awards instead of ethics complaints.
Contact info for the Senate Ethics Committee:
The Select Committee on Ethics can be contacted at 220 Hart Building, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510. Telephone: (202) 224 - 2981. Fax: (202) 224 - 7416.
***
From the Hill:
Coburn has come under new pressure from the Ethics panel for delivering babies at the Muskogee Regional Medical Center, which changed from a public to a private institution in April last year….
In May, Coburn received a strongly worded “final determination” memo threatening him with a Senate censure if he did not stop delivering babies for free….
Coburn spokesman John Hart… called the Ethics panel’s logic “absurd” and its argument “inane.”
“Just as parents don’t choose him hoping to sway his vote, parents don’t choose to receive his services at a particular hospital because Dr. Coburn has somehow endorsed that hospital because he is a senator,” Hart said in a statement…. “The committee has shown us zero empirical evidence to back up its flimsy claim.
“Has Sen. Leahy provided an improper endorsement to Warner Brothers for appearing in Batman?” Hart asked. “Will millions of Americans now see Batman not because it features stars like Christian Bale or the late Heath Ledger, but because Patrick Leahy, a distinguished U.S. senator, has offered his illustrious endorsement to this motion picture?
“If Sen. Coburn can only deliver babies for free at a public hospital, shouldn’t Sen. Leahy only be allowed to donate his notable thespian skills to a public entity like PBS?”
…Hart estimates that Coburn has delivered dozens of babies since last receiving an ultimatum from the Ethics panel in 2005. Coburn has received no compensation for his work and paid “tens of thousands of dollars” out of his own pocket for medical malpractice insurance and other costs related to his medical practice, Hart said.
Other physicians in the Senate, such as former Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a heart surgeon, voluntarily gave up their medical practices when they joined the Senate.
Coburn, however, wants to remain a true citizen-legislator and has long argued that the Senate should allow him to keep serving his patients because he plans to return to the practice when he leaves the Senate in 2016, consistent with his pledge to serve only two terms. He would like to keep up his medical skills if he is going to continue being able to earn a living in his chosen profession.
Frist, by contrast, had no plans to return to his practice when he retired from the Senate.
Asked about the recent Ethics Committee action, Coburn said he doesn’t believe he is in violation and will continue to fight any action taken against him.
“All I’m going to say is that’s a fight I would relish,” he said.
Hart said Coburn has no intention of abandoning his medical oath to his patients under threat of censure.
Reader Ray e-mails: “I would think the Democrats would want to praise Dr. Coburn, R-OK, for providing ‘free’ medical care as they hate that so many Americans cannot afford it.”
>>Did Leaky Leahy find out Batman’s secret identity in a early, early morning meeting with Commissioner Gordon so that he could announce it on Good Morning Gotham? <<
I think that was the part that was not shown!
They did show, however, him nearly getting his mouth slashed open by the Joker, for being overly bold and smarmy.
And there it is! These pro-choice people are so evil that they don’t want any babies to be born,they have to be under some evil influence to go as far as they do. 55 million dead American children because of abortion.
I guess I just don’t get the problem here. He is doing pro bono work like a lot of lawyers do.
Let’s hope OK people don’t fall for this.
“In May, Coburn received a strongly worded “final determination” memo threatening him with a Senate censure if he did not stop delivering babies for free….”
Senate ethics is a contradiction in terms. Our Democrat brethren are totally amoral, except when it comes to imposing demands on someone else. They don’t have the first clue about ethical behavior.
Coburn would be McPain’s best pick for VP, and he even endorsed McPain early in the cycle.
Nor do the hapless Americans who send these lame-brains to D.C. known any more.
Coburn is what a member of Congress should be. The Democrats hate him for derailing their gravy train. The Democrats think the purpose of government is to give federal handouts to people, who will in turn vote for the Dems at election time.
Dr. Coburn, my Senator, has committed himself to serve only 2 terms in the Senate. He did the same thing when he served in the House of Representatives, 6 terms, 12 years. He is up for re-election in 2010, and, no doubt, will be re-elected. But he will end his Senate service in 2016. After that there has been speculation he would run for Governor of Oklahoma but its only speculation.
When Dr. Coburn leaves the Senate in 2016 Senator Byrd will be 187 years old!
“
In May, Coburn received a strongly worded “final determination”
memo threatening him with a Senate censure if he did not stop delivering
babies for free….
“
I’m hazy on this, but I think the pukes were hassling Coburn even
when he was delivering babies for pay!
I think the claim was something like he violated some rules by getting
compensation while serving as a US Senator.
I remember hearing about this at least a year ago...it was just as
unbelievable as this current attack on him.
But the stinkers in the Senate have to do what they can to muzzle him.
Coburn delivered a really good speech on the Senate floor last Saturday...
basically ripping the lack of debate on the current omnibus bill
and the inaction by the Dems on increasing drilling (oil supply).
Anyway, the Dems have to hate him...he served as a deacon in a
Southern Baptist congregation!
Tom Coburn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Coburn
Washington, D.C. is an ethical septic tank, where people do the most shameless things to obtain and hold on to positions of power.
He "should be" killing them for free.
Frist is out of the Senate. There a couple of others in the House besides Paul.
I don’t really understand what benefit he is supposedly receiving unethically by this. somebody fill me in??
I still do not understand Coburn’s support of McCain...because Coburn is a real maverick while McCain is a faux maverick (and liberal)
That said...Coburn would be a great VP choice
McCain unfortunately will not choose him. Coburn is too pro-American for McCain
I think the Republicans should start running against the Democrat corruption using Coburn’s case.
Voice over: The democrats in congress have charged a republican senator with ethics violation. His crime delivering babies for free. The democrat congress never cared about these wrong doing democrats. One with $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer, several who received special low interest loans, one whose husband received hundred’s of millions of dollars in military contracts, a congressman’s whose home was turned into a gay brothel, a senator who leaked classified information which got several CIA agents killed, one who killed a woman in drunken driving accident and didn’t call police for 12 hours. They found nothing wrong with any of these actions. They find delivering babies for free to be corruption. Haven’t you had enough?
I like it!
What’s Coburn doing wrong? I thought the Dems wanted “free” health care for everyone.”
Good Point.
All of us have done something “for free” in our lifetimes.
I am a bookkeeper.
It is entirely my choice if I want to do something for someone and not charge them or reduce my charges. It isn’t anyone else’s business.
I hope the reasoning behind the ethics complaint is that the practice amounts to buying votes, not just being kindhearted.
Voice over: The democrats in congress have charged a republican senator with ethics violation. His crime delivering babies for free. The democrat congress never cared about these wrong doing democrats. One with $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer, several who received special low interest loans, one whose husband received hundred’s of millions of dollars in military contracts, a congressman’s whose home was turned into a gay brothel, a senator who leaked classified information which got several CIA agents killed, one who killed a woman in drunken driving accident and didn’t call police for 12 hours. They found nothing wrong with any of these actions. They find delivering babies for free to be corruption. Haven’t you had enough?”
Rebuplican National Committee has to look hard at this and use it, IMO.
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