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Governor Frank Keating is the second chief executive in Oklahoma history -- and the first Republican -- to win election to two consecutive terms. First elected in 1994 and re-elected by a landslide in 1998, Keating has been one of Oklahoma’s most reform-minded and active governors. Under his leadership, Oklahoma has become a true two-party state, a Right-to-Work state and has made significant progress in education reform, tax relief, roadbuilding, environmental protection, economic development and public safety. Beyond Oklahoma’s borders, Frank Keating is widely recognized as one of America’s most articulate and able political leaders. Born in St. Louis on February 10, 1944, Keating moved with his family to Tulsa before he was six months old. He graduated from Cascia Hall School in Tulsa and attended Georgetown University, where he completed a degree in history and served as student body president. He earned his law degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1969 and became a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, serving in west coast field offices in a variety of duties. Among his investigative targets were new left terrorists. Keating returned to Tulsa and became an assistant district attorney. In 1972 he was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and in 1974 he won a seat in the Oklahoma State Senate, where he served for seven years, ultimately rising to the position of minority leader. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Frank Keating as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma. He was soon chosen chairman of all of the U. S. Attorneys, and in 1985 he was named Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, beginning seven years of Washington service that would make him the highest ranking Oklahoma in the Reagan and Bush administrations. Keating also held the positions of Associate Attorney General in the Department of Justice and General Counsel and Acting Deputy Secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In Washington, Keating oversaw the operations of virtually every federal law enforcement agency, including the Secret Service, U. S. Customs Service, ATF, the U. S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and all 94 U. S. Attorneys. He was also the American representative to Interpol and was chairman of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. At HUD, Keating joined Secretary Jack Kemp in cleaning up that troubled agency. Near the end of President George Bush’s administration in 1992, the President appointed Keating to the federal appeals bench, but partisan wrangling in Congress delayed his confirmation until after the 1992 election, when it was scuttled by the incoming Clinton administration. Keating then returned to Oklahoma and ran for Governor in 1994,

Great bio on Keating, and no doubt all true!

What isn't mentioned is his tendency to run his mouth without regard to facts or feelings. Examples are suggesting homicide to handle the teacher problem, calling teachers slugs, referring to a key state agency as "That hillock of patronage", etc., etc., etc.

Keating would quite likely have been in GWB's cabinet, perhaps even his VP running mate had it not been for his verbal diarreah. They used to call that "alligator mouth, hummingbird butt".

The other pubbie to hold the governors office twice, although not consecutively, was non other than Henry Bellmon, the senator who cast the deciding vote to return Panama to self rule.

Keating's bio reads really well, but some of the things he has said as Governor are beneath anyone as Governor. He also took a large amount of money from a drug company CEO as gifts to his children's education at $100,000 a year. All of this costs him the VP (couldn't keep his mouth shut about the fact he was on the short list), the cabinet, or head of FBI which he probably would have been a natural for. He just doesn't know when to keep his mouth zipped!