Daily Caller: Tom Coburn, The Thinking Man’s Ted Cruz
In praise of Tom Coburn, the thinking man’s Ted Cruz
The outgoing conservative senator from Oklahoma was capable of both befriending President Obama and outflanking most of the Republican caucus from the right
By W. James Antle III, Daily Caller
hen the new Senate is sworn in come January, Republicans will hold the majority. But one of the better Republican senators of the past decade won’t be there: Tom Coburn.
The Oklahoman was a rarity. He promised to limit himself to two Senate terms and then kept his promise, even though he could have easily won a third.
Coburn was a real citizen lawmaker, a man who was in his mid-40s and had delivered 4,000 babies — like Ron Paul, the congressman with whom he shared the nickname “Dr. No,” Coburn was an obstetrician — before seeking his first elected office.
As Andrew Ferguson observed in The Weekly Standard, “Among ‘antigovernment’ Republicans no less than Leviathan-loving liberals, our political ranks brim over with men and women whose careers began in second grade with their first campaign for hall monitor.”
Not so Tom Coburn.