Tom Coburn

Tom Coburn
United States Senator from Oklahoma
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2005 Serving with Jim Inhofe
Preceded by	Don Nickles
Succeeded by	Incumbent (2011)
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma's 2nd district
In office January 4, 1995 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Mike Synar
Succeeded by	Brad Carson
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Carolyn Coburn
Alma mater	Oklahoma State University

Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn, M.D. (born March 14, 1948) is a medical doctor and a Republican U.S. Senator from Oklahoma.

Early life and career

Coburn was born in Casper, Wyoming to Anita Joy Allen and Orin Wesley Coburn, and graduated with a B.S. in accounting from Oklahoma State University. In 1968, he married Carolyn Denton; their three daughters are Callie, Katie, and Sarah. After recovering from a case of malignantmelanoma Coburn pursued a medical doctorate and graduated from the University of Oklahoma Medical School in 1983. He then opened a medical practice in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and served as a deacon in a Southern Baptist Church. Coburn is one of only two licensed doctors currently serving in the US Senate. During his career in obstetrics, he has treated over 15,000 patients and delivered 4,000 babies and was subject to one malpractice lawsuit.

In 1994 he ran for the House of Representatives in Oklahoma's heavily Democratic 2nd Congressional District, which was based in Muskogee and included 22 counties in northeastern Oklahoma. Coburn initially expected to face eight-term incumbent Mike Synar. However, Synar was defeated in a runoff for the Democratic nomination by 71-year-old retired principal, Virgil Cooper. According to Breach of Trust, Coburn and Cooper got along very well and both had a dislike for the liberal Mike Synar. The general election was very cordial since both men knew Synar would not be returning to Washington regardless of the outcome. Coburn won by a 52%–48% margin, becoming the first Republican to represent the district since 1921.

Political career

House career

Coburn was considered one of the "true believers" in the Republican freshman class of 1995, and was one of the most conservative members of the House. He supported reducing the size of the federal budget and opposed abortion and supported the proposed V-chip legislation.

Despite representing a heavily Democratic district, Coburn was reelected in 1996 (even as Bill Clinton easily carried the district) and 1998 without difficulty.

While he served in the House, he earned a reputation as a maverick due to his frequent battles with House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Most of these stand-offs stemmed from his belief that the Republican caucus was moving toward the political left and away from the more conservative "Contract With America" policy proposals that had placed the Republicans into power in Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. Specifically, Coburn was concerned that the Contract's term limits had not been implemented, and that the Republicans were continuing the excessive federal spending (also called pork barrel spending) that they had so vigorously opposed when the Democrats were in the majority.

Coburn endorsed conservative activist and former diplomat Alan Keyes in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries, although he supported George W. Bush after the nomination was sewn up. Coburn's congressional district returned to the Democratic fold, as attorney Brad Carson easily defeated a Republican endorsed by Coburn. After leaving the House and returning to private medical practice, Coburn wrote a book in 2003 about his experiences in Congress called Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders. The book detailed Coburn's perspective on the internal Republican Party debates over the "Contract With America" and displayed his disdain for career politicians. Some of the figures he criticized (such as Gingrich) were already out of office at the time of publishing, but others (such as former House Speaker Dennis Hastert) remained very influential in Congress, which resulted in speculation that some congressional Republicans wanted no part of Coburn's return to politics.

Senate career

In 2004, Coburn chose to challenge the establishment Republican candidate for the open Senate seat being vacated by Don Nickles. Former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys (the favorite of the state and national Republican establishment) and Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony joined the field before Coburn. However, Coburn easily won the primary with 61% of the vote over Humphreys' 25%. In the general election, he faced Rep. Brad Carson (D), who was giving up his seat after only two terms to run for the Senate. During the Senate campaign, Coburn said that homosexuality was the biggest threat to America. He also promised to maintain his medical practice in Muskogee and return there during the weekend as he had while serving in the House.

The election was one of the most closely-watched of the 2004 cycle. Coburn won by a margin of 53% to Carson's 42%. While Carson defeated Coburn in the heavily Democratic 2nd District, Coburn swamped Carson in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and the closer-in Tulsa suburbs. Coburn won the state's two largest counties, Tulsa and Oklahoma, by a combined 86,000 votes — more than half of his overall margin of 166,000 votes.

Coburn's Senate voting record is as conservative as his House record. He received a perfect 100% rating from the American Conservative Union for the year 2005.

Committee membership

After taking office in January 2005, Coburn, along with fellow conservative Sam Brownback, was selected to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Coburn is a rare non-attorney on the Judiciary Committee.

On April 19, 2007, Coburn became the first Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to call for the firing of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as a result of the controversy concerning the dismissal of eight United States Attorneys.

Senator Coburn is a member of the following committees:

• United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Since April 2007, Senator Coburn has been holding the Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act (S.274) from becoming law. This bill relates to so-called "whistleblowing," and would effectively reverse the Supreme Court's decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, 04-473.

• • Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security (Ranking Republican Member)
  • Subcommittee on Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
  • Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia
• United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
• United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation (Ranking Republican Member)
  • Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights
  • Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
  • Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship
  • Subcommittee on Intellectual Property

Political Positions

Abortion

In 2000, Coburn sponsored a bill to prevent the Food and Drug Administration from developing, testing or approving the abortifacient RU-486. On July 13, the bill failed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 182 to 187. On the issue, Coburn sparked controversy with his remark about feticidal gynecologists "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life." Coburn also objects to legal abortion in cases of rape, and he has justified his position by noting that his great-grandmother was raped by a sheriff. In the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings concerning Samuel Alito, Coburn asserted that his grandmother was a product of that rape.

Fiscal conservatism

In October 2005, Coburn, a staunch fiscal conservative, made several attempts to combat pork barrel spending in the federal budget. The best-known of these was an amendment to the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill that funds transportation projects. Coburn's amendment would have transferred funding from the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska to rebuild Louisiana's "Twin Spans" bridge, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The amendment was defeated in the Senate, 82-14, after Ted Stevens, the senior senator from Alaska, threatened to resign his office if the amendment was passed. Coburn's actions did result in getting the funds made into a "block grant" to the State of Alaska, which can use the funds for the bridge or other projects.

Coburn is also a member of the Fiscal Watch Team, a group of seven senators led by John McCain, whose stated goal is to combat wasteful government spending.

On April 6, 2006, Coburn and Senator Barack Obama introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. The bill would require the full disclosure of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2007 on a website maintained by the Office of Management and Budget. The bill was signed into law on September 26, 2006.

Coburn, along with Arizona Senator John McCain, has introduced legislation to attempt to reduce overall federal government spending by requiring U.S. Senators to vote, individually, on federal budget earmarks. Coburn and McCain recently noted that the practice of members of Congress adding earmarks (and thus, increasing government spending) has risen dramatically over the years, from 121 "earmarks" in 1987 to 15,268 earmarks in 2005, according to the Congressional Research Service.

In July 2007, Coburn criticized pork barrel spending fellow Senator Ben Nelson had inserted into the 2007 defense spending bill. Coburn alleged that the earmarks would benefit Nelson's son Patrick's employer with millions in federal dollars and that the situation violated terms of the Transparency Act, which was passed by the Senate but has not yet been voted on in the House. Nelson's spokesperson said the Senator did nothing wrong.

Genetic Discrimination and HIV Prevention

According to the Boston Globe, Tom Coburn has blocked passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), a bill that would prevent health insurers and employers from using genetic information in decisions of employment or insurability. Senator Coburn objected to provisions in the bill that allow discrimination based on genetic information from embryos and fetuses. Recently, the Boston Globe stated that the embryo loophole has been closed, and that Tom Coburn is reevaluating his opposition to the bill.

In 1997, Coburn introduced a bill called the HIV Prevention Act of 1997, which would have amended the Social Security Act. The bill would have mandated HIV testing in some situations, would have allowed physicians to demand an HIV test before providing medical care, and would have allowed insurance companies to demand an HIV test as a condition of issuing health insurance.

Block of Rachel Carson commemoration

On May 23, 2007, Coburn threatened to block two bills honoring the 100th birthday of Rachel Carson. Coburn called Carson's work "junk science", proclaiming that Silent Spring, "was the catalyst in the deadly worldwide stigmatization against insecticides, especially DDT."

Controversies

Allegations of non-consensual sterilization and Medicaid fraud

A sterilization Coburn performed on a 20-year-old woman in 1990 became what was called "the most incindiary issue" of his Senate campaign. Coburn performed the sterilization on the woman during an emergency surgery to treat a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, removing her intact fallopian tube as well as the one damaged by the surgery. The woman sued Coburn, alleging that he did not have consent to sterilize her, while Coburn claimed he had her oral consent. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed with no finding of liability on Coburn's part.

The state attorney general claimed that Coburn committed Medicaid fraud by not reporting the sterilization when he filed a claim for the emergency surgery. Medicaid did not reimburse doctors for sterilization procedures for patients under 21, and according to the attorney general, Coburn would not have been reimbursed at all had he not withheld this information. Coburn says since he did not file a claim for the sterilization, no fraud was committed. No charges were filed against Coburn for this claim.

Homosexuality

According to The American Prospect, during Coburn's 2004 senatorial campaign, he quoted a local resident that in the town of Coalgate, Oklahoma, "Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in Southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it." School officials have denied his statement. Coburn has also been quoted as saying:

"The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda."

Roberts confirmation hearings

On September 14, 2005, during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, Coburn began his opening statement with a critique of Beltway partisan politics while, according to news reports, "choking back a sob." Coburn had earlier been completing a crossword puzzle during the hearings, and this fact was used by The Daily Show to ridicule Coburn's pathos. Coburn then began his questioning by revealing his confusion regarding the various legal terms bandied about during the previous day's hearings. Proceeding to questions regarding both abortion and end-of-life issues, Coburn, who noted that during his tenure as an obstetrician he had delivered some 4,000 babies, asked Roberts whether the judge agreed with the proposition that "the opposite of being dead is being alive."

You know I'm going somewhere. One of the problems I have is coming up with just the common sense and logic that if brain wave and heartbeat signifies life, the absence of them signifies death, then the presence of them certainly signifies life. And to say it otherwise, logically is schizophrenic. And that's how I view a lot of the decisions that have come from the Supreme Court on the issue of abortion.

Whistleblower Protection Act of 2007

Senator Coburn has been in the center of the Bush Administration's struggle with Congress over extending the rights of government whistleblowers. The U.S. Supreme Court's dealt a major blow to government whistleblowers when, in the case of Garcetti v. Ceballos, 04-473, it ruled that government employees did not have protection from retaliation by their employers under the First Amendment of the Constitution. [3] The free speech protections of the First Amendment have long been used to shield whistleblowers from retaliation by whistleblower attorneys.

In response to the Supreme Court decision, the House passed H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2007. President George W. Bush, citing national security concerns, promised to veto the bill should it be enacted into law by Congress. The Senate's version of the Whistleblower Protection Act (S. 274) was approved by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on June 13, 2007. However, it has yet to reach a vote by Senate as a hold has been placed on the bill by Senator Coburn.[4] Coburn's hold effectively prevents passage of the bill, which has broad bipartisan support in the Senate. In fact, support for the bill may be so broad in both houses of Congress, it may be veto-proof. According to the National Whistleblower Center, Coburn's hold is an example of a right-wing Senator enacting President Bush's agenda while frustrating a majority.*[5]

Ironically, Senator Coburn's own Web site features a news item about United Nations whistleblower Mathieu Credo Koumoin, a former employee for the U.N. Development Program in West Africa, who has asked U.N. ethics chief Robert Benson for protection under the U.N.'s new whistleblower protection rules.[6] The Web site has a link to the "United Nations Watch" of the Republican Office of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security, of which he is the ranking minority member.[7] Coburn's Web site also features a tip line for potential whistleblowers on government waste and fraud.[[8]]

Schindler's List television broadcast

As a congressman in 1997, Coburn protested NBC's plan to air the R-rated Academy Award-winning Holocaust drama Schindler's List during prime time. Coburn stated that, in airing the movie without editing it for television, TV had been taken "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." He also said the TV broadcast should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere. Coburn described the airing of Schindler's List on television as "...irresponsible sexual behavior...I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program."

Since the film deals mainly with the Holocaust, many people showed disgust with this statement, including a number of fellow Republican Congressmen who criticized Coburn in their speeches. Coburn apologized after heavy criticisms "to all those I have offended" and clarified that he agreed with the movie being aired on television, but insisted it should have been on later in the evening. In apologizing, Coburn said that at that time of the evening there are still large numbers of children watching without parental supervision, and stated that he stood by his message of protecting children from violence, but had expressed it poorly. He also said, "my intentions were good, but I've obviously made an error in judgment in how I've gone about saying what I wanted to say."

He later wrote in his book Breach of Trust that he considered this one of the biggest mistakes in his life and that, while he still feels the material was unsuitable for an 8 p.m. television broadcast, he handled the situation poorly.

Electoral History

Oklahoma U.S. Senate Election 2004

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Tom Coburn	763,433	52.9
	Democratic	Brad Carson	596,750	41.2

External links

Official sites

• United States Senator Tom Coburn official Senate site
• Coburn for Senate official campaign site

Documentaries, topic pages and databases

• United States Congress. "Tom Coburn (id: c000560)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Federal Election Commission — Thomas A Coburn campaign finance reports and data
• New York Times — Tom Coburn News collected news and commentary
• On the Issues — Tom Coburn issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Tom Coburn campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Senator Tom Coburn (OK) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Tom Coburn profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Tom Coburn voting record

Media coverage

• HI, I’M SENATOR COBURN, AND I DON’T WANT YOUR VOTE, Wil S. Hylton, GQ, February 2007
• Video of the 2004 Walt Haskins campaign ad (via Google Video)
• Second Chance Act supporters want senator’s support
• Coburn: Second Chance Act needs work before passage
• Second Chance Act held from Senate Vote, due to Oklahoma Senator
• "The Senate's Dr. No", George Will, Washington Post, February 12, 2006
• Senator Tom Coburn's Article Concerning Earmarks in the Wall Street Journal
• Locked, Loaded and Looney, The New York Times, August 30, 2007