Robert Novak writes: [former OK Congressman Tom] Coburn’s problem is that he takes seriously the professed Republican agenda: limited government, entitlement reform and anti-abortion advocacy. He was a rare sincere GOP supporter of term limits, leaving the House after three terms as he promised to do. The result is scant support for Coburn from the Republican establishment, in the nation’s capital as well as Oklahoma. If elected to the Senate, he will do it largely on his own.
That situation suggests the current realignment cycle in American politics is nearing an end after 36 years, with the Republican Party displaying symptoms of a nervous breakdown. The party’s leadership, from President Bush on down, went out of its way to push the undependable Republican Sen. Arlen Specter to victory against a staunch conservative in the Pennsylvania primary because he was considered a stronger general election candidate. In contrast, dependably conservative Coburn gets no establishment support in the contested Oklahoma primary though he is the best bet in November.
This is some of the best proof that the Bush administration is nothing but ur-liberals in conservative clothing. They fought hard for the liberal Specter over a legitimate conservative in the primary, supposedly in the interest of holding the Senate, but won’t lift a finger for the genuine conservative who is the strongest Republican candidate in Oklahoma. Strange, a Pennsylvania senator has no more votes than an senator from Oklahoma… I imagine the president wanted to have Arlen as chairman of the judiciary committee so the American people could be saddled with more of those great Republican Supreme Court nominees like Souter, O’Conner and Warren.
A person’s motivations can be determined by his actions, not his words.