On Tap

Since his election to the U.S. Senate, Tom Coburn has been forced to fight for permission to be a citizen legislator. In short, he wants to continue his medical practice while he serves in the Senate, but his colleagues won’t let him. That’s in spite of the fact that he’s doing the work for free, so as to avoid even the slightest appearance of impropriety.

Three years ago — an eternity in politics — I wrote this op/ed for the Hill newspaper in Washington. Unfortunately, the argument is still as salient today as it was then.

The only thing that’s changed is the pettiness behind the Ethics Committee’s behavior. This week, you see, they threatened Senator Coburn with censure for continuing his practice. This in the very same week that Coburn tied the Senate in knots over a series of pork-laden bills that he successfully managed to block. Coincidence? No one thinks so.

And meanwhile, the Senate Ethics Committee has said nothing at all about Senator Stevens, who is now under federal indictment.

These facts, it seems to me, speak loud and clear.

Tags: ted stevens, tom coburn, u.s. senate

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at August 3, 2008 - 4:42 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.