Tom Coburn

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Tom Coburn
Junior 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 1995-2001
Preceded by	Mike Synar
Succeeded by	Brad Carson
Born	March 14, 1948 (age 59) Casper, Wyoming
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Carolyn Coburn
Religion	Baptist

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

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Political career 2.1 House career 2.2 Senate career 2.3 Committee Membership 2.3.1 Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 3 Controversies 3.1 Abortion 3.2 Breast implants 3.3 Homosexuality 3.4 Roberts confirmation hearings 3.5 Schindler's List television broadcast 3.6 Sterilization controversy 4 Federal budget restraint and earmarks 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Coburn was born in Casper, Wyoming to German-American parents, O. W. and Joy 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. Coburn 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.

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.

[edit] Political career

[edit] 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. For instance, he supported reducing the size of the federal budget and opposed abortion and supported the proposed V-chip legislation. He was reelected in 1996 and in 1998.

While he served in the House, he earned a reputation as a maverick due to his frequent battles with House Speaker Newt Gingrich.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[1]

Despite representing a heavily Democratic district, Coburn was reelected twice without much difficulty. During his first bid for reelection, he won easily even as Bill Clinton carried the district by a healthy margin. He did not run for reelection in 2000, having promised to serve only three terms during his first campaign.

Coburn endorsed conservative activist and former diplomat Alan Keyes in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries, although he enthusiastically 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.

[edit] 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, in an example of his frequent off-the-cuff statements taken out of context, said that he favored the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions[2] and 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.

After taking office in January 2005, Coburn, along with fellow conservative Sam Brownback, was selected to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is widely suspected that Republican Leadership was looking to add as many strong conservatives to the panel as Democrats had far-left Senators. Coburn is a rare non-attorney on the Judiciary Committee and thus adds to the diversity on the Committee.

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 [3]. 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.^[2]

[edit] Committee Membership

Senator Coburn is a member of the following committees:

• United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  • 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

[edit] Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006

Coburn and Senator Barack Obama on April 6, 2006 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.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] 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.^[3] On the issue, Coburn sparked controversy with his remark "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life." ^[4] 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.^[5] In the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings concerning Samuel Alito, Coburn mentioned that his grandmother was a product of that rape.

[edit] Breast implants

In January 2005, during a Senate Judiciary Committee discussion about class-action lawsuits and silicone breast implants, The Washington Post quoted Coburn as stating:

“

You know, I immediately thought about silicone breast implants and the legal wrangling and the class-action suits off that. And I thought I would just share with you what science says today about silicone breast implants. If you have them, you're healthier than if you don't. That is what the ultimate science shows...In fact, there's no science that shows that silicone breast implants are detrimental and, in fact, they make you healthier.[6]

”

Coburn may have been referring to the conclusions of a December 2004 study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research.^[7] The study showed that the sample group had a slightly lower than expected incidence of breast cancer over the period of the study in women who have had a mastectomy following early-stage breast cancer.

[edit] 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."^[8] School officials have denied his statement. [4] 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."[9]

”

[edit] 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".^[10] Coburn had earlier been completing a crossword puzzle during the hearings^[10], and this fact was used by The Daily Show to ridicule Coburn's pathos.^[11] 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.[12]

”

[edit] 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."

Many people disagreed with this statement, including a number of fellow Republican Congressmen who criticized Coburn in their speeches. Coburn later apologized "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.

[edit] Sterilization controversy

A woman alleged that Coburn sterilized her without her consent during an emergency surgery to treat a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy in 1990. Coburn contends that he had her verbal consent, but he did not obtain written consent. A resulting civil malpractice suit was filed, but ultimately dismissed with no finding of liability on Coburn's part. ^[13]

[edit] Federal budget restraint and earmarks

Recently, 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.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• United States Senator Tom Coburn official Senate site
• Biography at the 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
• Coburn for Senate official campaign site
• Video of the 2004 Walt Haskins campaign ad (via Google Video)

Articles

• 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

Political offices
Preceded by Mike Synar	U.S. Representative for Oklahoma's 2nd Congressional District 1995-2001	Succeeded by Brad Carson
Preceded by Don Nickles	U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Oklahoma 2005-	Succeeded by Incumbent

Oklahoma's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators: James Inhofe (R), Tom Coburn (R) Representative(s): John Sullivan (R), Dan Boren (D), Frank Lucas (R), Tom Cole (R), Mary Fallin (R) All delegations: Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming — American Samoa • District of Columbia • Guam • Puerto Rico • U.S. Virgin Islands

Persondata
NAME	Coburn, Thomas Allen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Medical doctor, politician
DATE OF BIRTH	March 14, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH	Casper, Wyoming, United States of America
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH