Is it time for Tom Cole to Get Another Job?
Now, none other than the twin brother of former Governor Frank Keating, Dan Keating, made the rather surprising suggestion that Congressman Tom Cole "get another job" in a column published in the Tulsa Beacon on March 21st. Why would this significant financier of Republican efforts and brother to the Governor who made Cole his Secretary of State (and arguably his most trusted advisor) now infer that Cole may have outlived his usefulness to Oklahoma?
According to Keating, "Tom Cole is the general whose time has passed." He suggests that Cole plays into the hands of President Barack Obama. Keating further informs us that Cole rallied his fellow Republicans to accept tax increases contrary to the long held position of grassroots Republicans that government should get smaller rather than larger, and thus need less, rather than more, money. Such a call for more taxes also flies in the face of the pledge so many Republicans have made at the urging of Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.
It is also pointed out that Cole has been praised by none other than the liberal publishing icon The New Yorker magazine when they said, "Tom Cole, of Oklahoma, who is sixty-three and has served for a decade in the House, recently emerged as the leader of a large faction of House Republicans who believe the Tea-Party-inspired congressmen are dooming the Party." Not many Oklahomans consider Tom Cole to be antagonistic to the Tea Party, let alone a leader of the faction in Congress in opposition to it.
As Keating so aptly puts it, "Oklahoma is a Tea Party state… If you can go to the mat for these ideas, you are a keeper -- if you can't, get another job."
But can Cole be defeated? Incumbent Congressmen are seldom defeated, but there is a blueprint to take out a no longer representative Representative. We need only look to the state's second city of Tulsa. In the 1st Congressional District, newcomer Jim Bridenstine took out Congressman John Sullivan last year. Some would suggest that Sullivan was a damaged incumbent with personal problems. Others would point out that those personal problems were known years earlier and they failed to force him out. It was Bridenstine's insurgent grassroots centered campaign that not only pummeled Sullivan's record, but proved that Bridenstine was a well suited replacement.
A Republican candidate in the 4th Congressional District would have to do similarly. It would not be enough to claim that Cole is willing to raise taxes, increase debt, and keep government big. It would take more than criticizing Cole's constant finger in the wind attitude that comes from his years of political consulting.
A successful candidate for the Republican nomination against Cole would have to convince voters that they keep their face to the wind. Such a candidate must be able to raise funds from significant donors. With the now voiced disapproval of Cole by the likes of Dan Keating, such funding may be obtainable.
Some will point to the large number of politicians who are (or are thought to be) indebted to Cole. What is not considered is that those elected officials may welcome the opportunity to be released from any obligation to an overlord. It may turn out that the emperor really doesn't have any clothes.
In the April 11th edition of the Tulsa Beacon, Cole took Keating to task for his comments. Regardless, the word is on the street that some Republicans (including those in high places) are less than satisfied with the Congressman's adherence to conservatism.
We do have to ask, "Is it time?" Is it time for Tom Cole to find a new job? Is it time for a new, energized, capable, against the grain, Tea Party conservative in the 4th Congressional District?
We shall see. It will not be me, if any wonder.
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