By Constitution Staff

When Dr. Tom Coburn won election to Congress in 1994, it was the first victory for a Republican in the northeastern Oklahoma 2nd congressional district since Mary Alice Robertson won the seat in 1920. As promised, he only served six years in the U.S. House of Representatives, and returned to Muskogee to deliver babies. Then, in 2004, longtime Senator Don Nickles opted to retire, and Coburn emerged from his own retirement to take the seat of his fellow Republican.

For good or bad, Coburn was never much of a Republican partisan. He rarely attended state conventions, unlike his colleague Senator Jim Inhofe, who has been a regular attendee his entire political life. But, both Inhofe and Coburn have strong conservative reputations.

After his tenure in the House of Representatives, Coburn had won a reputation as a staunch constitutionalist, and fighter against the Establishment that has given us deficits piled upon deficits, and a huge national debt. With such a strong conservative reputation, Coburn had little trouble winning the Republican nomination for Senate in 2004, and then easily defeated the Democrat candidate in the general election.

The vote in 2008 for the bank "bail out" permanently altered the image of Coburn as one who has unshaking fidelity to the Constitution. Coburn brushed aside questions about the constitutionality of the bail out bill, arguing that had Congress not acted as it did, "ATMs would have shut down."

But in fairness, Coburn has been a dedicated warrior against runaway federal spending, fighting "pork barrel spending," for example, and publishing a list of wasteful or ill-advised spending projects from time to time.

Coburn took time in his "farewell" speech to the Senate recently to condemn practices of Senator Harry Reid to deny the right of individual senators to amend bills. "Every senator has the power to introduce legislation, and, until recently, offer amendments," Coburn said, calling the recent restrictions "tyranny."

Coburn was often called "Dr. No" for his efforts to block legislation. His most famous effort in that regard was his fight against the so-called Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska. This was, in Coburn's opinion, abuse of the taxpayer's money to help one state at the expense of the other 49 states, and cited by Coburn as a reason that federal spending is so out of control. "Your whole goal is to protect the United States of America, its Constitution and its liberties. It's not to provide benefits for your state."

Many other members of Congress and others regarded Coburn as somewhat self-righteous at times, but for all his faults, Oklahoma and the nation are better off for his having been a member of each house of Congress. His successor is James Lankford, and we can hope that Lankford will turn out to be as good a senator as Coburn.

We wish Doctor Coburn well in his retirement.