What Happened to Tom Coburn?

26 Jul, 2012 by John Hawkins

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Tom Coburn used to be one of the best Republicans we had in the Senate. Unfortunately, his reputation has started to slip since he voted for TARP and has spent an inordinate amount of time agitating for tax increases. Apparently the fact that most Republicans don’t agree with him must have stuck in his craw because he’s: backing West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin for the Senate.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) says he supports Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s re-election because he believes Manchin is not beholden to short-sighted political interests.

Coburn recently gave $250 to Manchin’s re-election campaign.

“I think he votes thinking about the long-term interests of the country. We don’t agree on everything but he’s a good guy,” Coburn told The Hill.

Supporting a Democrat over a Republican is a bright red line that no Republican senator should ever cross if he wants to continue to get conservative support. Coburn can talk all he wants about how Manchin is: “thinking about the long-term interests of the country,”but that NEVER, EVER holds up when it matters. For example, Manchin, who claims to be a fiscally conservative, pro-life Democrat,: supported Obamacare when it matteredand then later claimed that he had changed his mind. That’s the guy Tom Coburn wants in the Senate instead of a conservative Republican.

Coburn was reelected in 2010 and claims he’s not going to run again in 2016. It’s too bad he didn’t make that decision in 2010 because Coburn has already been in Washington for way, too long.