Oklahoma Republican Party establishmentarians were jolted last week when former Rep. Tom Coburn, a conservative hero, announced he would seek the GOP nomination for the seat of retiring Sen. Don Nickles (R.-Okla.). Efforts by Nickles and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R.-Okla.) to guarantee the Republican Senate nomination to Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphrey did not sit well with the GOP grassroots.
Coburn, the one-time head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, kept his term-limit pledge to retire after three terms in 2000, but he also kept his hand in politics as a conservative activist, occasional talking head, and author of Breach of Trust-How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders. In his time in the House, Coburn consistently and aggressively fought government spending-while rankling party leaders who wanted to increase it. As a senator he would have far greater power to publicize and obstruct big government projects.
