Oil Executives Fund Coburn's Campaign

Why does Tom Coburn, the U.S. Senate candidate running against U.S. Rep. Brad Carson, want to make the state the laughingstock of the nation? And why is the state's corporate, conservative media ignoring Coburn's bizarre comments?

Coburn's recent gaffe came this week when he referred to "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma's schools.

According to an Associated Press article, "In the tape released by the campaign of Brad Carson, the Democratic candidate, Coburn says a campaign worker from Coalgate told him that '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. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?'"

This is a bizarre and untruthful remark. A southeast Oklahoma school superintendent, quoted in the article, laughed it off, but Coburn's remarks are anything but funny. They are hateful, and they make Oklahoma seem like a cesspool of ignorance, anger, and intolerance to the rest of the nation.

Coburn's stupid comments about lesbianism can be added to his weird comments about applying the death penalty to doctors who perform abortions. (Coburn is a medical doctor.) It also adds to his uneven remarks related to one of his former medical cases in which he sterilized a women who later claimed he did so without her consent.

The recent article was picked up by Salon.com, a national online magazine with a large readership. But you could not find a reference to the remarks in The Daily Oklahoman the next day.

That's probably because the newspaper was running an article about the huge amount of money two local oil executives have given to help elect Coburn.

According to the October 12 article, "The top two executives of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. have contributed $500,000 to a group running a statewide television ad criticizing U.S. Senate candidate Brad Carson."

The executives, Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward, each donated $250,000 to the ironically named "Club for Growth," which is raising money and buying ads for Coburn.

As I wrote in a previous blog, I cannot think of a time in more than twenty years when a political race in Oklahoma illustrated the state's obvious need to elect politicians, such as Brad Carson, who want to actually help the state prosper.

On one hand, you have rich oil executives trying to make sure a loose cannon kook like Coburn gets to take his hate and bigotry to Washington, so he can embarrass Oklahoma consistently over the next six years. (I wonder what these oil executives are going to get back from Coburn if he is elected?)

On the other hand, you have Brad Carson promising to work for middle-class Oklahomans to ensure we have decent jobs, good roads, and better health care.

If Oklahomans elect Coburn, they will have only themselves to blame as a handful of rich Oklahoma oil executives get richer and middle-class Oklahomans continue to struggle to make ends meet.