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Obama's
new pal - Tom Coburn
Anyone have a bucket I can throw up in?
Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Throwback
Republican whose conservative stances have sometimes
confounded even his GOP colleagues, long has been one of Obama's few
personal friends in Congress.
Now, he is emerging in a more public light as one of Obama's favorite
Republicans - and a potential
bridge between the political parties. That's particularly true as
political circumstances force Obama
to reach out more to the GOP and as Mr. Coburn's longtime focus -
controlling federal spending
- takes center stage in the public debate.
Obama
wasn't forced into bed with Coburn - he likes it there.
The pair regularly communicate -- by phone, in handwritten notes and in
person at the White House
-- and lately their conversations have included strategies for
how Democrats and Republicans can
work together on cutting the federal budget, according to aides to both
men. They say both men
see potential for a political alliance.
The unlikely friendship between Coburn, an obstetrician from Muskogee,
Okla., and Obama was
hatched in 2004, after both were elected to the Senate. Seated together
at dinner during freshman
orientation, their wives hit it off, and soon the senators did, too.
What good does it do Obama - or us - that his buddy Tom will do everything he can
to block everything this president was elected by the voters to do?