In his latest attempt to appear to be a decent guy, the Tulsa World reports, he defended the president from a constituent who asked if Obama "wants to destroy America." To do so, Coburn indulged in creepy racial stereotyping to explain the president's politics. Obama's "intent is not to destroy," Coburn assured his audience. "His intent is to create dependency because it worked so well for him," he said. The president backs welfare programs, the Oklahoma senator explained, because "as an African-American male," he received "tremendous advantage from a lot of these programs." He didn't exactly call Obama a "welfare queen," I guess, but it's not too far off.

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But Coburn provides his own side of the story in an op-ed piece in today's Washington Post, and it is a masterpiece. Coburn is deeply, deeply upset that nothing ever seems to get accomplished in the Senate! "Why has the U.S. Senate become the least deliberative 'greatest deliberative body' in the world?" he asks.

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Coburn's original objection was that the bill was too pricey -- though it was paid for by closing tax loopholes, which means that his real objection was that rich people were going to have to pay for non-rich people to have their illnesses treated. Here he is last night complaining that the government doesn't have "an extra $11 billion" for sick first responders (Coburn made up the cost of the bill because he didn't like the way the CBO scored it):

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First up, immigration reform. Democrats are again working on the DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for young people who came to America illegally as children, stayed out of trouble with the law, and spent at least two years in college or the military.

Reid is going to attach the DREAM Act to defense appropriation bill, which is a common, slightly dirty trick that represents one of the few ways to get anything voted on in our stupid Senate.

This bill would only help young, American-educated model citizens. Only about 825,000 people would probably become citizens. The act was proposed -- in 2001! -- by Republican Orrin Hatch. Even those lovable, Democrat-hating cranks at Reason like the bill. In 2007, Hatch and Bob Bennett voted to add the act to the defense authorization bill.

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Although it was pretty funny that Coburn explained his opposition to Gingrich by reminding everyone of the guy's messy personal life:

Gingrich "is a super-smart man, but he doesn't know anything about commitment to marriage," he said of the thrice-married former House speaker. "He's the last person I'd vote for for president of the United States. His life indicates he does not have a commitment to the character traits necessary to be a great president."

Coburn became disillusioned with Gingrich almost immediately upon Coburn's arrival in Washington in 1995. He repeatedly trashes Gingrich in his book "Breach of Trust" (subtitled "How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders" -- besides, I guess, Senator Coburn). But his complaints have usually been about how Gingrich gave in too easily to Clinton on the budget, or betrayed some part of the Contract With America, or other policy matters, not necessarily the character stuff.

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For this process to work the Senate has to pass, unmodified, the reconciliation bill approved by the House of Representatives. That means that Democrats can't let anybody successfully attach an amendment to the bill. And here’s where Republicans have found their opening.

"Obviously, the damage has been done," explains Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who’s the ranking member on the Budget Committee, and so is taking the lead on reconciliation. "But we have not had an opportunity to address some of the substantive policy questions which are out there that should be discussed in an amendment-type atmosphere."

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For a detailed explanation of how this will work, see Mike Madden's earlier post, but long story short: The Senate is currently considering a package that has already passed the House. If it passes without any changes, then it goes directly to President Obama for his signature. But if it is amended at all, then the House has to vote on it again, and Democrats would really prefer not to have to do that.

Under the rules of reconciliation, the procedure the Senate is using to pass these fixes so as to avoid a filibuster, Republicans can offer a multitude of amendments. They're going to take advantage of that by forcing votes where a "no" could be politically difficult but a "yes" could mean sending the whole thing back to the House.

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Now, as the Senate's debate over its version of reform legislation kicks into gear, two Republicans -- Sens. Tom Coburn and David Vitter -- have picked up that theme and are running with it. The two authored an amendment they want attached to the bill; it would require members of Congress to enroll in whatever version of the public option the final legislation creates, if it includes one.

Both Coburn and Vitter are vehement opponents of the public option, and they're hoping to prove themselves right by showing that no senator who's in his or her right mind would want their healthcare covered by it. They've gotten a surprise, though: Genuine support for their amendment from someone on the other side of the aisle -- and a proponent of the public option, at that -- Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

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None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project.

From a certain perspective, that does sound like common sense. Certainly, it makes enough sense on a superficial level that a fair amount of Democrats, perhaps scared of the political consequences of voting against the amendment, supported the change.

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That's to the degree that McCain has even bothered to think about these things in the first place. Page reports that, except when saying things like "I'm sure I've taken a position on it on the past; I have to find out what my position was," he has indicated that he's mostly happy to leave the thinking to Sen. (and Dr.) Tom "I favor the death penalty for abortionists" Coburn of Oklahoma. (Reporter: "But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: 'No, we're not going to distribute them,' knowing that?" Mr. McCain: [Twelve-second pause] "Get me Coburn's thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn's paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I've never gotten into these issues before.")

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As we noted earlier, Gonzales said today that there is "nothing improper" in firing a U.S. attorney for "poor management, policy differences or questionable judgment, or simply to have another qualified individual serve." Coburn asked Gonzales whether the same standard shouldn't be applied to him.

The attorney general said it was a "fair question," but he refused to answer it directly. Coburn ultimately did it for him.

Coburn: You said earlier this was an unfortunate episode. You also said that these attorneys were evaluated based on their leadership skills and management skills. And you answered a question from Sen. Graham earlier about your position. In light of all this, why would we not use the same standards to judge your performance in handling this event that you applied to these same individuals?

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We were reading through the transcript of Thursday's hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which the committee voted to authorize subpoenas for White House political advisor Karl Rove, former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and others, when we came upon the arguments of Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican.

"[I]f we voted today without trying to work with what [White House Counsel] Fred Fielding has offered, what we're saying is politics trumps policy," Coburn said. And, hey, agree with it or not, that's at least a reasonable point upon which to base an argument.

But we were, frankly, a little puzzled by where Coburn went next: specifically, a dead Playboy Playmate, Guess jeans model and reality show star.

Yes, Coburn evoked the memory of the late, much-lamented Anna Nicole Smith in order to argue against authorizing subpoenas.

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The urge to merge (or purge) the two parties is back.

Partisanship, which supposedly stands for everything mean, nasty, impure, corrupt and divisive in Washington, is out -- or so the mainstream pundits and consultants tell us. Nonpartisanship and its equally bland twin, bipartisanship, which symbolize all that is polite, decent, pure, patriotic, constructive and unifying, are in again. Or so we are informed by such authorities as the founders of Hotsoup.com and Unity08.com, two Web sites that seek in different ways to capitalize on our weariness with the Republicans and the Democrats.

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But Coburn plainly has a constituency, and members of it might be a little concerned by the senator's latest. As an Oklahoma TV station is reporting, Coburn predicted in a talk back home over the weekend that six members of the House and one member of the Senate will end up in jail as the Jack Abramoff case unfolds.

Coburn wasn't naming names, Sen. Burns, but he said that "if you've been keeping up with things, you've got a pretty good idea" of who's going down.

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If the first post-nomination weekend is any indication, this thing could get interesting. Amid all the vaguely hedged bets of senators like Nebraska's Ben Nelson, the more colorful characters in the nation's most august body have already starting making comments that might be considered, well, unhelpful by their ideological compatriots.

As his Democratic Party colleagues weigh their options on Alito, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden used his turn on ABC's "This Week" Sunday to say that Democrats shouldn't and probably wouldn't launch a filibuster to stop the nomination. "We should commit," he said, meaning that Democrats should stand up and be counted, yea or nay, in a roll call vote on Alito. What about a filibuster? The "probability" is it won't happen, Biden said.

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If Kerry is the next occupant of the Oval Office, he will need legislative muscle to undo the disastrous policies of the Bush administration, which have damaged our economy, degraded our environment, added millions to the roll of America's uninsured, and seriously undermined our national security. No executive order can reverse all that.

And if -- close your ears, kids -- Bush is actually able to scare his way to reelection, a Democratic Senate will be the only thing standing in the way of a second-term all-out assault on America's working families and the implementation of a radical right-wing social agenda. Don't forget, the next president will probably end up appointing at least a couple of Supreme Court justices -- and Bush has made it clear that he'd fill any vacancies with clones of Antonin Scalia. See ya later, Roe vs. Wade; nice knowing ya, civil liberties. Don't forget to turn your clocks back a hundred years.

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In 2003, President Bush appointed Coburn chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS, giving him a prominent platform as he prepared to run for the Senate. If elected, Coburn would not only help the GOP maintain its power but would surely emerge as one of the most outspoken conservatives in the country. The former three-term congressman, one of Newt Gingrich's "revolutionaries" from the class of 1994, an Okie from Muskogee, thunders for traditional values and crusades for limited government. He packages this political agenda in his image as a kindly family doctor -- an obstetrician.

For Coburn, the imminent danger facing America is apparently not terrorism but the "gay agenda." His thumping about this menace within contributed to the pressure that led to Bush's endorsement of a constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage. At a Republican meeting this spring, Coburn warned: "The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda."

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