Short answer: "Who the hell knows? It's Tom Coburn, people". Will Oklahoma's junior Senator, in terms of tenure if not outright nuttiness (he gets stiff competition on that score from senior pal James Inhofe), hang up his spikes at the end of his term, in 2010? Will "Dr. No", as Tommy is not-so-affe...

Senator Tom Coburn thought that he was being awfully clever earlier this week when he spoke about wasteful pork barrel spending in the Omnibus Appropriations Act, and cited, as an example, spending for a program to deal with pollution coming from pig farms in Iowa. Pork barrel spending on pigs…...

Sen. Tom "Lesbians in the Restroom!" Coburn (R-Paranoia) has introduced an amendment to the stimulus bill. The full text: None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available under this act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool,...

The Senate Judiciary Committee hours ago voted 17-2 to approve the nomination of Eric Holder to be the next Attorney General.  A floor vote on his nomination is expected for next week.   The only two Conservative stalwarts voted no: John Cornyn (R-TX); and Tom Coburn (R-OK).  Eric Holder,...

It has been reported that due to the recent votes of the Senate & House our debt is a whopping $11.3 Trillion smakeroos.  To shed some light on this gargantuan amount of money, let's look at some comparisons: A trillion seconds is 31,688 years. A trillion dollars is so large a number that o...

Look for Harry Reid to start the ball rolling today on the "Coburn Omnibus" (what's an "omnibus?") today: Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is planning a "Coburn Omnibus" for July that would wrap most if not all of the bills held by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) into one large measure to be voted on b...

One of the most frequently asked questions about Senate procedure these days is, WTF with these "holds?" Or more accurately, "How come Harry Reid blew off Chris Dodd's hold on the FISA bill, but Tom Coburn gets to have 100 bills on hold and nobody bats an eyelash?" Well, aside from the fact that eye...

"Crossword Tommy" Coburn, scourge of bathroom lesbians everywhere, is notorious among his colleagues for being a serial abuser of the Senatorial "hold," used to block legislation from coming to the floor for a vote. Lots of people have wondered how it is that Coburn is able to hold up so many bills,...

There's more to public health than pandemic preparedness. On an international scale, for example, there's HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (being concerned about one thing doesn't mean ignoring the others). So, here's an interesting story. President Bush’s program to fight HIV/AIDS is consid...

The short answer is: It's Harry Reid's fault. But let me back up a bit. The New York Times published an important article February 24 on the fears that many Americans have about seeking out genetic testing for disease. A positive test for a pre-disposition to a genetically-based disease could lead t...