Oklahoma Opt-out: Don't Count on It

Those Republican wizards down at the State Capital might want to rethink their grand plan for stopping health care reform.

We're talking about the Oklahoma GOP's ill-advised plan to sue the federal government to stop health care reform in Oklahoma. But it's a long-shot legal strategy at best, as the Tulsa World is reporting.

Today's newspaper quoted OU College of Law's Rick Tepker: "States do not have the power by statute or constitutional amendment to bar application of federal law." 

For the supposed advocates of government frugality, there's also this bit of advice from Tepker: "It is highly irresponsible for legislators to be ignoring a basic principle of the American Constitution, and I think they are doing it for entirely political reasons." 

Yes, indeed. Of of those irresponsible legislators would be none other than State Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, who should know better.

Sadly, Coffee' s acting like a partisan political hack—again.