Dr. Tom's Fantasies: Sen. Coburn Plays the (Bogus) Anarchy Card

AltTulsa has been AWOL this election season—so many other projects!—but it's not too late to remind Sooner state voters of the nuttiness of our current political leaders.

We're thinking of Sen. Tom Coburn's town hall meeting a couple of months ago when the good senator went just a tad overboard in some of his—we hesitate to use the word—judgments.

Speaking to a crowd at the University of Tulsa in August, Dr. Tom rounded up the usual suspects—the federal government is too big, Obama's too weak—but he got more than a little hyperbolic over Attorney General Eric Holder.

"I've never seen less regard for the rule of law than in this administration," Coburn said."Respect for the law is what holds this country together. This administration has set about to destroy that." Coburn continues, "That's how anarchy starts." 

Destroying the rule of law! Anarchy! Yes, indeed, it's all Eric Holder's fault!

But Coburn didn't stop there. Oh no. Holder, he continued, was an "inappropriate person" to be the attorney general. And this: Holder will turn out to be "one of the worst attorney generals in our nation's history."

This is a popular Wingnut talking point, endlessly promoted by the blowhards on talk radio, but—like Coburn's charge—it is notably short actual evidence of "anarchy" and lawlessness.

It's also evidence of Dr. Tom's highly political memory. Unless our math is wrong, Dr. Tom was an adult during the Nixon administration. Does the name "Watergate" ring a bell? Anyone? Or how about the name of Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell? He's the one who went to jail for his part in the Watergate scandal.

Seems like Richard Nixon and John Mitchell would be great candidates for Dr. Tom's charges of anarchy and lawlessness. On that point, the good senator was selectively silent.