‘We don’t give up our principles’

There’s something different about U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican. Something his colleagues really hate.

Sen. Coburn was one of the few Republicans elected to the House in 1994 who kept his term-limit pledge. A physician, he returned to his Oklahoma practice in 2001.

Right there, they should have seen trouble coming.

Then, in 2004, he ran for the U.S. Senate, campaigning on a pledge to cut federal spending.

Most Republicans — even a lot of Democrats — vow to hold down federal spending. If they mean it at all, though, they quickly abandon such notions once they start to learn “how things really get done” in Washington.

But this guy Coburn just doesn’t get it. He acts as though once you get to Washington you’re supposed to do pretty much what you promised.

We don’t have to tell you how well that’s working out.

His colleagues haven’t appointed him to serve on any of the major budget committees (surprise.) Yet during his first two years, he has sponsored more amendments than any other senator, including scores of usually unsuccessful attempts to amputate pet special-interest projects, known as “earmarks.”

Sen. Coburn has also made wide use of “holds,” a procedure that allows a single lawmaker to block a bill for any reason.

The final weeks of a congressional session can be the most destructive to fiscal sanity, as lawmakers try to save time by passing many bills without voting — a step which requires unanimous consent from the entire body.

But Sen. Coburn has warned his colleagues he will withhold his consent, automatically blocking any legislation that increases spending.

The freshman hero has already blocked more than 90 wasteful and/or unconstitutional bills this year. But now, aided by the time crunch as his colleagues aim to get home for Christmas — oh, pardon us, “the family holidays” — he’s really coming into his own.

“The last thing we ought to be doing at the end of the session is passing a bill without vetting it, without debating it, without talking about the problems,” Sen. Coburn told Bloomberg News. “I am happy to be here for Christmas.”

He threatens to block a bill supposedly aimed at “easing the subprime lending crisis” — though it’s hard to see how congressional meddling with existing mortgage contracts between consenting adults can fail to warp future behavior by both borrowers and lenders.

Why, this zany character won’t even rule out blocking a $500 billion catch-all spending bill Democrats still hope to push through the chamber, unseen and unread.

“He believes he should have the authority to approve everything that comes to the floor,” snarls Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat. “If each and every senator took that responsibility on themselves nothing would get done.”

Oh, the humanity!

Actually, if every senator acted like Sen. Coburn, every bill would be read and debated, and a lot fewer of our tax dollars would be wasted on things never dreamed of — or authorized — by the Founding Fathers.

The big-spending looters who fill most of the seats around him make Sen. Coburn sound like a Grinch, trying to mess up their Christmas feast.

But it’s elected officials who spend our tax money on secret, ill-thought-out payoffs and wasteful programs never authorized in the Constitution who regularly steal the Christmas presents Americans could otherwise afford to put under their trees.

If Sen. Coburn stands alone against these greedy Grinches, we say he deserves a vote of thanks and a fluffy red-and-white suit, and that America needs at least 50 more like him.

“I’m not trying to be in the driver’s seat,” our hero told Bloomberg News this week. “Everybody wants to go home, so they give up their principles to go home. We don’t give up our principles.”

Honestly. What are you going to do with a guy like that?