{{infobox senator| name	Tom Coburn
jr/sr	Junior Senator
state	Oklahoma
party	Republican
term start	January 3, 2005
alongside	Jim Inhofe
preceded	Don Nickles
Birthname	Thomas Allen Coburn
birth date	March 14, 1948
birth place	Casper, Wyoming
occupation	physician/politician
residence	Muskogee, Oklahoma
spouse	Carolyn Coburn
children	Callie CoburnKatie CoburnSarah Coburn
alma mater	Oklahoma State University (B.S.), University of Oklahoma (M.D.)
religion	Southern Baptist
state2	Oklahoma
district2
term start2	January 3, 1995
term end2	January 3, 2001
preceded2	Mike Synar
succeeded2	Brad Carson
website	Senator Tom Coburn }}

Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn, M.D. (born March 14, 1948), is an American politician, medical doctor, and Southern Baptist deacon. A member of the Republican Party, he currently serves as the junior U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. In the Senate, he is known as "Dr. No" for his tendency to place holds on and vote against bills he views as unconstitutional.

Coburn was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as part of the Republican Revolution. He upheld his campaign pledge to serve no more than three consecutive terms and did not run for re-election in 2000. In 2004, he returned to political office with a successful run for the U.S. Senate.

Coburn is a fiscal and social conservative, known for his opposition to deficit spending and pork barrel projects, and for his leadership in the pro-life movement. He supports term limits, gun rights, and the death penalty and opposes gay marriage.

While Coburn announced on February 12, 2010 that he was running for a second term in the Senate, he also announced that he would not run for re-election to a third term in the Senate in 2016.

Personal life and medical career

Coburn was born in Casper, Wyoming, the son of Anita Joy (née Allen) and Orin Wesley Coburn. Coburn's father was an optician and founder of Coburn Optical Industries, and named donor to O. W. Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University, dedicated in 1979 and closed in 1985.

Tom Coburn graduated with a B.S. in accounting from Oklahoma State University, where he was also a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. In 1968, he married Carolyn Denton, the 1967 Miss Oklahoma; their three daughters are Callie, Katie, and Sarah, a leading operatic soprano. One of the Top Ten seniors in the School of Business, Coburn served as president of the College of Business Student Council.

From 1970 to 1978, Coburn served as manufacturing manager at the Ophthalmic Division of Coburn Optical Industries in Colonial Heights, Virginia. Under his leadership, the Virginia division of Coburn Optical grew from 13 employees to more than 350 and captured 35 percent of the U.S. market.

After recovering from an occurrence of malignant melanoma, Coburn pursued a medical degree and graduated from the University of Oklahoma Medical School with honors in 1983. He then opened a medical practice in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and served as a deacon in a Southern Baptist Church. Coburn is one of two medical doctors currently serving in the U.S. Senate. During his career in obstetrics, he has treated over 15,000 patients and delivered 4,000 babies, and was subject to one malpractice lawsuit, which was dismissed without finding Coburn at fault. Coburn and his wife are members of First Baptist Church of Muskogee.

In spite of their ideological differences, Coburn is a friend of President Barack Obama. They became friends in 2005 when they both arrived in the Senate at the same time.

Political career

House career

In 1994, Coburn ran for the House of Representatives in Oklahoma's Democratic 2nd Congressional District, which was based in Muskogee and included 22 counties in northeastern Oklahoma. Coburn initially expected to face eight-term incumbent Mike Synar. However, Synar was defeated in a runoff for the Democratic nomination by a 71-year-old retired principal, Virgil Cooper. According to Coburn's 2003 book, ''Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders'', Coburn and Cooper got along well, since both were opposed to the more liberal Synar. The general election was cordial, since both men knew that Synar would not return to Washington regardless of the outcome. Coburn won by a 52%–48% margin, becoming the first Republican to represent the district since 1921.

Coburn was one of the most conservative members of the House. He supported "reducing the size of the federal budget," wanted to make abortion illegal, and supported the proposed television V-chip legislation.

Despite representing a heavily Democratic district, and President Bill Clinton's electoral dominance therein, Coburn was easily reelected in 1996, as well as in 1998.

In the House, Coburn earned a reputation as a political maverick due to his frequent battles with House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Most of these stand-offs stemmed from his belief that the Republican caucus was moving toward the political center and away from the more conservative Contract With America policy proposals that had brought the Republicans into power in Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years.

Coburn endorsed conservative activist and former diplomat Alan Keyes in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries. Coburn retired from Congress in 2001, fulfilling his pledge to serve no more than three terms in the House. His congressional district returned to the Democratic fold, as attorney Brad Carson easily defeated a Republican endorsed by Coburn. After leaving the House and returning to private medical practice, Coburn wrote ''Breach of Trust'', with ghostwriter John Hart, about his experiences in Congress. The book detailed Coburn's perspective on the internal Republican Party debates over the Contract With America and displayed his disdain for career politicians. Some of the figures he criticized (such as Gingrich) were already out of office at the time of the book's publishing, but others (such as former House Speaker Dennis Hastert) remained influential in Congress, which resulted in speculation that some congressional Republicans wanted no part of Coburn's return to politics.

During his tenure in the House, Coburn wrote and passed far-reaching legislation. These include laws to expand seniors' health care options, to protect access to home health care in rural areas and to allow Americans to access cheaper medications from Canada and other nations. Coburn also wrote a law intended to prevent the spread of AIDS to infants. ''The Wall Street Journal'' said about the law, "In 10 long years of AIDS politics and funding, this is actually the first legislation to pass in this country that will rescue babies." He also wrote a law to renew and reform federal AIDS care programs. In 2002, President George W. Bush chose Coburn to serve as co-chair of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).

During his three terms in the House, Coburn also played an influential role in reforming welfare and other federal entitlement programs.

Senate career

In 2004, Coburn chose to challenge the establishment Republican candidate for the open Senate seat being vacated by Don Nickles. Former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys (the favorite of the state and national Republican establishment) and Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony joined the field before Coburn. However, Coburn easily won the primary with 61% of the vote to Humphreys's 25%. In the general election, he faced Brad Carson, a Democrat who had succeeded him in the 2nd District and was giving up his seat after only two terms.

In the election, Coburn won by a margin of 53% to Carson's 42%. While Carson routed Coburn in the heavily Democratic 2nd District generally, Coburn swamped Carson in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and the closer-in Tulsa suburbs. Coburn won the state's two largest counties, Tulsa and Oklahoma, by a combined 86,000 votes, more than half of his overall margin of 166,000 votes.

Coburn's Senate voting record is as conservative as his House record.

Coburn was re-elected in 2010. He received 90% of the vote in the Republican primary and 70% in the general election. Coburn has announced that he will stick to his term limits pledge and retire from the Senate in 2016.

Committee assignments

After taking office in January 2005, Coburn, was selected to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Coburn is the only non-attorney on the Committee.

Coburn is a member of the following committees:

Committee on Finance

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

*Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security

*Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Ranking Member)

*Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight

Committee on the Judiciary

*Subcommittee on the Constitution (Ranking Member)

*Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs

*Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security

Since April 2007, Coburn has been holding the Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act (S.274) from becoming law. This bill relates to so-called whistleblowing, and would effectively reverse the United States Supreme Court's decision in ''Garcetti v. Ceballos'', 547 U.S. 410 (2006). Coburn has also placed a hold on final Senate consideration of a measure passed by the House in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings to improve state performance in checking the federal watch list of gun buyers.

Political positions

Health care reform

Coburn voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Coburn co-authored the Patients Choice Act of 2009 (S. 1099), a Republican plan for Health care reform in the United States, which purported to 1) prevent disease and promote healthier lifestyles, 2) create affordable and accessible health insurance options, 3) equalize the tax treatment of health care, 4) modernize the Medicaid and Medicare beneficiary choice, 5) ensure compensation for injured patients, and 6) establish transparency in health care price and quality.

Iraq War appropriations

On May 24, 2007, the US Senate voted 80–14 to fund the war in Iraq. Coburn voted nay. On October 1, 2007, the Senate voted 92–3 to fund the war in Iraq. Coburn voted nay. In February 2008, Coburn said, "I will tell you personally that I think it was probably a mistake going to Iraq."

Abortion

Coburn opposes abortion, with the exception of abortions necessary to save the mother. In 2000 he sponsored a bill to prevent the Food and Drug Administration from developing, testing, or approving the abortifacient RU-486. On July 13, the bill failed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 182 to 187. On the issue, Coburn sparked controversy with his remark, "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life." He noted that his great-grandmother was raped by a sheriff, and in the Senate confirmation hearings concerning Samuel Alito, said his grandmother was a product of that rape.

Coburn was "one of the original authors" of the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act upheld by the Supreme Court in ''Gonzales v. Carhart''. The act relied on a "very expansive view" of the Constitution's Commerce Clause, as it applies to "any physician who, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion." The Act's reliance on such a broad reading of the Commerce Clause was criticized by Independence Institute scholar David Kopel and University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, who noted that "[u]nless a physician is operating a mobile abortion clinic on the Metroliner, it is not really possible to perform an abortion 'in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.'" When Coburn later called Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan "ignorant" due to her "very expansive view" of the Commerce Clause, his support for the Act was used to suggest his hypocrisy on the issue.

On September 14, 2005, during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts, Coburn began his opening statement with a critique of Beltway partisan politics while, according to news reports, "choking back a sob." Coburn had earlier been completing a crossword puzzle during the hearings, and this fact was used by "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" to ridicule Coburn's pathos. Coburn then began his questioning by discussing the various legal terms mentioned during the previous day's hearings. Proceeding to questions regarding both abortion and end-of-life issues, Coburn, who noted that during his tenure as an obstetrician he had delivered some 4,000 babies, asked Roberts whether the judge agreed with the proposition that "the opposite of being dead is being alive."

Fiscal conservatism

Coburn made several attempts in 2005 to combat pork barrel spending in the federal budget. The best-known of these was an amendment to the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill that funds transportation projects. Coburn's amendment would have transferred funding from the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska to rebuild Louisiana's "Twin Spans" bridge, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The amendment was defeated in the Senate, 82-14, after Ted Stevens, the senior senator from Alaska, threatened to resign his office if the amendment were passed. Coburn's actions did result in getting the funds made into a more politically feasible block grant to the State of Alaska, which can use the funds for the bridge or other projects.

Coburn is also a member of the Fiscal Watch Team, a group of seven senators led by John McCain, whose stated goal is to combat "wasteful government spending."

On April 6, 2006, Coburn and Senators Barack Obama, Thomas Carper, and John McCain introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. The bill requires the full disclosure of all entities and organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2007 on a website maintained by the Office of Management and Budget. The bill was signed into law on September 26, 2006.

Coburn and McCain noted that the practice of members of Congress adding earmarks has risen dramatically over the years, from 121 earmarks in 1987 to 15,268 earmarks in 2005, according to the Congressional Research Service.

In July 2007, Coburn criticized pork-barrel spending that Senator Ben Nelson had inserted into the 2007 defense spending bill. Coburn said that the earmarks would benefit Nelson's son Patrick's employer with millions in federal dollars, and that the situation violated terms of the Transparency Act, which was passed by the Senate but had not yet been voted on in the House. Nelson's spokesperson said the Senator did nothing wrong. At that time, newspapers in Nebraska and Oklahoma noted that Coburn failed to criticize very similar earmarks that benefited Oklahoma.

In 1997, Coburn introduced a bill called the HIV Prevention Act of 1997, which would have amended the Social Security Act. The bill would have required confidential notification of HIV exposure to the sexual partners of those diagnosed with HIV, along with counseling and testing. The bill was endorsed by the American Medical Association and had over 100 co-sponsors. Coburn also offered an amendment that would have prohibited insurance companies from discriminating against someone who was tested for HIV, regardless of the result, and introduced a bill to expand AIDS coverage for those enrolled in Medicare. He was the primary House sponsor of the 2000 Ryan White CARE Act re-authorization that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

In 2010, Coburn called for freeze on defense spending. The following year, along with Democratic Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, he introduced a bill to "get rid of the most venerable big ethanol subsidy: the blenders tax credit."

In 2011 Coburn broke with Americans for Tax Reform with an ethanol amendment that gathered 70 votes in the Senate, and said that anti-tax activist Grover Norquist's influence was overstated and that in order to "fix the country" revenue increases were needed.

Presidential nominations

During the administration of President George W. Bush, Coburn spoke out against the threat by some Democrats to filibuster nominations to judicial and Executive Branch positions. He took the position that no presidential nomination should ever be filibustered, in light of the wording of the U.S. Constitution. Coburn said, "There is a defined charge to the president and the Senate on advice and consent."

In May 2009, Coburn was the only Senator to vote against confirmation of Gil Kerlikowske as the Director of the National Drug Control Policy.

Tobacco

Coburn has said tobacco should not have additional regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in addition to the current Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) oversight. "Tom Coburn is consistent in his free market philosophy and in his strict reading of what Congress can and can't do," according to the ''Tulsa World'' and other sources.

Gun rights

Regarding the Second Amendment, Coburn believes that it "recognizes the right of individual, law-abiding citizens to own and use firearms," and he opposes "any and all efforts to mandate gun control on law-abiding citizens." On the Credit CARD Act of 2009, which aimed "to establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit under an open end consumer credit plan, and for other purposes," Coburn sponsored an amendment that would allow concealed carry of weapons in national parks. The Senate passed the amendment 67-29.

Issues

Coburn was involved in the Bush Administration's struggle with Congress over whistleblower rights. In the case of ''Garcetti v. Ceballos'', the Supreme Court ruled that government employees who testify against their employers did not have protection from retaliation by their employers under the First Amendment of the Constitution. The free speech protections of the First Amendment have long been used to shield whistleblowers from retaliation.

In response to the Supreme Court decision, the House passed H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2007. Bush, citing national security concerns, promised to veto the bill should it be enacted into law by Congress. The Senate's version of the Whistleblower Protection Act (S. 274) was approved by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on June 13, 2007. However, it has yet to reach a vote by the Senate, as Coburn placed a hold on the bill; this effectively prevents passage of the bill, which has bipartisan support in the Senate.

Coburn's website features a news item about United Nations whistleblower Mathieu Credo Koumoin, a former employee for the U.N. Development Program in West Africa, who has asked U.N. ethics chief Robert Benson for protection under the U.N.'s new whistleblower protection rules. The site has a link to the "United Nations Watch" of the Republican Office of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security, of which he is the ranking minority member. Coburn's website also features a tip line for potential whistleblowers on government waste and fraud.

Allegations of non-consensual sterilization and Medicaid fraud

A sterilization Coburn performed on a 20-year-old woman, Angela Plummer, in 1990 became what was called "the most incendiary issue" of his Senate campaign. Coburn performed the sterilization on the woman during an emergency surgery to treat a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, removing her intact fallopian tube as well as the one damaged by the surgery. The woman sued Coburn, alleging that he did not have consent to sterilize her, while Coburn claimed he had her oral consent. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed with no finding of liability on Coburn's part.

The state attorney general claimed that Coburn committed Medicaid fraud by not reporting the sterilization when he filed a claim for the emergency surgery. Medicaid did not reimburse doctors for sterilization procedures for patients under 21, and according to the attorney general, Coburn would not have been reimbursed at all had he not withheld this information. Coburn says since he did not file a claim for the sterilization, no fraud was committed. No charges were filed against Coburn for this claim.

"Schindler's List" TV broadcast

As a congressman in 1997, Coburn protested NBC's plan to air the R-rated Academy Award-winning Holocaust drama ''Schindler's List'' during prime time. Coburn stated that, in airing the movie without editing it for television, TV had been taken "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." He also said the TV broadcast should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere. Coburn described the airing of ''Schindler's List'' on television as "irresponsible sexual behavior. I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program."

This statement met with strong criticism, as the film deals mainly with the Holocaust. After heavy criticism, Coburn apologized "to all those I have offended" and clarified that he agreed with the movie being aired on television, but stated that it should have been on later in the evening. In apologizing, Coburn said that at that time of the evening there are still large numbers of children watching without parental supervision, and stated that he stood by his message of protecting children from violence, but had expressed it poorly. He also said, "My intentions were good, but I've obviously made an error in judgment in how I've gone about saying what I wanted to say."

He later wrote in ''Breach of Trust'' that he considered this one of the biggest mistakes in his life and that, while he still feels the material was unsuitable for an 8PM television broadcast, he handled the situation poorly.

Use of Senatorial 'hold' privilege

Coburn has used the special hold privilege to prevent several bills from coming to the Senate floor. The hold privilege is allowed by Rule VII of the Senate Standing Rules. The practice is generally used to form consensus on questionable legislation and has come under fire for its procedural secrecy. Coburn has actively exercised the privilege, and has earned a reputation for his use of the procedural mechanism. For example, in November 2009 Coburn drew considerable attention for placing a hold on a veterans' benefits bill known as the Veterans’ Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act. Coburn has also placed a hold on a bill whose goal is to help end hostilities in Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army.

Rachel Carson commemoration

On May 23, 2007, Coburn threatened to block two bills honoring the 100th birthday of Rachel Carson. Coburn called Carson's work "junk science," proclaiming that ''Silent Spring'' "was the catalyst in the deadly worldwide stigmatization against insecticides, especially DDT."

Advancing America's Priorities Act

In response to Coburn's repeated holds on legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced the Advancing America's Priorities Act, , in July 2008. S. 3297 combined several bills which Coburn had blocked into what became known as a "Tomnibus" bill, a reference to omnibus bills used to combine several individual bills into one piece of legislation. The bill included health care provisions, new penalties for child pornography, and several natural resources bills. However, it failed to achieve cloture.

Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act

Coburn opposed parts of the legislation creating the Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Area, which would add protections to wildlands in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Coburn exercised a one-vote hold on the legislation in both March and November 2008, and decried the required $10 million for surveying and mapping as wasteful. The Mount Hood bill would have been the largest amount of land added to federal protection since 1984.

In March 2009, those wilderness areas became protected under the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which passed the Senate 73-21.

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

According to the ''Boston Globe'', Coburn initially blocked passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), objecting to provisions in the bill that allow discrimination based on genetic information from embryos and fetuses. After embryo loophole was closed, Coburn lifted his hold on the bill.

LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act

Coburn was previously blocking passage of the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, which would help to disarm the Lord's Resistance Army, a political group accused of human rights abuses. On March 9, 2010 Coburn lifted his hold on the LRA bill freeing it to move to the Senate floor after reaching a compromise regarding the funding of the bill.

Affiliation with The Family and John Ensign

Coburn is affiliated with a religious organization called The Family. Coburn previously lived in one of the Family's Washington, D.C. dormitories with then-Senator John Ensign, another Family member and longtime resident of the C Street Center who admitted he had an extramarital affair with a staffer in 2009. The announcement by Ensign of his infidelity brought public scrutiny of the Family and its connection to other high-ranking politicians, including Coburn.

Coburn, together with senior members of the Family, attempted to intervene to end Ensign's affair in February 2008, prior to the affair becoming public, including by meeting with the husband of Ensign's mistress and encouraging Ensign to write a letter to his mistress breaking off the affair. Ensign was driven to Federal Express from C Street Center to post the letter, shortly after which Ensign called to tell his mistress to ignore it.

Coburn refuses to speak about his involvement in Ensign's affair or his knowledge of the affair well before it became public, asserting legal privilege due to his separate statuses as a licensed physician in the State of Oklahoma and an ordained deacon.

In October 2009, Coburn did make a statement to the ''New York Times'' about Ensign's affair and cover-up: "John got trapped doing something really stupid and then made a lot of other mistakes afterward. Judgment gets impaired by arrogance, and that's what's going on here."

Council on American-Islamic Relations

Coburn joined Congressmen Sue Myrick (R-NC), Trent Franks (R-AZ), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Paul Broun (R-GA), and Patrick McHenry (R-NC) in a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman on November 16, 2009, asking that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) be investigated for excessive lobbying and failing to register as a lobbying organization. The request came in the wake of the publication of a book, ''Muslim Mafia'', the foreword of which had been penned by Myrick, that portrayed CAIR as a subversive organization allied with international terrorists.

National Science Foundation criticism

On May 26, 2011 Coburn released his 73-page report, "National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope", receiving immediate attention from such media outlets as the ''New York Times'', Fox News, and MSNBC.

Miscellany

Even though President Barack Obama and Coburn are nearly polar opposites on most political matters, the two are personally friendly and have worked together on certain issues, such as political ethics reform legislation. In particular, they worked together to set up an online federal spending database, and to crack down on no-bid contracting at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In April 2011, Coburn spoke to Bloomberg TV about Obama, saying, "I love the man. I think he's a neat man. I don't want him to be president, but I still love him. He is our President. He's my President. And I disagree with him adamantly on 95% of the issues, but that doesn't mean I can't have a great relationship. And that's a model people ought to follow."

Prior to the 2009 BCS game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Florida Gators, Coburn made a bet over the outcome of the game with Florida Senator Bill Nelson--the loser had to serenade the winner with a song. The Gators defeated the Sooners, and Coburn sang Elton John's "Rocket Man" to Nelson, who had once flown into space.

Involvement in Ensign scandal

In May 2011, the Senate Ethics Committee identified Coburn in their report on the ethics violations of Senator John Ensign. The report stated that Coburn knew about Ensign's extramarital affair and was involved in trying to negotiate a financial settlement to cover it up.

Electoral history

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em ; font-size:95%" |+ : Results 1994–1998 !|Year ! !|Democrat !|Votes !|Pct ! !|Republican !|Votes !|Pct ! !|3rd Party !|Party !|Votes !|Pct ! |- |1994 | | | | align="right" |75,943 | |48% | | | | align="right" |82,479 | |52% | | | | | | |- |1996 | | | | align="right" |90,120 | |45% | | |Tom A. Coburn | align="right" |112,273 | |55% | | | | | | |- |1998 | | | | align="right" |59,042 | |40% | | |Tom A. Coburn | align="right" |85,581 | |58% | | |Albert Jones | |Independent | align="right" |3,641 | align="right" |2% |

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em ; font-size:95%" |+ Oklahoma Senator (Class III) results: 2004-2010 !|Year ! !|Democrat !|Votes !|Pct ! !|Republican !|Votes !|Pct ! !|3rd Party !|Party !|Votes !|Pct ! !|3rd Party !|Party !|Votes !|Pct ! |- |2004 | | |Brad Carson | align="right" |596,750 | |41% | | |Tom A. Coburn | align="right" |763,433 | |53% | | |Sheila Bilyeu | |Independent | align="right" |86,663 | align="right" |6% | | | | | |- |2010 | | |Jim Rogers | align="right" |265,519 | |26% | | |Tom A. Coburn | align="right" |716,347 | |71% | | |Stephen Wallace | |Independent | align="right" |25,048 | align="right" |2% | | |Ronald Dwyer | |Independent | align="right" |7,807 | align="right" |1% |

Notes

External links

United States Senator Tom Coburn ''official Senate site''

Coburn for Senate ''official campaign site''

Profile at SourceWatch

Coburn, Thomas in the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

{{U.S. Senator box |state=Oklahoma |class=3 |before=Don Nickles | start=2005 | alongside=Jim Inhofe}}

Category:1948 births Category:Physicians from Oklahoma Category:Living people Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Oklahoma Category:Oklahoma Republicans Category:Oklahoma State University alumni Category:People from Casper, Wyoming Category:People from Muskogee, Oklahoma Category:Promise Keepers Category:Southern Baptists Category:United States Senators from Oklahoma Category:University of Oklahoma alumni Category:Republican Party United States Senators

de:Tom Coburn fr:Tom Coburn nl:Tom Coburn no:Tom Coburn pl:Tom Coburn pt:Tom Coburn ru:Кобёрн, Том simple:Tom Coburn sh:Tom Coburn fi:Tom Coburn sv:Tom Coburn

Name	Charlie Rose
Birthname	Charles Peete Rose, Jr.
Birth date	January 05, 1942
Birth place	Henderson, North Carolina, U.S.
education	Duke University B.A. (1964) Duke University J.D. (1968)
occupation	Talk show hostJournalist
years active	1972–present
credits	''Charlie Rose'', ''60 Minutes II'', ''60 Minutes'', ''CBS News Nightwatch'', ''CBS This Morning''
url	http://www.charlierose.com/ }}

Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted ''Charlie Rose'', an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993. He has also co-anchored ''CBS This Morning'' since January 2012.

Early life

Rose was born in Henderson, North Carolina, the only child of Margaret Frazier and Charles Peete Rose, Sr., tobacco farmers who owned a country store. As a child, Rose lived above his parents' store in Henderson and helped out with the family business from age seven. A high school basketball star, Rose entered Duke University intending to pursue a degree with a pre-med track, but an internship in the office of Democratic North Carolina Senator B. Everett Jordan got him interested in politics. Rose graduated in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in history. At Duke, he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. He earned a Juris Doctor from the Duke University School of Law in 1968. He met his wife, Mary (''née'' King), while attending Duke.

Career

After his wife was hired by the BBC (in New York), Rose handled some assignments for the BBC on a freelance basis. In 1972, while continuing to work at Bankers Trust, he landed a job as a weekend reporter for WPIX-TV. His break came in 1974, after Bill Moyers hired Rose as managing editor for the PBS series ''Bill Moyers' International Report''. In 1975, Moyers named Rose executive producer of ''Bill Moyers Journal''. Rose soon began appearing on camera. "A Conversation with Jimmy Carter," one installment of Moyers's series ''U.S.A.: People and Politics'', won a 1976 Peabody Award. Rose worked at several networks honing his interview skills until KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth hired him as program manager and gave him the late-night time slot that would become the ''Charlie Rose'' show.

Rose worked for CBS News (1984–1990) as the anchor of ''CBS News Nightwatch'', the network's first late-night news broadcast. The ''Nightwatch'' broadcast of Rose's interview with Charles Manson won an Emmy Award in 1987. In 1990, Rose left CBS to serve as anchor of ''Personalities'', a syndicated program produced by Fox Broadcasting Company, but he got out of his contract after six weeks because of the tabloid-style content of the show. ''Charlie Rose'' premiered on PBS station Thirteen/WNET on September 30, 1991, and has been nationally syndicated since January 1993. In 1994, Rose moved the show to a studio owned by Bloomberg Television, which allowed for improved satellite interviewing.

Rose was a correspondent for ''60 Minutes II'' from its inception in January 1999 until its cancellation in September 2005, and was later named a correspondent on ''60 Minutes''.

Rose was a member of the board of directors of Citadel Broadcasting Corporation from 2003 to 2009. In May 2010, Charlie Rose delivered the commencement address at North Carolina State University.

On November 15, 2011, it was announced that Rose would return to CBS to help anchor ''CBS This Morning'', replacing ''The Early Show'', commencing January 9, 2012, along with co-anchors Erica Hill and Gayle King.

Cameo appearances

Rose has appeared as himself in the 1998 film ''Primary Colors'', in a 2000 episode of ''The Simpsons'' and in the 2008 movie ''Elegy''. He and his show were also used in the Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. He also appears as himself in the 2011 George Clooney directed film, ''The Ides of March''.

Accusations of conflict of interest

While hosting the 2002 Coca-Cola Company shareholders' meeting, Rose said "few companies are able to connect as completely with consumers in the way that Coca-Cola is. It is a privilege to be associated with [The Coca-Cola family] ... This is the business of Coca-Cola: being part of a family, being worldwide, doing well and doing good at the same time." Afterward, Coca-Cola agreed to become what Rose called "a leading underwriter" of ''The Charlie Rose Show'', paying "six or possibly seven figures." Even the Charlie Rose mugs used on his PBS show feature a Coca-Cola logo on one side. Although CBS News policy bars correspondents from doing commercials and product endorsements, the ''Washington Post'' reported CBS was "comfortable" with Rose's actions. Rose insists he "would never do a story on ''60 Minutes II'' about anybody who underwrites my PBS show."

Quiet influence

''The New York Times'' reported that Rose encouraged a discussion between the leaders of NBC and Fox, that led eventually to a mutual reduction in ad hominem attacks between Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly on their respective news programs.

Rose has attended several Bilderberg Group conference meetings, including meetings held in the United States in 2008; Spain in 2010; and Switzerland in 2011. These unofficial conferences hold guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are political leaders and businessmen. Details of meetings are closed off to the public and strictly invitation-only, and critics speculate the controversial nature of these meetings of highly influential people. Accusations from conspiracy theorists against The Charlie Rose show claim that it has become the US media outlet for Bilderberg.

Personal life

Rose's twelve-year marriage to Mary Rose (née King) ended in divorce in 1980. Mary is the sister-in-law of Morgan Stanley Chairman John J. Mack. Since 1993, his companion has been socialite and city-planning advocate Amanda Burden, a stepdaughter of CBS founder William S. Paley.

On March 29, 2006, after experiencing shortness of breath in Syria, Rose was flown to Paris and underwent surgery for mitral valve repair in the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital. His surgery was performed under the supervision of Alain F. Carpentier, a pioneer of the procedure. Rose returned to the air on June 12, 2006, with Bill Moyers and Yvette Vega (the show's executive producer), to discuss his surgery and recuperation.

Rose owns a farm in Oxford, North Carolina, an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York City, a beach house in Bellport, New York and an apartment in Washington D.C..

References

External links

Charlie Rose Official website of his eponymous show

Charlie Rose official channel on ''YouTube''

Charlie Rose collected news and commentary at the ''Los Angeles Times''

Charlie Rose shows on Hulu

celebritynetworth.com, Celebrity Net Worth, Charlie Rose

Why Business Loves Charlie Rose David A. Kaplan, ''Fortune'', September 28, 2009

Category:American journalists Category:American television talk show hosts Category:New York television reporters Category:CBS News Category:60 Minutes correspondents Category:Duke University alumni Category:New York University alumni Category:People from Henderson, North Carolina Category:1942 births Category:Living people

bg:Чарли Роуз de:Charlie Rose fa:چارلی رز fr:Charlie Rose he:צ'ארלי רוז ro:Charlie Rose ru:Роуз, Чарли sv:Charlie Rose

name	Laura Ingraham
birth date
birth place	Glastonbury, Connecticut, U.S.
residence	Washington, D.C.
nationality	American
education	Dartmouth College University of Virginia School of Law
occupation	Radio personality
religion	Roman Catholic
website	lauraingraham.com
footnotes	}}

Laura Anne Ingraham (born June 19, 1964) is an American radio host, author, and conservative political commentator. Her nationally syndicated talk show, ''The Laura Ingraham Show'', airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network. ''The Laura Ingraham Show'' is ranked eighth among most-listened-to talk radio programs, with an average 5.5 million weekly listeners.

Career

Ingraham grew up in a middle-class family in Glastonbury, Connecticut and graduated from Glastonbury High School, in 1981.

Ingraham earned a bachelor's degree at Dartmouth College, in 1985, and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at the University of Virginia School of Law, in 1991. As a Dartmouth undergraduate, she was a staff member of the independent conservative newspaper, ''The Dartmouth Review''. In her senior year, she was the newspaper's editor-in-chief, its first female editor. She wrote a few controversial articles during her tenure, such as a piece characterizing a campus gay rights group as "cheerleaders for latent campus Sodomites". She also secretly tape recorded the organization's meetings, and sent copies to the participants' parents. Jeffrey Hart, the faculty adviser for ''The Dartmouth Review'', described Ingraham as having "the most extreme antihomosexual views imaginable," and noted that "she went so far as to avoid a local eatery where she feared the waiters were homosexual and might touch her silverware or spit on her food, exposing her to AIDS." In 1997, Ingraham wrote an essay in the ''Washington Post'' in which she stated that she changed her views after witnessing "the dignity, fidelity and courage" with which her gay brother Curtis and his late companion coped with AIDS. She said she now understands why gays need protection and regrets her "callous rhetoric."

In the late 1980s, Ingraham worked as a speechwriter in the Ronald Reagan administration for the Domestic Policy advisor. She also briefly served as editor of ''The Prospect'', the magazine issued by Concerned Alumni of Princeton. After law school, in 1991, she served as a law clerk for Judge Ralph K. Winter, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York and subsequently clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She then worked as an attorney at the New York-based law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Ingraham has had two stints as a cable television host. In the late 1990s, she became a CBS commentator and hosted the MSNBC program ''Watch It!'' Several years later, Ingraham began openly campaigning for another cable television show on her radio program. She finally got her wish in 2008, when Fox News Channel gave her a three-week trial run for a new show entitled ''Just In''. She appeared on a 1995 cover of ''The New York Times Magazine'' for an article about rising young conservatives, in which she joked about subjugating Third World countries.

She also appeared on the August 3, 2010, episode of ''The Colbert Report'', where Stephen Colbert implied that she had integrated "hideous, hackneyed racial stereotypes" into her book ''The Obama Diaries''. In reply, she suggested that a word Colbert had previously used to label her, banshee, which is of Irish origin, also contained racial overtones, suggesting that it may be offensive to Native Americans. Her latest book is titled Of Thee I Zing and was released on July 12th, 2011.

Radio show host

Ingraham launched ''The Laura Ingraham Show'' in April 2001, which is heard on 306 stations and on XM Satellite Radio. The show was originally syndicated by Infinity's (now CBS's) Westwood One, but is now syndicated by Talk Radio Network. Ingraham is also the official guest host of ''The O'Reilly Factor'' on Fox News Channel and a weekly contributor with her segment, "The Ingraham Angle."

In one of her most famous incidents, on Election Day 2006 Ingraham encouraged listeners to jam the phone line of a toll-free Democratic Party service for reporting voting problems. No tangible consequences came of it. In 2008, Laura Ingraham was rated as the No. 6 radio show host in America, by ''Talkers Magazine''. She was as high as No. 5, in the past, according to the same publication.

Ingraham is represented by the Executive Speakers Bureau, of Memphis, Tennessee, and receives between $20,000-$30,000 per appearance.

Books

''The Hillary Trap: Looking for Power in All the Wrong Places'', first published June 2000, while the author was a talk show host on MSNBC, was updated and reissued in paperback December 25, 2005. It analyzes and reinterprets Hillary Clinton as a faux feminist, whose "liberal feminism has created a culture that rewards dependency, encourages fragmentation, undermines families, and celebrates victimhood".

''Shut Up & Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN Are Subverting America'', published October 25, 2003, decries liberal "elites" in politics, the media, academia, arts and entertainment, business, and international organizations, on behalf of "disrespected" Middle Americans, whom the author praises as "the kind of people who are the lifeblood of healthy democratic societies".

''Power to the People'', a ''New York Times'' number one best seller, published September 11, 2007, focuses on what Ingraham calls the "pornification" of America and stresses the importance of popular participation in culture, promoting conservative values in family life, education and patriotism.

''The Obama Diaries'', a ''New York Times'' number one best seller, published July 13, 2010. The book is a fictional collection of diary entries purportedly made by Barack Obama, which the author uses satirically to criticize Mr. Obama, his family and his administration.

''Of Thee I Zing'', a ''New York Times'' best seller, published July 12, 2011. The book is a collection of humorous anecdotes meant to point out the decline of American culture, from muffin tops to body shots.

Personal

Ingraham was once engaged to conservative author and fellow Dartmouth alumnus Dinesh D'Souza. She also has dated former New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli.

She had become estranged from her brother, Curtis, for number of years, but they reconciled as young adults. On February 23, 1997, she had an op-ed published in the ''Washington Post'' where she spoke of her maturing:

"In the ten years since I learned my brother Curtis was gay my views and rhetoric about homosexuality have been tempered, because I have seen him and his companion Richard lead their lives with dignity, fidelity and courage."

In April 2005, she announced that she was engaged to businessman James V. Reyes, with a wedding planned in May or June 2005. On April 26, 2005, she announced that she had undergone breast cancer surgery. On May 11, 2005, Ingraham told listeners that her engagement to Reyes was canceled, citing issues regarding her diagnosis with breast cancer. Despite the breakup, she maintained that the two remain good friends and had told listeners, in 2006, that she was in good health.

She is a convert to Catholicism. In May 2008, Ingraham adopted a young girl from Guatemala, whom she has named Maria Caroline. In July 2009 she adopted a 13-month-old boy, Michael Dmitri, from Russia.

Activism

Code Red Rally

On December 8, 2009, Ingraham broadcast her support of a rally protesting the 2009 health care reform bill that was to be held in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Capitol on December 15, 2009.

See also

List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

References

External links

Laura Ingraham at NNDB

Photos of Ingraham in Iraq, February 2006, at LauraIngraham.com

Category:1964 births Category:American anti-communists Category:American anti–illegal immigration activists Category:American lawyers Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:American talk radio hosts Category:Breast cancer survivors Category:Commentators Category:Connecticut Republicans Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Dartmouth College alumni Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Category:Living people Category:People from Glastonbury, Connecticut Category:University of Virginia School of Law alumni

ar:لورا انغرام de:Laura Ingraham et:Laura Ingraham es:Laura Ingraham pl:Laura Ingraham simple:Laura Ingraham sh:Laura Ingraham yi:לארע אינגרעהעם

name	Sean Hannity
birth date	December 30, 1961|
birth place	New York City, New York United States
nationality	American
known for	Political commentary
education	New York University (did not graduate)Adelphi University (did not graduate)
employer	Citadel Broadcasting, Fox News Channel
occupation	Radio host/television host, political commentator, author
party	Conservative Party of New York State
religion	Catholic
spouse	Jill Rhodes Hannity
parents	Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity
website	Hannity.com
footnotes	}}

Sean Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, ''Hannity'', on Fox News Channel. Hannity has written three ''New York Times''–bestselling books: ''Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism'', ''Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism'', and ''Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda''.

Personal background

Hannity is the son of Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity. His paternal and maternal grandparents emigrated from Ireland. He has two sisters, Joanne S. Hannity and Therese (Hannity) Grisham. He grew up in Franklin Square, New York and attended Sacred Heart Seminary in Hempstead, New York during his middle school years and St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary high school in Uniondale, New York. Hannity dropped out of New York University and Adelphi University to pursue his broadcasting career.

During the late 1980s, Hannity was a bartender in Santa Barbara, California.

Professional life

Hannity hosted his first talk radio show in 1989 at the volunteer college station at UC Santa Barbara, KCSB-FM, while working as a general contractor. The show aired for 40 hours of air time; Regarding his first show, Hannity has said, "I wasn't good at it. I was terrible." Hannity's weekly show on KCSB was canceled after less than a year by station managers upset with his remarks about gays and lesbians. This was after two shows featuring the book ''The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS'' by Gene Antonio; among other remarks, Hannity told a lesbian caller "I feel sorry for your child". The station later reversed its decision to dismiss Hannity due in part to a campaign conducted by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Hannity decided against returning to KCSB.

After leaving KCSB, Hannity placed an ad in radio publications presenting himself as "the most talked about college radio host in America." Radio station WVNN in Athens, Alabama (part of the Huntsville market) then hired him to be the afternoon talk show host. From Huntsville, he moved to WGST in Atlanta in 1992, filling the slot vacated by Neal Boortz, who had moved to competing station WSB. In September 1996 Fox News co-founder Roger Ailes hired the then relatively unknown Hannity to host a television program under the working title ''Hannity and LTBD'' ("liberal to be determined"). Alan Colmes was then hired to co-host and the show debuted as ''Hannity & Colmes''.

Later that year Hannity left WGST for New York, where WABC had him substitute for their afternoon drive time host during Christmas week. In January 1997, WABC put Hannity on the air full-time, giving him the late night time slot. WABC then moved Hannity to the same drive time slot he had filled temporarily a little more than a year earlier. Hannity has been on WABC's afternoon time slot since January 1998.

Conservative Cal Thomas and liberal Bob Beckel, in their book ''Common Ground'', describe Hannity as a leader of the pack among broadcasting political polarizers, which following James Q. Wilson they define as those who have "an intense commitment to a candidate, a culture, or an ideology that sets people in one group definitively apart from people in another, rival group."

Television

Hannity was a co-host of ''Hannity & Colmes'', an American political "point-counterpoint"-style television program on the Fox News Channel featuring Hannity and Alan Colmes as co-hosts. Hannity presented the conservative point of view with Colmes providing the liberal viewpoint. Critics argued that the show highlighted Hannity's views and those of conservative guests over Colmes' and those of liberal guests.

Hannity had on air clashes with show guests such as Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer of Human Life International, who challenged Hannity on his public dissent from the Catholic Church on the issue of contraception. Hannity stated that if the Catholic Church were to excommunicate him over the issue, he would join Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church.

In January 2007, Hannity began a new Sunday night television show on Fox News, ''Hannity's America''.

In November 2008, Colmes announced his departure from ''Hannity & Colmes.'' After the show's final broadcast on January 9, 2009, Hannity took over the time slot with his own new show, ''Hannity'', which has a format similar to ''Hannity's America''

Radio

Hannity's radio program is a conservative political talk show that features Hannity's opinions and ideology related to current issues and politicians. ''The Sean Hannity Show'' began national syndication on September 10, 2001 on over 500 stations nationwide. As of spring 2008, the program is heard by over 13.25 million listeners a week. In 2004, Hannity signed a $25 million five-year contract extension with ABC Radio (now Citadel Media) to continue the show through 2009. The program was made available via Armed Forces Radio Network in 2006. In June 2007, ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Communications.

In January 2007, Clear Channel Communications signed a groupwide three-year extension with Hannity on over 80 stations. The largest stations in the group deal included KTRH Houston, KFYI Phoenix, WPGB Pittsburgh, WKRC Cincinnati, WOOD Grand Rapids, WFLA Tampa, WOAI San Antonio, WLAC Nashville, and WREC Memphis.

The opening theme music for the ''Sean Hannity Show'' is "Independence Day" by Martina McBride followed by "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor.

Books

Hannity is the author of three books. The first two, ''Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism'' and ''Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism'', were published through ReganBooks. Both of these books reached the nonfiction ''New York Times'' bestseller list, the second of which stayed there for five weeks. Hannity has stated that he is too busy to write many books, and dictated a lot of his own two books into a tape recorder while driving in to do his radio show.

Hannity wrote his third book, ''Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda'', which was released by HarperCollins on March 30, 2010. The book became Hannity's third ''New York Times'' Bestseller.

Freedom Concerts

Since 2003, Hannity has hosted country music–themed "Freedom Concerts" to raise money for charity. According to WHIO, more than $9 million has been raised by the concerts and by WHIO listeners as of 2009.

Artists such as Charlie Daniels, Billy Ray Cyrus, Hank Williams, Jr., Ted Nugent, Montgomery Gentry, Martina McBride, Buddy Jewell, LeAnn Rimes, Lee Greenwood, Michael W. Smith, and Avalon have headlined at these concerts. Between musical sets, the concerts include short intermissions with politically conservative speakers such as Oliver North, G. Gordon Liddy, Mark Levin, Newt Gingrich, Jon Voight, and Rudy Giuliani. Headlining names for the 2010 concert series were Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels, and Michael W. Smith.

Awards and honors

Hannity received a Marconi Award in 2003 and 2007 as the Network Syndicated Personality of the Year from the National Association of Broadcasters. In 2009, ''Talkers Magazine'' listed Hannity as #2 on their list of the 100 most important radio talk show hosts in America. The same magazine gave Hannity their Freedom of Speech Award in 2003. In 2005, Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, awarded Hannity an honorary degree. ''Radio and Records'' magazine has honored Hannity with the National Talk Show Host of the Year Award for three consecutive years.

Bibliography

Hannity, Sean (2002). ''Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism'', ReganBooks, ISBN 0-06-051455-8.

Hannity, Sean (2004). ''Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism'', ReganBooks, ISBN 0-06-058251-0.

Hannity, Sean (2010). ''Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda'', Harper Paperbacks, ISBN 0-06-200305-4.

References

External links

Sean Hannity's official website

Sean Hannity's biography (Fox News)

''Hannity'' Official Fox News site

List of radio stations streaming the Sean Hannity Show

Sean Hannity's bio and title list from HarperCollins

Timeline of Hannity's life and career

Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:Adelphi University alumni Category:American broadcast news analysts Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:American talk radio hosts Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Environmental skepticism Category:New York University alumni Category:People from New York City Category:People from Nassau County, New York Category:Fox News Channel people

de:Sean Hannity et:Sean Hannity es:Sean Hannity fr:Sean Hannity no:Sean Hannity pl:Sean Hannity simple:Sean Hannity sh:Sean Hannity fi:Sean Hannity sv:Sean Hannity yi:שאן הענעטי