Give The Senate Some Backbone
by Paul Weyrich

In 1968, the Lt. Governor of Alabama, who had served under George Wallace, was elected to the U.S. Senate.

No one knew what to think of the lanky legislator with the deeply inset eyes. His views were not very well known, certainly not in Washington. As usual, the elites branded him as not very bright. He wasn't educated at one of the approved Eastern schools, after all. To top it off, James B. Allen spoke slowly; with such a distinctive accent that at times he was hard to understand.

Allen, as it turned out, was anything but dumb. He said very little in his first years in the Senate. The Democrats were in control and Allen volunteered to preside over the Senate very frequently. That is a task most Senators would rather avoid. Allen, however, used that time to master the rules.

Most Senators don't know the rules. Those who know the rules make themselves powerful. In the current Senate only Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia is master of the rules. Jesse Helms used to be, but he has left the Senate.

Well, James B. Allen, in due course, emerged as one of the most principled Senators to have served in modern times. He was a tower of strength. His mastery of the rules made him far more powerful than he otherwise would have been as a freshman Senator from Alabama.

He and Helms became fast friends. In our fight against Jimmy Carter's giveaway of the Panama Canal, Allen stood shoulder to shoulder with Helms and Paul Laxalt (R-NV), and tried to get Democrats to vote against the treaty.

When he unexpectedly died a decade after his election, all sides regarded him as an extraordinary man of integrity who fought for what he believed in and who absolutely could not be bought. Both Helms and Ted Kennedy spoke at his funeral.

He left a void that was never quite filled. I remember Senator Helms saying, "I'm just not ready for this," referring to Allen's fatal heart attack. Now with Helms gone, the void is even greater. That's the bad news.

The good news is that there is someone running for the U.S. Senate, who if elected, has the ability and inclination to become another James B. Allen. Former Rep. Tom Coburn faces a three-way Republican primary, which will likely result in a runoff in Oklahoma. If Coburn can survive that, he will then face Rep. Brad Carson, one of the most able Democrats to come along since former Senator David Boren. Some observers believe Coburn is the only Republican who can defeat Carson.

The Republican establishment, including retiring Senator Don Nickles and surprisingly Senator Jim Inhofe, are supporting former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphries. There is little difference in the views of the three Republicans. Coburn, however, is anti-establishment. He fears no man. Only God. In his three terms in the House (he term-limited himself and kept his word), Coburn was willing to take on his own leadership if he felt they were wrong. The House rules do not yield the same sort of power that the Senate rules do, but even so Coburn began to study the rules and used them to his advantage whenever he could.

Coburn is a doctor by profession. He came to Congress in 1994 (the year the GOP took control of the House) from one of the most entrenched Democratic districts in the country. He had no trouble winning re-election in 1996 and 1998. Come 2000 he left the House and fought his second battle with cancer.

Doctors have pronounced him fit to run for the Senate this time.

Coburn got in late and doesn't have the money that the other candidates have. And the establishment is campaigning hard against him. The belief is that if he can make the runoff, he has a good chance at being elected to the Senate.

To have a Tom Coburn, a deeply committed Christian who takes the social issues very seriously, in the Senate would change that body overnight. Once he mastered the Senate rules, and he would, he could begin to have an impact far beyond his status as a freshman Senator.

For once a Senator would go toe-to-toe with Robert C. Byrd. For once some of the issues that didn't seem winnable would become winnable. One time not long before his death, James B. Allen generated a Washington Post headline acknowledging the fact that Allen had absolutely tied up the Senate single-handedly and a dozen pending measures were in limbo because of it. That was what one man could do. Allen did all of that with little help from others.

Allen also joined the Senate Steering Committee, the caucus of conservative Senators I helped to organize. He made that group bi-partisan. He also gave Senators backbone. That's what is missing these days. One Senator of real courage will inspire many others who truly mean well but who are afraid to move.

The establishment fears Tom Coburn. They have good reason to. He will unmask some of the hypocrisy with which they gladly operate. He is a long way from the Senate right now. Indeed, he is clearly the underdog.

Having lived through the era of the late Senator Allen, I can't help but want that era to come back again before the Lord says it is time for me to come home.

Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.