Silence

Don't waste your breath. Don't call him an "a_ _ _ _ _ _" or "nuts," as Digby does, nor racist.

Tulsaworld.com reports that Senator Tom Coburn was home campaigning in the state in which John McCain got the greatest percentage of his vote in 2008. When

Responding to a man in Langley who asked if Obama "wants to destroy," Coburn said the president is "very bright" and loves his country but has a political philosophy that is "goofy and wrong."

Obama's "intent is not to destroy, but his intent is to create dependency because it worked so well for him," he said.

"As an African-American make," Coburn said, Obama received "tremendous advantage from a lot of these programs."

It seems, though, that Coburn and Obama have a history. Three days after Obama was inaugurated president, The Wall Street Journal explained

Yet the new president has identified the Oklahoma Republican as a conservative he can work with, which says much about the president’s style and strategy. The relationship also illustrates some of the limits of Mr. Obama’s oft-professed desire to find common ground with political opponents....

The two found common cause by uniting to push through a bill designed to stem the spread of earmarks, those legislative provisions that funnel money to lawmakers’ specific pet projects. Their bill aimed to reduce the use of earmarks by casting a harsher spotlight on them, creating a public, searchable online database listing the recipients of all federal spending....

A tie was formed, and Mr. Obama kept it alive by reaching out to Mr. Coburn during the transition. “We have a little talk about spiritual things, and then we’ll talk about other things, things he wants to talk about,” including the use of those financial-market rescue funds, Mr. Coburn says.

A good judge of character, that President of ours. More significantly, The WSJ wrote "Mr. Coburn thinks the new president will be able, in particular, to work with him and other conservatives on measures to make government more transparent and to eliminate programs." No word on whether that included those pesky programs, like Social Security and Medicare, that the President finds wasteful.

It has been two-and-a-half days and nothing- nothing- from the Obama camp on whether he has succeeded only because of programs that "create dependency. Presumably, the White House wants to let stand remarks by a United States Senator, who is accorded attention and respect because of his office and accomplishments, that suggests black men have it so darned easy in the U.S.

So don't get down on Tom Coburn; apparently Barack Obama still believes he is just swell. Instead, ask Coburn: what is that political philosophy is you're referring to, anyway?

Next up: Greg Sargent has a different perspective. An ugly perspective.

Share|