Oklahoma's Coburn says he'd have trouble backing Gingrich for president

Agree 100% that I would have trouble supporting Gingrich for president.  Dr. Coburn is one of quite a few conservatives who had trouble with Gingrich during his time as Speaker.  His open door policy was only for Democrats.  Shame Fox News doesn't see fit to give us the truth about Gingrich as they push one of their pundits for President.  Gingrich is a big government type and should never be considered a fiscal conservative even a little.  His track record is horrible when it comes to being conservative.  Gingrich is out for Newt and no one else.  His trashing Democrats is a recent flip flop after years of playing up to them.  Anyone who swallows he wouldn't sell out conservatives again isn't thinking.

Newt Gingrich is the Fox flavor of the week right now.  He cannot stand up to scrutiny over the long haul because paling around with Pelosi, Hillary, Daschle, and Rev Al Sharpton for an Obama initiative should make any Republican cringe.

Thanks to Dr. Coburn for speaking out!  We need more people who served with Gingrich to tell the truth and not keep quiet when we are talking about the Presidency.  Right now Gingrich is pulling a scam pretending to be conservative but those who know him best see right through his charade.  Conservative leaning media led by Fox pundits is doing the same thing for Gingrich the liberal media did for Obama -- lack of ethics on the part of media not to tell the truth.  Why not report that Gingrich is extremely arrogant and thinks he has the ONLY answers?

Oklahoma's Coburn says he'd have trouble backing Gingrich for president 

In appearance Fox News Sunday, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn said he wasn't impressed with Newt Gingrich's leadership when he was speaker of the U.S. House in the 1990s. 

By Chris Casteel ccasteel@opubco.com
4 December 2011 

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn said he would have trouble supporting Newt Gingrich for president because the Republican's leadership was “lacking” when he was speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Coburn, R-Muskogee, told Chris Wallace, “I'm not inclined to be a supporter of Newt Gingrich, having served under him for four years and experienced personally his leadership.” 

Coburn was part of the freshman class of 1995, when Republicans took over the House for the first time in forty years and made Gingrich, then a House member from Georgia, their speaker. Coburn was also part of a small group of House Republicans who talked about ousting Gingrich in 1997, a year before Gingrich resigned his seat. 

Pressed by Wallace about why he couldn't support Gingrich, Coburn said there were “all types of leaders, leaders that instill confidence, leaders that are somewhat abrupt and brisk, leaders that have one standard for the people that they are leading and a different standard for themselves. I just found his leadership lacking and I'm not going to go into greater detail in that.” 

Coburn's comments came as Gingrich is gaining in the polls as the first Republican presidential primaries approach. Though his campaign faltered at the outset, he now leads in Iowa, according to a Des Moines Register poll released Saturday. 

‘Making hard choices' 

On the Fox News show, Coburn also predicted Congress would extend the payroll tax cut that has benefited workers this year and long-term unemployment benefits, but he said each of the initiatives should be matched with spending cuts so they don't add to the deficit. 

“Nobody is making hard choices now,'' Coburn said. “What they are doing is promising a benefit and no pain now. It always comes later.” 

Coburn and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also said there was a chance that Congress could pass the $4 trillion deficit reduction plan developed last year by President Barack Obama's bipartisan fiscal commission; Coburn and Conrad served on that commission. 

“I think we have a good basis with which to come together — reforming the tax code, generating the additional revenue, modifying the long-term problems associated with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Coburn said. “I think we can do it.”

Read more: The Oklahoman