Oklahoma, where Coburn comes sweepin' down the plain

APPLETON, Wis. - George Will has an interesting column in today's Washington Post. Mr. Will, a genuine conservative by most standards, is profiling Tom Coburn, a GOP Senator from Oklahoma, in a piece entitled “The Senate's Dr. No,” he writes:

Coburn is the most dangerous creature that can come to the Senate, someone simply uninterested in being popular.

...

Civilization depends on the ability to make even majorities blush, so it is momentous news that shame may be making a comeback, even on Capitol Hill, as a means of social control. Embarrassment is supposed to motivate improved education in kindergarten through 12th grade under the No Child Left Behind Act: That law provides for identifying failing schools, the presumption being that communities will blush, then reform. And embarrassment is Coburn's planned cure for Congress's earmark culture.

The real question, though is just why Mr. Will is off profiling a senate Republican in his syndicated column. A few months back, he scribed a similar fawning ode to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, leading me to speculate that he was looking to tap the GOP's next presidential candidate. And I am still not sure that such wasn't his purpose then – or now, for that matter.

Then again, this is American politics - anyone with a shot at the Oval Office is going to need to care about being popular.