Oklahoma's Coburn blocks Wild Sky

First those Oklahomans snap up our basketball team, now one of their paleocon senators attempts to stop the protection of wilderness within our state:

A plan to protect more than 106,000 acres of wilderness in Washington state from motorists, logging and new roads has hit an unexpected snag in the Senate.

Supporters of legislation to create the Wild Sky Wilderness Area had expected the Senate to quickly send the bill to President Bush after the House unanimously passed the measure in April.

Instead, it has run into a roadblock set up by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a fiscal conservative on a mission to stop what he considers out-of-control spending by Congress.

Hey, Tom! You want to put a stop to the Grand Old Party's tradition of borrow and spend? Make it your personal "mission" to end that pesky occupation in Iraq. You know, the one that is costing our treasury billions of dollars every week.

That's right, billions. Tell your buddy Dubya down the street from Capitol Hill to knock it off and start bringing our troops back home.

Call up Dick Cheney and have a word about those no-bid contracts for companies like Halliburton. Tell ExxonMobil and friends that they don't need a dime in subsidies with all those record profits they've got.

Just imagine, Tom, how much money you could save us all if you got busy eliminating real wastes of taxpayer dollars instead of standing in the way of legislation to protect an American wilderness.

But who are we kidding? You're no champion for fiscal responsibility; you're just a critic of using our treasure to preserve the common wealth.