Scissor Tales: Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008

The Oklahoman Editorial

Published: November 8, 2008

No return on investment

The trial bar in Oklahoma didn’t exactly get much bang for its considerable bucks in Tuesday’s election.

Lawyers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on races that were considered crucial to their goal of putting Democrats back in control of the Senate — forever the graveyard for lawsuit reform legislation. In each case, Democrats lost badly.

Exhibit A was in Tulsa, where incumbent Nancy Riley won just 37 percent of the vote in her race against Republican Dan Newberry. Riley had switched parties two years ago after a falling out with the GOP, and that allowed Democrats to hold a 24-24 tie with Republicans.

In Lawton, the trial bar went all in for challenger Keith Erwin but incumbent Republican Don Barrington won with 56 percent in a heavily Democratic district. Another favorite of attorneys, Bob Murphy, picked up just 42 percent of the vote against Republican James Halligan for the Stillwater-area seat held by term-limited Sen. Mike Morgan.

And Diane Drum, who since mid-August had received most of her campaign funds from lawyers, was drubbed by incumbent Jonathan Nichols in Norman. Nichols won with 61 percent. Clearly his eight years of outstanding service carried more clout with constituents than did his opponent’s buckets of special interest cash.

Second time a charm

Congratulations to Dana Murphy, who succeeded in her second try to become a member of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Murphy, a Republican, lost to Jeff Cloud in the GOP runoff in 2002. On Tuesday she defeated incumbent Commissioner Jim Roth, who had been appointed last year by Gov. Brad Henry to replace the departed Denise Bode. Murphy will now serve out the final two years of the term. She displayed her mettle during this campaign, first beating state Rep. Rob Johnson in a tight primary race, and then prevailing in the general election in another close finish. Roth’s departure from the commission is the state’s loss. His work ethic, at the Corporation Commission and previously as an Oklahoma County commissioner, and his commitment to public service should be models for all elected officials. Murphy, an oil-and-gas attorney with experience at the Corporation Commission, is qualified for the job. Our hope is that she is able, as she told us, to work with Cloud and that she follows through on her goal to "empower the people around us to do better ... I think I can make a difference.”

The juror’s tall tale

How about the juror in the criminal trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who was excused from final deliberations to attend her father’s funeral in California — only to admit this week she really went there to see some horse racing! Marian Hinnant said she made up the story about her father to attend the Breeders’ Cup, for which she’d bought tickets in the spring. Judge Emmet Sullivan suspended deliberations after being told Hinnant’s father had died. When Hinnant didn’t respond to court officials’ attempts to contact her through the weekend, the 11 other jurors resumed work without her. They convicted Stevens of lying about work done on his vacation home by a state oil contractor. Apparently nothing will happen to Hinnant. After fessing up about the dead father story, she wandered off into a wild, twisting tale about crime and the horse racing industry — evidently enough to convince the judge the best outcome would be for Hinnant to return to obscurity.

Reaching the limit

Ever since Oklahoma kicked off the legislative term-limit movement with a vote of the people in 1990, elected officials have been fighting back, with mixed success. The arrogance of some lawmakers knows no limit, and opponents of term-limit laws are always biding their time before launching another repeal movement. The president, 37 governors, 15 legislatures and the mayors of the nation’s 10 largest cities are subject to term limits. Make that nine of the 10 largest cities. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was successful in his attempt to roll back an ordinance that would have limited him to two consecutive four-year terms. Hizzoner believes the city needs his steady hand during these difficult times. Any president since FDR and any Oklahoma governor could have made the same argument. But the presidential and gubernatorial term-limit laws are constitutionally based. The New York City Council is free to regulate or deregulate mayoral terms at will. Voters have a chance to limit Bloomberg to two terms when he comes up for re-election next year.

In the clear

It’s interesting to note Alaska’s Personnel Board cleared Gov. Sarah Palin of any ethics violations in her firing of the state’s public safety commissioner. The independent agency deals with allegations of violations of state ethics laws involving executive branch employees. Its findings contradicted those of an investigator working for the state legislature, who reported a couple weeks ago. The new report said the earlier finding wrongly concluded Palin abused her power by allowing aides and her husband to pressure former Commissioner Walt Monegan, who claimed he was fired for refusing to dismiss Palin’s ex-brother-in-law from the state troopers. The news came too late to have much effect on the presidential election, though we hope it might diminish "troopergate” as an issue in Palin’s future.

The movement’s afoot

A small but vocal league of dedicated Bush-haters never dropped the press for impeachment proceedings against the president and Vice President Dick Cheney. They may even continue to push for hearings in the final weeks of the administration. Not to be outdone, the Impeach Obama movement began just before midnight on Election Day with claims of campaign funding fraud. This follows weeks of spurious e-mails demanding that Obama prove he’s an American citizen. Fringe groups dogged George W. Bush from the first day after his 2000 election. Apparently, payback time has arrived just when Americans are ready for some post-election unity and a break from political posturing.

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