To the Manor Boren

Dan Boren and the imaginary middle

Not counting former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and present West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (the top two seeds), no Democratic politician in recent memory has been as big a pain in the party’s ass than Dan Boren, who represented Oklahoma’s 2nd congressional district from 2004-2012. The main difference between him and his successor, Republican Markwayne Mullin, is that Boren doesn’t own a plumbing company. Now president of corporate development with the Chickasaw Nation, Boren announced last month he’s thinking of returning to public life in Oklahoma, specifically with a run for governor in 2018. And a grateful state shrugged.

“Obviously we have a one-party state right now, and I think it’s important in the future that we look at having a balanced, bipartisan approach to government.”

He’s calling for a bipartisanship and a balanced approach to government … in Oklahoma? With whom? Sally Kearn, Mike Reynolds, Josh Cockroft, Mike Ritze, John Bennett, Nathan Dahm, Randy Brogdon, Mike Christian, and Al Gerhart? Have we missed their common-sense solutions on issues relating to guns, environmental regulations, abortion, science education, nullification, homosexuality, respect for the president, and healthcare? Have we missed their calls to work with moderate Democrats? Have we missed their love of good governance? And are these really the people we want hammering out deals with our new governor?

Looking at his body of work in Washington, though, Dan Boren is to bipartisanship what the French were to the 4th Panzer Division.

Here are just some of the highlights:

•Boren is on the National Rifle Association Board of Directors (along with Oliver North, Grover Norquist, and everyone’s favorite racist Ted Nugent).

•He is only one of two Democratic representatives who voted against the Affordable Care Act. (He also joined Republicans the 4,843 times they voted to repeal it).

•The National Journal named Boren the most conservative Democrat in congress during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives.

•He voted to prohibit federal funds from even indirectly being used for any health benefits coverage that included abortion services—there already was a federal ban on funds being used to directly pay for them—even when the insurance would be used for life-saving measures.

•He voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

•He called the American Clean Energy and Security Act “the worst piece of legislation I’ve seen since I’ve been there.”

•He voted to block the EPA from using federal law to control greenhouse gases from power plants, refineries and other industrial facilities.

•He was the only Democrat to vote against an amendment making the FBI’s check of library records more difficult.

•He voted to support an amendment to a bill reauthorizing Head Start that would allow faith based education programs to hire people based on their religion.

Boren did everything for the GOP but wave pompoms and work the merch table.

“I’m approaching this race, not based on whether or not other people in the race or whatever the political winds are, this is whether or not it’s the right thing to do and also whether I could successfully govern,” Boren said. 

Every major officeholder in Oklahoma is Republican, we’re nearly first in all the bad categories (female incarceration, earthquakes, obesity and nutrition rates), nearly last in all the good categories (education funding, health, open government), a billion dollars in debt, a daily national punchline, and Boren is not interested in the political winds blowing through the state or worried that Scott Pruitt or Jim Bridenstine may be our next governor?

Why run, then?

Now, the story might have ended there—Boren said he hasn’t even made up his mind if he’ll run—but then Boren’s father, former Governor, Senator and now President of the University of Oklahoma David Boren, was asked what he thought about the prospect and, well, the paternity hit the fan.

“I learned from media reports today that Dan Boren is considering a race for governor in 2018. I will advise against it,” the elder Boren, 74, said, in a statement first reported by the AP. “In my opinion, it is not a good idea. I have had a policy of never endorsing or campaigning for any candidate for governor. I will continue that policy regardless of who the candidates may be.”

As Paul Newman said in “Road to Perdition,” “sons are put on this earth to trouble their fathers,” but carumba! You call your son by his full name, hear from the media he’s running for your old job, and then rationalize your lack of support for him because you never endorse anyone? 

Henry Plantagenet, Freud, Dr. Phil, someone, anyone, line one. 

David Boren eventually said he’d support his son, but there was enough wiggle room in the endorsement to drive the OU Schooner through it.

“I’m very proud of him, of course,” David Boren said in response to a high school student’s question at a Tulsa Town Hall event Friday morning. “I think he rendered excellent service in Congress. But the governor’s race is three years off. A lot could happen between now and then. … There’s plenty of time between now and 2018 for him to make up his mind.”

Dad! 

And when Dan Boren isn’t being the Rudy Giuliani of Blue Dog Democrats—Subject-verb-bipartisanship—he can also be a disingenuous little wheedler.

“I’ve got to reflect my district,” Boren said. “No one means more to me than the people who elected me. I have to listen them.”

Oh, for the love of diabetes, hold the meringue. No one means more to you? In your district, 21% of people are uninsured—it is for them ACA was designed. You hated Obamacare, fine, so where was your alternative? Where was the GOP alternative? But why worry about policy and solutions, when you can just posture and channel your inner Charlton Heston.

“They’ll have to walk across my dead body if they want my vote on this issue. They can break my arms. They can do whatever they want to. They’ll never get my vote — ever.”

This, let me remind you, was against the leadership … of his own party. If only he had been so butch when Republicans were shutting down the government, refusing to confirm qualified Democratic appointees, and demonstrating they hated Obama more than they loved America. If only he had gotten in the face of John Boehner as often as he did Nancy Pelosi.

In 2018, if Boren runs, nobody is expecting him to channel Elizabeth Warren, but would it kill him to stop taking a 2 x 4 to that “D-Oklahoma” in the parenthesis after his name? If he runs as a Republican-lite candidate, as he probably will, his support from Democrats will be as tepid as his father’s. Nobody is impressed, least of all Democratic voters (who tend to stay home on election day and grouse and kick the dog), when a candidate sells his or her soul in the name of—wait for it—bipartisanship. As our second favorite political consultant, Bruno Gianelli (Toby Ziegler, of course, being, our first), said, “I’m tired of working for candidates who make me think that I should be embarrassed to believe what I believe. I’m tired of getting them elected! Let’s have two parties, huh, what do you say?” 

Dan, huh, what do you say? 

For more from Barry, read his article on Oklahoma’s gun apologentsia.