Last of the small spenders?

Politics | Tom Coburn's commitment to old-fashioned fiscal conservatism is a hard sell against his pork-barrel challenger—even in conservative Oklahoma | John Dawson

OKLAHOMA CITY -- While skipping down stairs in Oklahoma's state capitol building, 56-year-old Tom Coburn, an obstetrician by profession, explains his reasons for reentering politics by quoting nearly perfectly from an 18th-century Scottish historian: "If you read what's been attributed to Alexander Tytler, the world's republics always die the same. When the voters figure out they can vote for the people who can give them spoils from the public treasury, they go over to loose fiscal policy."

Tytler, also known as Lord Woodhouselee, may or may not have actually said it. But the sentiment was wildly popular with Oklahomans who sent Dr. Coburn to the U.S. House of Representatives three times during the 1990s. When the Okie from Muskogee talks about fiscal responsibility, he's one part country doctor and one part apocalyptic prophet. But he's nothing like a politician. "We owe $7 trillion," he says before jumping in a blue Chevy Yukon to drive across Oklahoma for a Tuesday afternoon fundraiser. "[Spending] is the way every career politician gets himself reelected. And it's the surest way I know to end this wonderful experiment in democracy."