The man's a joke. He was elected in 1980 promising to serve two terms, meaning he wouldn't run again in 1992. He was elected for the fourth time in 1998 against a state Democratic party so inept it couldn't mount a campaign for its candidate. (The party was in such disarray that year that it not only lost just about every major election, it couldn't get the word out that one of four Senate candidates in the primary, a woman, had died three weeks earlier. The eventual candidate, whose name I can't even remember, had to win a runoff against the dead woman to win the right to not run against Nickles.)

The link above points to Nickles' voting record, which is actually further left than Trent Lott's but has all the same nasty discriminatory votes (against the MLK holiday, against ENDA, in favor of tax exemption for universities that practice racial discrimination). Nickles also has skeletons in his closet, including helping Koch Industries avoid responsibility for allegedly setaling millions of dollars worth of oil from Native American-owned wells in Oklahoma and other states. Koch is also a major donor to Nickles and patron of his family Oil Machinery business. The local lapdog media let it slide, just like they did Gov. Frank Keating's taking of $250,000 from a man who wanted inmates to be used as drug testing guinea pigs. The national media will not be so forgiving. Molly Ivins had something on this four years ago (Google Cache link; it's also on Bartcop if you scroll enough. Look for "sleazy".)

Nickles is a disaster as a state leader, too. At least Lott has funnelled lots of federal money into Mississippi; at last count, I think Mississippi shipyards had built at least four ships for the Navy that the Navy didn't even want. Nickles, on the other hand, votes to make sure Oklahoma tax dollars go to other states. Our state's infrastructure has been in steep decline since Nickles and his fellow 96% right-wingers started "representing" us, and even though we're in the bottom 20% in education spending, road maintenance, bridge maintenance, and lots more, Nickles keeps voting to send the money elsewhere. If he became majority or minority leader, Oklahoma would get no benefit, just the blame for putting this imbecile in Congress where he can comply with the bidding of his owners.

Need a summary? Don Nickles is Trent Lott without the sex appeal.