Survey USA's June poll of the approval ratings of all 100 US senators show that Oklahomans may be realizing what wankers their senators are:

APPROVAL RATINGS FOR ALL 100 U.S. SENATORS AS OF 6/13/05
					05/05		06/05		Change 05/05 to 06/06
#	State	U.S. Senator	Party	SR/JR	Approve	Disapprove	Approve	Disapprove	Approve	Disapprove
71	OK	Inhofe, James	R	SR	46%	33%	44%	42%	-2%	+9%
72	OK	Coburn, Tom	R	JR	47%	32%	43%	40%	-4%	+8%

Inhofe went from a 13% approval-disapproval margin to 2% in just one month; Coburn went from 15% to 3%. I wish I knew what could have caused this.

The average approval rate for a US Senator (in his or her home state, of course) is 56%, but those numbers are correct - in June, Coburn and Inhofe are neck-and-neck as 5th and 6th least popular senators in any state. They're only more popular than Mel Martinez (R-FL, 43%), Richard Burr (R-NC, 42%), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ, 42%), and John "Those judges should have ruled my way if they didn't want to get shot" Cornyn (R-TX, 40%). Eight senators, including two Republicans, enjoy home-state approval ratings of 70% or higher, with the lead spot going to Barack Obama (D-IL, 72%).

There are only four Democratic senators in the bottom 20 of the rankings. There are only six Republicans (and one Independent) in the top 20, including Trent Lott, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Ted Stevens.

A month ago, Surveys USA polled for approval ratings on all 50 governors. Brad Henry was the 10th most popular governor, with a 59% approval rating and 32% disapproval.

We've talked some about Coburn's idiocy here, here, and here. We've talked much more extensively about how Senator James Inhofe is a dangerous idiot, including here, here, and also here.

Alas, neither of these knuckle-draggers is up for re-election until 2008, but it may get interesting before then. Apparently Coburn and Inhofe have a small feud going. Last month, Coburn shot off his mouth as usual and said that he couldn't understand how anyone with a life, who was capable of holding a real job, would want to be in the Senate at age 70. He stuck by his asshattery for a while, but has now backed down, sending letters of apology to 98 other senators.

The one who didn't get the letter? Inhofe. Coburn's staff says Coburn spoke to Inhofe and that should be enough - and they say that even to Inhofe's staff when they asked for a copy of the letter.

You may have forgotten that Inhofe campaigned heavily against Coburn (and for non-entity Kirk Humphries) in last year's GOP primary. Coburn has not.

When party leadership changes, some people naturally leave. This time, it seems all of them have left.

Jun 14, 2005: The Oklahoma Democratic Party, dealing with an undisclosed debt, no longer has a paid staff at its headquarters, party Chairman Lisa Pryor said Monday.

[…] Some of the party's six or seven paid staff members left when she was elected May 14, Pryor said. The others left recently.

The party usually had volunteers answer telephones, but she said she heard at a meeting last weekend that the paid staff is gone and the party is depending on volunteers to do filing and other office chores as well, Hogue-Downing said.

People may volunteer by calling the party headquarters at 427-3366 or filling out a form at the party's Web site, http://www.okdemocrats.org.

Costs from Brad Carson's disastrous "I'm not a Democrat!" campaign left the party with some debt. That's not unusual, but the people responsible for the disaster have all quit now, so there's no money to hire new folks yet. Perhaps Dr. Dean can move Oklahoma up a little bit on the list in his 50-State Strategy.

(Via The Daily Disappointment.)

From ACSBlog:

The Senate has confirmed Thomas Griffith to the DC Circuit Court, despite critics' complaints that he has been practicing in Utah without a law license, having let his DC license expire and refusing to sit for the Utah bar.

From 365Gay.com, on the director of the New York Christian Coalition and his remarks on warning labels for gay people:

Despite using the analogy of cigarette labels, Banuchi tells 365Gay.com that he is not advocating gays specifically be labeled.

Banuchi also alleges that he has received hate mail since his remarks were published.

The New York Times noted that the Supreme Court's reversal of the Fifth Circuit was somewhat of a spanking (emphasis added):

In February 2003, the Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, that Mr. Miller-El had shown enough evidence of bias in the makeup of his jury to at least entitle him to a hearing before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which had earlier dismissed his claim.

That New Orleans-based court obeyed the order to reconsider the defendant's claim - and promptly dismissed it again, embracing the language of the lone dissenter in the 2003 decision, Justice Clarence Thomas.

When the case reached the Supreme Court for the second time, last December, the actual merits of Mr. Miller-El's bias claim were before the justices, some of whom expressed skepticism that the prosecutions' rejection of 10 of 11 prospective black jurors had nothing to do with bias.

[…] Justice Souter was among the most skeptical justices at the Dec. 6 arguments. He asked lawyers for the state if Texas could offer any convincing indication that its history of discrimination was irrelevant. "Is it plausible to think there had been this change of heart" in the handling of Mr. Miller-El's case? he wanted to know.

In finding otherwise, the majority said today, that the Fifth Circuit's finding amounted to a "dismissive and strained interpretation" of evidence presented by the defense. Two years ago, the justices rebuked the Fifth Circuit with virtually identical language.

Almost everything else fell off the media radar - except Michael Jackson, who was acquitted on all counts. Sadly, this did not cause Nancy Grace's head to explode.

Having spent more than a decade telling viewers that Michael Jackson was obviously guilty of child molesting, the cable news nets did the same leading up to Monday's verdict announcement - not guilty on all charges.

Faced with these inconvenient facts, the cable news talking heads had a decision - explain why they could be wrong, or refuse to face their own failure by blaming the jury that actually sat through all the evidence and deliberated for six days for coming up with the wrong verdict.

Guess which one they chose. Guess extra hard which way Fox News chose.

With seconds to go, former prosecutor and FNC guest Wendy Murphy noted that this was "the exact number of days it took the Scott Peterson jury to reach its verdict.

"Frankly, it is too long for an acquittal, not quite long enough for a hung jury. I don't think it's quite long enough for an outright acquittal. I think there is no question we will see convictions here."

"Really?" Shep Smith asked.

"No questions in terms of the timing," she said. "I don't think there is any doubt," she said, but she hedged a bit, saying the jury might convict on the more minor stuff.

[Verdicts read: not guilty on all counts]

On FNC, a disappointed Murphy suggested that Jackson's nickname be changed from King of Pop to Teflon Molester, adding, "We need IQ tests for jurors."

"These jurors have to go to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow and look at themselves in the mirror. And they basically put targets on the backs of all, especially highly vulnerable, kids that will now come into Michael Jackson's life."

Where might the country be today if Fox News reporters actually woke up each morning, looked at themselves in the mirror, and assessed the damage they'd done?

(Via TalkLeft.)