Doctor turned U.S. senator juggles jobs _ as he believes nation's founders wanted

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) _ It's a Monday morning and by 7:30 a.m, Dr. Tom Coburn's work day is 2 1/2 hours old. <br/><br/>He's already made the rounds at the hospital. Now, expectant mothers and

Friday, June 17th 2005, 12:47 pm

By: News On 6

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) _ It's a Monday morning and by 7:30 a.m, Dr. Tom Coburn's work day is 2 1/2 hours old.

He's already made the rounds at the hospital. Now, expectant mothers and an elderly man with hardening of the arteries await exams at his clinic in a rambling strip mall. Lab reports form a foot-high stack of paperwork in his office chair.

Mid-stride down the hallway, Coburn glances at his watch. If he doesn't leave his medical office in his northeast Oklahoma hometown by 9 a.m., he could miss the flight to his Senate office on Capitol Hill.

The doctor is running out of time _ in more ways than one.

The Senate Ethics Committee has given Coburn until Sept. 30 to wind down his family and obstetrics practice, finding it violates rules against outside compensation.

The freshman Republican plans to comply, but he also wants to change the rule that he believes ``creates a class of kings'' where the Founding Fathers wanted ``citizen legislators.''

``I'm immersed in people's lives in a way most senators aren't,'' Coburn says, scooping up the pile of reports that indeed hold some of those lives' most private details.

The doctor's office reveals a man with feet planted in both worlds: Fat medical books line the bookcase, along with a slim volume entitled, ``How to Win an Election.'' A white coat hangs in one corner; campaigns signs from last November's election lean in another. His medical certification hangs framed next to a document confirming his election to the U.S. House.

Coburn delivered 480 babies while representing eastern Oklahoma as a congressman from 1995 to 2001.

The House allowed him to practice medicine as long as he only took in payment enough to cover the roughly $200,000 worth of costs in staff and malpractice insurance.

He wants a similar waiver from the Senate, but rules there prohibit all compensation, even when it's not for profit.

Changing those rules could put the Senate on a slippery slope toward undermining its credibility, says Larry Noble, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Outside pay, he says, opens members to questions about who might be trying to buy their vote.

``The rules are meant to stop the appearance and reality of a conflict of interest that may exist if you have outside employment,'' he says.

In a letter to Coburn, the Ethics Committee quoted the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, who said at the time of the rule's creation in 1977, ``The first obligation of a professional is to his client; the first obligation of a senator to his constituency. Mr. President, we cannot serve two masters.''

But Carlisa Rogers, a 31-year-old mother of three, believes Coburn can, and proved it _ both as congressman and nine months ago, when she went into labor.

Coburn delivered her twins by Caesarean section at 1:30 a.m., the same day he faced a candidate forum in his contentious Senate race against former Democratic Rep. Brad Carson, she says.

``He came in early at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. to make rounds,'' Rogers recalls. ``I'm sure he went into that day with no sleep.''

She chose him as her doctor and later pediatrician because of his reputation and the fact she didn't want an hour-long drive to see a specialist in Tulsa, the urban center closest to this city of 38,000. She knew his partners could fill in during an emergency.

Coburn specializes in high-risk pregnancies. He says the patients who come to him, many of whom are on Medicaid or are American Indians, aren't seeking to buy his influence.

``There is no conflict of interest here,'' he says with the same bluntness he used to build a reputation as a maverick in Congress and on the campaign trail to oppose pork spending. Full disclosure, he believes, would prevent abuse.

Editorials in Oklahoma's two largest newspapers have opposed his desire to keep his medical practice, saying voters deserve full-time representation.

But Coburn says the tradeoff isn't between medicine and public duties but patients and participation in the ``golf tournaments and fund-raising dinners'' of the Washington, D.C. scene.

He said he spends 70 hours a week on Senate business; six to eight hours on medicine, which he fits in on weekends and breaks.

``Sure it's (the Senate) a full-time job,'' Coburn says, ``but the fact is, the demands on your time in Washington are not that great.''

On a weekend in which Coburn delivered two babies, played golf, attended a grandson's soccer game, saw a movie with his wife, went to church and mowed the lawn, he also prepared to consider pending judicial nominations and the transportation bill.

He believes other senators would benefit from a little work back home, as the nation's founders envisioned. He suggests lawyers, for example, could maintain small practices handling wills or uncontested divorces.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the only other physician in the Senate, sometimes volunteers his surgical services, including on trips to developing countries, but has not sought compensation.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the head of the Senate Rules Committee has agreed ``in principle'' with the changes Coburn seeks and is working on language to accomplish that goal, said Coburn spokesman, John Hart.

Coburn plans to keep seeing patients for free since he's already paid his malpractice insurance for the year. But he says he can't afford to do the same next year and will have to consider dipping into his wife's retirement if the rules aren't changed.

On this double-duty day, he snaps the stethoscope from his neck just before 9 a.m. and pronounces, ``We're done.''

In a flash, the doctor is out; the senator is headed to Washington.