Coburn vs. Trump?! Why, Who, and How

At my own little web site yesterday, I broke the news that Dr. Tom Coburn, the solidly conservative and almost universally liked (even by Dems and the media) former U.S. senator from Oklahoma, would accept a draft from Republican convention delegates, if offered, to be the GOP nominee for president.

For a couple of months in the spring, Dr. Coburn was the subject of serious recruitment efforts to run as an independent candidate, and he strongly considered running. Ultimately, though, Coburn declined to run. Accepting the Republican nomination obviously would not cause the same perceived problem of splitting the right-leaning vote. Coburn, a solid conservative with a long-established reputation for probity and personal decency, reportedly is appalled by many aspects of Trump’s candidacy.

But, one may ask, how could this happen? Didn’t the convention Rules Committee just put the kibosh on remaining hopes for a delegate revolt? Not really, as I explained in a follow-up column.

Two steps: 1) Delegate petitions to put his name in nomination. 2) Delegate abstentions on the first ballot. . . . 

Moreover, even the GOP’s own rules on the binding of delegates does not disallow abstentions. Here is the standing rule: “If any delegate bound by these rules, state party rule or state law to vote for a presidential candidate at the national convention demonstrates support under Rule 40 for any person other than the candidate to whom he or she is bound, such support shall not be recognized.”

In other words, if your state’s primary would require than any vote cast by a delegate be cast for Trump, that delegate may not (on the first ballot) vote for Cruz, or Rubio, or anybody else. But note that while it precludes a vote “for any person other than the candidate to whom he or she is bound,” it does not preclude a decision not to vote at all.

This is both common sense and a basic tenet of representative government. There is no known theory of small-‘r’ republican government that allows an organization to count a vote as cast when it hasn’t been cast at all.

Finally, as a reminder of why this is such an important effort — in other words, why decency and good judgment require that Trump be stopped if at all possible — it is worth reading a column I co-authored the other day with five other major groups or key individuals in the anti-Trump movement, in a unified effort to make the compelling, moral case:

To explain why Donald Trump must either be denied the Republican nom­i­na­tion, or opposed along with Hillary Clinton by a strong independent candidate, let us echo Thomas Jefferson by letting facts be submitted to a candid world.

First, Donald Trump is an admirer of tyrants. . . . Second, Donald Trump routine­ly tramples and cheats ordinary Americans. . . . Third, Trump repeatedly traffics in bigotry. . . . Fourth, Trump repeatedly has incited violence and praised the pur­vey­ors of violence. . . . Fifth, Trump is fundamentally, irredeemably dis­hon­est. . . . Sixth, Trump is terrible — ignorant, and just plain wrong — on policy almost across the board. . . . Finally, Trump’s embrace of torture would endanger American servicemen and workers around the globe. . . . 

So there you have it: The how, the who, and the why of stopping Trump.

Add to those the fact that Trump still won’t let Republican delegates, much less the public, see his tax returns, and the GOP has a recipe for electoral disaster on its hands when, on top of all his other flaws, his returns are leaked and multiple embarrassments likely stem from them.

Yogi Berra and the Fat Lady both know when it’s over. Until the Republican National Convention actually votes to make Trump the GOP nomination for president, it ain’t over yet.