OK-Sen: Let's Make Him Right

Inhofe is worried;

"I'm the Richard Pombo of the next election. I understand that."

The Senator is referring to former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-California), an anti-environment, global warming skeptic, Republican who was defeated by pro-environment Democrat Jerry McNerney in the last GOP stronghold in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Pombo was heavily criticized for his anti-environmental stance, including by his predecessor, former Rep. Peter McCloskley, also a Republican and author of the Endangered Species Act, a law that Pombo chastised.

Inhofe believes his anti-environment stance and his skepticism of global warming would make him vulnerable as well. He does, after all, have mediocre approval ratings, but in heavily Republican Oklahoma, that doesn't automatically spell defeat.

What he doesn't have yet is a big name opponent. Oklahoma's most popular and powerful Democrat, Governor Brad Henry, is not running, neither is Oklahoma's only Democratic congressman, the young and moderate Dan Boren. That leaves former Congressman Brad Carson, who lost Oklahoma's other Senate seat in 2004, or Attorney General Drew Edmondson, State Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan, State Treasurer Scott Meachem, State Schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett, State Senate President Pro-Tempore Mike Morgan, or Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor.

Get to work Chuck Schumer, we need to make Inhofe right, and there is quite a bench in Oklahoma to do it with.