As predicted yesterday, Oklahoma’s capitol press corps missed a major opportunity to probe into precisely how the Glenn Coffee-led senate will handle the two most pressing issues of this legislative session: the free-falling state budget and Coffee’s seething anger stemming from his inability to close the deal for his choice for the next senate leader.
Coffee has threatened lawmakers, lobbyists and others with political harm as a part of his frenzied campaign to neuter support for State Sen. Harry Coates, who is challenging Sen. Brian Bingman, Coffee’s choice to control the GOP-led chamber. It’s a battle the capitol press corps knows about but ignores.
Except for stellar News9 reporter Dave Jordan, the press corps today largely confined their questions to the feel-good pre-session photo op subjects prescribed by Coffee’s clueless press officers. Coffee clumsily attempted to fend off Jordan’s questions about the budget, and with the two leading candidates to succeed Coffee standing immediately behind him, no reporter pressed for information on that subject. Unbelievable.
Coffee’s in-over-their-heads handlers have been irritated with Jordan since uncovered the Coffee team’s lies regarding their threats against Department of Corrections Chief Justin Jones last session, compounding Coffee’s public relations nightmare after the earlier revelations of Coffee’s tax problems.
Regardless, Jordan and News9 are to be congratulated on ignoring the hype and concentrating on the tough issues the Coffee team tried to avoid. While Coffee’s political standing continues to fall, it was the capitol press corps once again who lived down to their reputation.
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