June 16: Tom Coburn praises John Ensign's "corrective force" for going public with his affair, and asks for forgiveness on Ensign's behalf:
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said Ensign could use forgiveness.
"If you look at it in the light of everybody makes errors, at least he fessed up and resolved the problem with his family; so I think it speaks well of his corrective force."
July 8: Tom Coburn's office attacks Ensign for not having followed Coburn's advice to go public sooner:
"Dr. Coburn did everything he could to encourage Senator Ensign to end his affair and to persuade Senator Ensign to repair the damage he had caused to his own marriage and the Hampton’s marriage. Had Senator Ensign followed Dr. Coburn’s advice, this episode would have ended, and been made public, long ago."
July 9: Tom Coburn claims doctor-patient privilege, refusing to reveal his dicussions with Ensign about the affair, even though a day earlier, his office had done just that:
"I was counseling him as a physician and as an ordained deacon. ... That is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody. Not to the Ethics Committee, not to a court of law, not to anybody," Coburn said.
July 9: Despite his claim to have doctor-patient privilege, Tom Coburn goes into detail on what he says he did not discuss with John Ensign:
"I was never present when a letter was written, never made any assessment of paying anybody anything. Those are untruths. Those are absolute untruths."
What we have here is another example of a "Godlier than thou" Republican whose first reaction was to lie, providing political cover to a political ally. Then his lies changed to protect himself. That's certainly within the realm of normal behavior by politicians, but Tom Coburn has always claimed he was different than normal politicians.
Time and time again, Republicans like Tom Coburn prove that they can't walk the talk. Maybe it's time they start talking the walk.