More Than Moore

As the damage and loss are assessed in Moore, Oklahoma, after the tornado that struck there this past Monday, the Sooner State's two Republican senators, fiscal hawks James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, are coming under intense scrutiny for having voted against the $60 billion relief package for New York and New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy because it was too costly with too much unnecessary spending. (And, they opposed a bill to add $7 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Administration in 2011.) The disaster relief being considered for Moore, Inhofe insists, is different.

Yes, it's different because it involves Oklahoma.

And while I'm on the subject of the insufferable Mr. Inhofe, you might recall that he also has dismissed climate change as a hoax. Well, maybe climate change has no effect on tornadoes, as some people have said, but the frequency of such storms can't completely be a coincidence. In my humble opinion, that is. And the weather system that produced the tornadoes in the Plains and the near Midwest is expected to deliver some violently wild thunderstorms for the Northeast today and tomorrow. How much sodium pentothal - or campaign finance reform - do we need to get Inhofe to fess up and tell the truth?

As for Coburn, he wants federal spending on all disasters - even this one - offset by cuts elsewhere. Oh, well, at least he's (sort of) consistent.