Published: March 09, 2009 02:24 pm      

Coburn cultivates friendship with Obama

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn said his office received about 50 letters critical of him after a photograph appeared on the front page of Oklahoma’s largest newspaper showing him hugging President Obama.

“We had about 50 letters that were highly critical of him hugging me and me hugging him,” Coburn, R-Okla., told The Oklahoman’s Washington bureau. “But you need to separate the difference in political philosophy versus friendship. How better to influence somebody than love them?”

A picture of the two men embracing ran on the front page of The Oklahoman after Obama’s first speech to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24.

“I’m not aligned with him politically. I don’t know what people back home in Oklahoma would be worried about,” Coburn said. “I think I’m — if not the most conservative senator, I’m one of the most conservative senators.”

For some, the hugging scene on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives may have been the first hint that the two men — who wouldn’t seem to have much in common — even have a relationship.

Coburn opposes much of Obama’s agenda on the floor of the Senate and votes against some of his Cabinet nominees, but clearly the friendship is valuable to him.

He said he has talked to Obama about half a dozen times since the president’s inauguration in January, though he wouldn’t give any hints about what prompted the calls.

“We’re very good friends. We’re totally different, but we respect each other immensely, and we have a personal relationship that’s outside our politics. Who else does he have on my (Republican) side that he has a relationship with?”

Obama and Coburn became fast friends in late 2004, just after the two had won their Senate seats and attended orientation sessions in Washington.

“He and I just really hit it off,” Coburn said.

The two also worked together, cosponsoring bills to ensure strict oversight of government aid for Hurricane Katrina victims and to require all government grants and contracts to be posted on the Internet in a database.

While running for the presidency, Obama mentioned Coburn’s name in campaign speeches and in debates.

“I would also seek out people like Tom Coburn, who is probably the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate,” Obama said at a campaign event in 2007. “He has become a friend of mine.”