The Tulsa World is after US Senate candidate Tom Boettcher now. The headline in the Tulsa World today was "Boettcher Admits Lawsuit!" "U.S. Senate candidate Tom Boettcher, who previously could not recall being involved in any lawsuits, acknowledged Thursday a $70,000 legal judgment against him and his company in 1980. When pressed about a handful of smaller civil suits filed in the mid-1990s against a second company he co-owned and ran in Maryland, Boettcher continued to insist he knew nothing of those financial problems." Ok, I bet the Walters campaign helped dig up this info but my question is, so what? A businessman's business goes under, lawsuits are filed, judgement is made, bills are paid. Is it a crime to fail in business? Is it a crime to forget what happened 22 years ago? I hope not because I'd sure be guilty. We all would. But you say, isn't this fair turnabout on Boettcher who has made his entire campaign about a small mistake the Walters campaign made with contributions 10 years ago? It's not fair to Boettcher. But Boettcher hasn't been fair to Walters either.

With today's complicated campaign contribution regs and laws do you know how easy it is to make an innocent mistake? As more and more of us are learning, it's hard to stay out of trouble these days. My drivers license expired a few months ago and I didn't realize it. After all, the Oklahoma Tax Commission stopped sending people a reminder when their license is up for renewal every few years. So I was driving illegally for months! I could have been tossed in the pokey (that's Okie for jail). So David Walters campaign goofed up and let some guy make a contribution over the $5,000 limit. Hey, it can happen to good people. Lawsuits and failed businesses happen to good people too. So, Tulsa World, you are trying to make a big issue out of next to nothing. Still, I agree with the World on one matter, Boettcher should drop out of the runoff and get behind Walters and beat Inhofe.

Got another flyer in the mail from a political candidate that tells me I should vote for her because she believes in "faith and family". So who is against families? When is the last time we elected someone running on an anti-family platform? The "faith" word is the code for "I'm a Christian. Vote for me." I take extreme offense at the insertion of religion into campaigns. To use religion to appeal for votes goes against the tenants of most religions. If it doesn't it should. If I were of a God-like nature I'd be ticked off at those trying to ride my coat tails into elective office. Of course, this ploy only pays off if the candidate is in the majority religion. While I bet we have elected agnostics to office in Oklahoma I don't think they let their true beliefs be known to the voters. Telling voters in Oklahoma that one leans toward Buddhism has never gotten anyone elected here. Best keep that kind of honesty close to the vest. Cause in Oklahoma 52% of the voters are Christian and 42% know they better pretend to be Christian. The other 6% are not yet Christians.

I go to church every week because my wife told me she'd divorce me and take the children if I didn't get saved. She believes in family values so much she's willing to destroy the family on principle. So, I pretended to be saved. I can pretend very well but even I couldn't quite make it to pretend to be "born again". After all, agnostics have some principles you know.

A friend of mine from an Asian country sent me an e-mail to tell me she thinks the US is boring and she doesn't like living in Oklahoma. I was tempted to tell her she was more than welcome to get her butt out of Oklahoma and the US pronto but I think I'll cool off before I reply. What is it with these Philistines who live in someone's country and have the nerve to tell its residents how much they hate living there? I've lived places before that I didn't like but I didn't rub my dislike in the faces of those who called the place home! How rude can you get? The USA boring? You've got to be kidding.

The election season is upon us. The two most interesting races in Oklahoma this fall are for governor and U.S. Senate. A former Congressman and football star named Steve Largent is the Repub candidate for Governor. The Demos in a runoff are Vince Orza, pasta magnate, and Brad Henry, a longtime politician no one seems to know much about yet. There's a wildcard independent named Gary Richardson who is really a Repub but decided he didn't want to run against a football star so decided to use his millions gained as a lawyer to buy his way into the Governor's mansion. The Demos and Repubs are trying to figure out who Richardson will cost votes. Talk on the street is that country Richardson will cost quarterback Largent the Governorship. Richardson is a Repub in independent clothes. His knee-jerk populism appeals to the uneducated boobs which, according to my scientific polls, constitute 65% of registered Repubs and 72% of registered Demos in Oklahoma. Independents in the Sooner State complain that Richardson is giving them a bad name and have encouraged him to leave the non-party.

The real fight will be between Congressman Jim "Attila the Hun" Inhofe (Repub) and former Governor David Walters (Demo). Jim and David are famous for down and dirty campaigns so this one should be a rumble on the grasslands. Inhofe has his good points but who doesn't. He's bought and paid for by the gun nuts and the cockfighters. Jim is as extreme a far-right dude as they come. Walters, a moderate, had his troubles with a campaign law infraction when he was Governor in the early 90s. He pleaded gulity. Despite that I would take him over Inhofe any day. Inhofe is guilty of embarrassing Oklahomans with his nutty extremism. I mean what kind of goober defends cockfighters?