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.