Personal problems: During the speaker stalemate, 4th District Congressman Tom Cole told the Washington Post differences seemed more personal than about policy.
“I don’t see a lot of policy differences here,” Cole said. “Clearly, we’ve got 20 people who don’t trust the current leader (McCarty). We’ve got a lot of other members that are losing their trust in those 20 members,” Cole said. “And so that’s a personal problem, but it’s not a political or a policy one.”
McCarthy man: New Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin apparently would have been a vote for Kevin McCarthy had he stayed in the House of Representatives.
Speaking to Fox New Digital on Tuesday, the former Second District congressman said McCarthy “earned” the speakership and the 20 blocking McCarthy’s election “just want attention.”
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It was unclear whether Mullin knew one of the 20 was his successor, Josh Brecheen.
“There’s no endgame,” Mullin said. “Who’s (the) replacement? You don’t have a Paul Ryan in there, that was a VP candidate that everybody liked that could have been a consensus candidate, back like you did in 2015.”
Mullin said there isn’t anyone who has “worked harder” or led the Republican conference like McCarthy and that the holdouts are “playing right into” the Democrats’ hands.
“At some point you’re throwing a temper tantrum, and when you’re throwing a temper tantrum and you’re holding out on the way the rest of the party wants to move, then who else are you caucusing with?” Mullin said.
Further review: U.S. Sen. James Lankford accused the Department of Defense of being less than truthful when it told him and other members of Congress it had reversed a policy that cut 15,000 independent pharmacies, mostly in rural areas, out of the military’s TRICARE prescription drug plan.
In a letter to DoD and insurance officials, Lankford wrote: “The message you are relaying that certain pharmacies are actively choosing to not serve TRICARE recipients is false and harmful. I urge you to be up front about how you are actually rolling out the new contract – without negotiation, favoring large chain pharmacies and urban communities, and without real action to remedy any of the problems raised by dozens of Members of Congress.”
Most group prescription drug benefits, including TRICARE’s are managed by third party companies with ties to chain pharmacies and effectively squeeze out independents.
Staff: Dan Hourigan, a former field representative for late U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, is new 2nd District Congressman Josh Brecheen’s district director based in Claremore.
Another Coburn alum, Patrick Guinn Sr., will be director of constituent services.
Oklahoma native Jon Jones is Brecheen’s Washington-based chief of staff and Sean McAndrews, formerly an assistant to Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, is legislative director.
Odds and ends: With all of the attention on the U.S. House last week, Lankford quietly became Oklahoma’s senior U.S. senator and Mullin became the 19th person since statehood to represent it in the Senate. … Third District Congressman Frank Lucas, whose 61st birthday coincided with the Jan. 6, 2020, attack on the U.S. Capitol, got to spend his 63rd mired in the speaker imbroglio. … Lankford is headed to the southern border next week.
— Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa World
Stories by Randy Krehbiel, Andrea Eger, Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton, Kevin Canfield and Barbara Hoberock.
