From Examiner.com:

It’s the political perfect storm: the battle over official English, lawsuit reform and private prisons will determine whether Senate Leader Glenn Coffee stays or is ousted this legislative session. And as a result, there’s been a change at the top of the standings of the Coffee Enemies List!

State Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, has rocketed all the way to the top of the Coffee enemies list, with capitol reporters pursuing private prison shenanigans debuting on the list at a strong number 2 position.

OKPNS has learned that the embattled Coffee is being squeezed by a group of liberal Republican senators led by Sen. Harry Coates of Seminole and Patrick Anderson of Enid. Coffee’s top legislative agenda item, so-called lawsuit reform, has been weakened by the scandal fumes that have been surrounding Coffee for nearly a month now. Coates and Anderson, and perhaps as many as 4 or 5 more Republican senators, are seen as possible ‘no’ votes on lawsuit reform. Coffee desperately needs their support to keep his leader post and their votes to pass his lawsuit reform package. But Coates and his followers have another agenda: to stop Randy Terrill’s official English package, something Coffee’s conservative members are strongly committed to passing. Read more…

Some good news! Captain Courageous, also known as Wes Bledsoe, the nursing home reform crusader, sent OKPNS an email Wednesday night predicting his legislation aimed at removing sexual predators from nursing homes may be on its way to becoming law. Bledsoe also mentions in the email, the report done by a NBC affiliate in Kansas City which ran a news report about the Predators in Nursing Homes issue.

Sen. Patrick Anderson

Sen. Dirty Harry Coates, fresh off ruining the promising career of a weak-minded Enid state senator this week, has marred two more reputations. Two Tulsa World reporters, attempting to come to the rescue of Coates’ toady Sen. Patrick Anderson, botched an easy story about an incident in this week’s “official English” proceedings, and now it’s the reporters who have egg on their faces.

In a piece that would have been given an “F” by a first year journalism instructor, World reporters Mick Hinton and Barbara Hoberock penned a breathless and dramatic story that defies both logic and eyewitness accounts.

The story alleges State Rep. Randy Terrill threatened Anderson with physical violence, despite denials by Terrill and an eyewitness. The setting for the alleged encounter was revealed to OKPNS readers, but ignored by the capitol reporters until today.

Further, Anderson’s statement comes one day after he told his local paper the whole incident was “a practical joke.” Anderson apparently felt so bad about his childish behavior that he sent flowers to Terrill’s personal assistant, but changed his tale when presented the opportunity by the ‘big city’ papers. Hinton and Hoberock obviously didn’t check Anderson’s story from the previous day, a journalistic faux pas so glaring that no doubt their editors will be speaking to the pair about the gaffe.

The latest incident is the third time in 3 days Anderson has changed his tale, beginning with “no comment” the day OKPNS outed his alliance with flaky Senator Harry Coates of Seminole.

“It’s not unusual to see error-filled and disjointed stories from Hinton,” one capitol observer tells OKPNS, “but it really is a very, very poorly written story with a misleading headline designed to assist Anderson, who will probably lose a primary fight over this issue if he draws a respectable opponent. I’m sure when the reporters find out how they’ve been duped, it will help them be a little less naive next time.”

While we at OKPNS consistently uncover hypocrisy in the capitol press corps, it’s simply amazing to see them confirm the stereotype time after time. Here’s the account Anderson gave his paper on Wednesday, and his radically different account only one day later.

Developing……

Sen. Patrick Anderson

Yesterday, embattled Sen. Dirty Harry Coates sided with all the Democratic senators to scuttle the official English bill, which some polls say is supported by nearly 90% of the Oklahoma public. The bill has been sent to conference committee, where by design it will be difficult to resurrect this session.

In the process, Coates severely damaged the re-election chances of Republican Senator Patrick Anderson of Enid. Anderson was foolish enough to fall under Coates’ sway just long enough to get caught distributing anti-official English propaganda and engaging in other anti-official English activities before regaining his senses and voting with his party. In other words, he was against official English before he was for official English.

Taking cues from John F. Kerry and Dirty Harry Coates is deadly for a re-election campaign in a strong Republican district, Sen. Anderson. After yesterday’s stunt, Anderson will face a tough re-election battle if he draws a primary opponent. For his actions, Anderson unanimously wins the bonehead political play of the week and probably just dealt himself a fatal political blow because of the demographics of his senate district.

Here are the lies “Dirty Harry” Coates and his new buddy Sen. Patrick Anderson are peddling today at the Capitol regarding the English only bill.

Related:

Terrill Comments on Senator Anderson’s Refusal to Talk to Constituents

OKLAHOMA CITY – State Rep. Randy Terrill (R-Moore) issued the following statement today after state Sen. Patrick Anderson (R-Enid) began forwarding his calls to Terrill’s office in an effort to avoid communicating with his own constituents.

“This is the most unbelievably cowardly act by an elected official that I have ever seen. Apparently, Senator Anderson is receiving so many calls from his constituents urging him to support an Official English law that he is now trying to avoid them by forwarding the calls to me. Senator Anderson is turning his back on his constituents. The voters of Senate District 19 deserve better.

“It’s inconceivable that any public official would treat his own constituents this way unless Senator Anderson is truly working with the Senate Democrat leadership to block or kill consideration of Official English in the state Senate this week.”