Poll: Voters Take Coburn's Side In Ethics Dispute

Sen. Tom Coburn isn't well known nationally, but a poll released Sunday shows that the public overwhelmingly takes his side when it comes to a dispute with the Senate Ethics Committee over whether he should be allowed to keep delivering babies.

The Ethics Committee has warned Coburn (R-Okla.) that his continued medical work delivering babies in Oklahoma would violate the Senate's conflict of interest rules. Coburn delivers babies for free, but the Ethics panel, in a bipartisan vote, said that because the hospital where Coburn works is owned by a for profit entity, Coburn's services create a conflict of interest.

Coburn upped the ante in his ethics dispute last week when he told Politico that he was not going to stop delivering babies no matter what the committee said.

Rasmussen Reports, a national polling firm, put the Coburn case to voters in a poll last week and 77 percent say Coburn's conduct is "appropriate" while only 8 percent disagree. According to the poll released Sunday afternoon: "When told that Coburn would ignore the committee and continue delivering babies for free, 75% voiced a favorable opinion of the senator."