Carol Bush, a.k.a. The Pariah of the Oklahoma Legislature

Carol Bush, AKA the Pariah of the Oklahoma Legislature

Back on Christmas day we ran the story of new Tulsa area legislator Rep. Carol Bush's horrendously offensive interview with a small Tulsa media outlet.  The last story in this newsletter will re hash  the gaffes and trash talk in the interview so this article is going to cover the blowback .  The article had been mentioned on one blog by the 20^th of December but no action had been taken.

The December 25^th 2016 Sooner Tea Party Newsletter went out early, at 5:48 pm and within six minutes the first House members were opening their copy and forwarding it to others.  That night, Christmas night, House leadership had ordered one of the House Whips to contact Rep. Carol Bush and to make an example out of her.  Within hours Bush was calling to apologize to a fellow House member that she had slandered, fulfilling part of the orders she had been given by the House Whip at the direction of House Leadership.  Then on Thursday of this week Rep. Bush had apologized in person to her entire entering class and at 8:58 am on Friday she had apologized to the entire Republican Caucus via the email below:

Subject: apology

Dear members of the Caucus,
 I want to apologize for an article that was recently published in the Tulsa area.  I was not only misquoted, many of the comments were taken out of context.  I have apologized to Representative Bennett and I ask for your forgiveness as well.  I am always available if any member would like to meet with me and further discuss.
 Please know I have learned my lesson with the media and rest assured it will not happen again.  I appreciate your consideration and look forward to working with each of you to further our agenda for this coming legislative session.

 Respectively,

Representative Carol Bush

The fact that House leadership had jumped on her with both feet isn't unexpected as she was a McCall supporter and had received campaign contributions from the McCall PAC.  This vicious attack upon the Republican Causcus, Trump, and Christians in Oklahomans reflected upon Speaker Charles McCall in a very harsh way.   However the speed that they jumped on Rep. Bush was commendable.

One should never make excuses when making an apology as it negates the apology by disavowing the true cause.   Rep. Bush claims she was misquoted and taken out of context yet the person interviewing her has been her friend for 35 years…

And her closing…. Respectively… meaning in order or in sequence… exactly what does that mean in context with her apology?  Is she so ignorant that she doesn't understand the difference between respectively and respectfully?  Was she so careless in writing the apology that she failed to read it before sending it?

Bush was appointed as vice chair to Health Services and Long Term Care, obviously a position she desired given her support for assisted suicide here in Oklahoma.   Has she been stripped of that vice chair post yet?  If so why is House Leadership dragging their feet on this issue?  The conflict of interest alone in that she wants to bring assisted suicide to Oklahoma so she can kill off her own mother (admitted in her interview with the Tulsa Voice) is enough to remove her from any position of authority.

The Rep. Dan Kirby scandal along with the Rep. Carol Bush scandal is the first real challenge to Speaker Charles McCall's leadership.  Both have made the Oklahoma Republican Caucus a laughingstock  and both issues need dealt with decisively and completely.  Allowing these issues to fester will set the wrong tone in the coming session.