The Senator’s Wife – Page 3 – The Senator's Wife

Old Home Week, Part II

I spent the better part of my day today watching seven hours of Senate Confirmation Hearings for Cliff’s former colleague and friend, Oklahoma Attorney General, Scott Pruitt. He has been tapped to to head the EPA, and in today’s polarized society, has come under some pretty heavy fire from the left.

We first met Scott and his sweet wife Marlyn, back in 2002 when Cliff was elected to the State Senate. There were only a handful of Republicans in the Oklahoma Legislature at the time and Scott was a friendly face in that lion’s den.

An attorney by trade, Scott specialized in Constitutional Law which made it especially fun to watch him debate on the Senate floor. He was also a baseball player in college and at some point, instituted a friendly baseball game between the members of the House and Senate. The game itself was usually held in the spring at the Bricktown Ballpark and very competitive in nature. It was fun for family and friends too. Below is a photo from one of the games with Trump’s nominee for EPA in the middle.

Looks like my baby was hanging out with her daddy down in the dugout too….sigh.

fullsizerender — Baby Girl Branan, Big Boy Branan, Pruitt, Coffee

Having known Scott since 2002, it’s fair to describe him as extremely sharp, capable and very determined. In 1998, he ran a successful race against a sitting State Senator which is no easy feat. Two years later, he ran for Congress finishing third in a heated Republican primary and then ran unsuccessfully for Lt. Governor six years later. It wasn’t until 2010, when Scott ran for Attorney General that he would pick up a significant statewide win. Significant, because if he had won that Lieutenant Governor’s race or the Congressional seat before that, he might not have been in a position to challenge the EPA as he did in his role as Oklahoma Attorney General… which is what ultimately landed him in the hot seat today as Trump’s nominee for head of the EPA! God certainly works in mysterious ways!

My Senator and I knew Scott would hold his own during what would be seven grueling hours of confirmation hearings and we watched almost every minute. Thank goodness for being able to live stream CSPAN-2! Best of luck to you Senator! We’re certainly proud of all you’ve accomplished and are cheering you on from our seat on the sidelines!

Old Home Week

I spent some time this morning watching the Senate confirmation hearings for Rex Tillerson, Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of State, and it took me down a path to my past.

Sitting at the front table with Tillerson was Sam Nunn, former U.S. Senator (D-GA), and Bob Gates, former Secretary of Defense, head of the CIA and probably a lot of other National Intelligence entities I neglect to mention.

My knowledge of both those gentlemen (Nunn and Gates) dates back to the early 1990s when I was a research assistant on the Senate Intelligence Committee. I was a young, naive and politically passionate twenty something year old out to save the world. Senator Nunn was a member of the Intelligence Committee and served as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He was also a very close friend of my boss, David Boren,(D-OK), Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. They worked closely together as did their staff.

Let me just say, I have the utmost respect for Senator Nunn. Total class act. His wise words before the committee this morning reminded me of how much I loved working on that secret committee years ago. He always asked the best questions in the closed hearings of the Intelligence Committee, and with a gracious demeanor and subtle southern accent to boot.

I learned so very much about the world from these people, but also about how Washington and politics worked. Sure, there was political posturing and partisanship up on the Hill-even in those days. But when it came to the nation’s safety and security, they worked together to find the common ground.

My memories of Bob Gates are a little more specific. At the time, Gates was being confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee to head the CIA, and many conjured that his confirmation was going to be controversial. The Senate was controlled by the Democrats and Gates was a Republican – nominated by a Republican President (George H.W. Bush). You can imagine there would be hearings, not just to confirm, but to question his qualifications.

My boss, along with Senator Nunn, seemed to want no part in politicizing the process and both were resolute in their belief that Gates was more than qualified for the job, maybe even the best person for the job. As a young and admittedly partisan Senate staffer, I was skeptical.

I attended those hearings, taking notes, doing my job and watching those two men skillfully and briliantly navigate such an important national security confirmation process. I think my parents even have a tape somewhere in their basement of the CNN broadcast that showed me sitting behind the members in my role as a staffer. I should really try to find that sometime just for fun or, to show my children what a VHS tape looks like.

What I particularly remember was the loyalty I felt toward my boss, David Boren. He came under some fire for his desire to confirm Bob Gates for no other reason than they were on opposite sides of the political aisle. His most notable opposition came from the head of the House Intelligence Committee, Dave McCurdy, a fellow Democrat also from Oklahoma. In an attempt to derail the process, McCurdy wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post questioning Boren and his support of Gates. The inflammatory piece landed the day of the hearings.

Boren appeared to pay minimal attention, if any, to this back stabbing by a fellow Oklahoman and proceeded to chair the hearing with his concise and skilled leadership. I was so proud to be a member on his staff that day – never mind the life lessons I learned throughout the process.

Fast forward to 2014, I had a unique opportunity to meet Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee, the same Corker who has been presiding over the Tillerson hearings today as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

I was in town for a conference with American Mothers, and went to the Hill to have a photo op with the National Mother of the Year, (pictured in white below) who happened to be from Corker’s home state.

He is an impressive individual and possesses a great knowledge of world affairs. He also has some cool art in his Senate office.

We seized an opportunity to chat with him about his efforts and legislation to combat human trafficking, an area he is very engaged in, and how our organization has been involved with same. If you care about this issue – he’s your guy!

So, naturally when I turned on the TV this morning and saw all three of these men in one room talking about national security… it kind of felt like old home week on Hill. “Old” being the key word here. 🙂

Bag of Skittles

I had a unique opportunity to be up close and personal with one of the candidates for POTUS this past weekend. Well, not really “up close and personal,” but in the same room if that counts.

Okay, maybe it was up close and personal but it was also a packed house, full of people.

Those cute collegians with the big phones were super skilled on social media and loving the backdrop of Trump with the King of College football in Oklahoma, Barry Switzer.

Here was my lame attempt at same….clearly, I have a lot to learn.

Before the candidate arrived, we ran into some fun friends of ours from all sides of the political aisle.

I should have tweeted this pic as a political bag of Skittles (haha) because we represent a wide variety of political color, commentary and three different political parties.

But not as much color as was seen across the street.

I snapped a quick pic of the snack sized bag of protestors who set up shop across from the event. You know I couldn’t wait to photograph them.

I kept thinking… I was in a college town and this is all you’ve got?

The guy holding the Trump Lies poster wins best sign award. I am positive he was cloaked in a hybrid Bernie T-Shirt considering the irony of that statement and hope he finds a more lucrative career with ESPN Gameday.

Seriously, the mom in me would have loved to have walked across the street and talked with these kids just to see where they were coming from and why they took time out from the massive tailgating and pre-gaming taking place to hold up some signs and protest. However, at this point I was already tagged as a hostile, so I stuck with our plan and headed into the event.

In my next life, I am going to be a journalist…just saying.