Coburn: We ‘deserve’ to lose seats

Distraught by congressional spending, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said that Republicans have lost their courage to clamp down on waste and deserve to lose seats this year.

"Those people who are fiscally conservative, Republican or not, we don't have many years left that we better fix this, and we better be about it now," said Coburn on CNN Headline News Wednesday. "So [it's about] holding the Republicans accountable. And we're going lose some seats. There's no question about it. We deserve to."

{mosads}Coburn, a first-term senator who has crusaded against government waste, said that most Republicans in Congress are fiscal conservatives and correctly vote against spending measures put forth by Democrats. But he decried votes by "a Republican portion" to go along with the Democratic majority.

"I think they've lost their courage," Coburn said. "And I think the focus has been on short-term benefits, rather than long-term leaders of the country. And I think they have to start acting like Republicans. And they either have to believe it or not. And if they believe it, they'll vote that way. And if they don't, they really aren't Republicans."

Coburn's harsh words for fellow Republicans come after his op-ed in Monday's Wall Street Journal in which he said that GOP efforts such as the K Street Project, which sought to foster ties between Republicans and lobbying firms, and "compassionate conservatism" backfired and weakened the party.

"The fruit of these efforts is not the hoped-for Republican governing majority, but the real prospect of a filibuster-proof Democrat majority in 2009," he wrote. He called for Republicans to focus on eliminating government waste before approving more spending.

Watch video of Coburn’s interview at The Briefing Room .