Doctor Coburn's Genuine Boogie Woogie Travelin' STD Show (and Star Wars Copyright Infringement Suit Waitin' To Happen)

Channeling the great huckster/sex films impresario Kroger Babb, Oklahoma senator and real-life medicine man Tom Coburn has, writes the Wash Times, "continued a tradition he started when he was a member of the House of Representatives—treating Capitol Hill staffers to lunch and a slide show about the ravages of sexual disease."

'This is going to be pretty graphic, and I don't want anybody to be surprised,' the Oklahoma Republican said as he began the noon presentation at the Capitol.

Perhaps policy wonks have gotten used to pleasant burning sensations in the post-Clinton years, or maybe they are reserving their revulsion for the novel by The Washingtonienne, but Coburn's presentation apparently non-plussed nobody. As the Times reports, "no one gasped or ran for the exits, unlike previous years."

Then again, perhaps the audience was merely stunned into the sort of stupor Bill Cosby allegedly induces in his lady friends by the Star Wars motif of Coburn's PowerPoint porn:

The event yesterday was billed as a Star Wars-style 'Revenge of the STDs.' Fliers pictured a Yoda figure crying, 'Stop the STDs, we must,' and Darth Vader warning, 'Never underestimate the power of the STDs.' Star Wars music greeted the guests.

Whole account of your tax dollars at work here.

Reason interviewed Coburn back when he term-limited himself out of Congress. The high points include his characterizing Congress as a room full of nutjobs ("There are not many normal people up here") and his praise for Cuba's registry system for HIV-positive patients ("such programs have been successful in Cuba…because of accountability").