J.C. Watts Compares Senator Coburn To MLK, Jr.

At a recent fundraiser in Tulsa, former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts compared Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) to Martin Luther King, Jr.  While it is not uncommon for people to compare those they admire to great historical figures, Watts' reasoning behind the comparison is somewhat questionable:

Watts praised U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn as "a threat to the system" and said that "God is going to have a special place in heaven for Tom Coburn." He compared the senator to Martin Luther King Jr., saying that, like King, Coburn could not be threatened or bought off.

While Coburn is a strong conservative and does stand by his principles, he is embroiled in a controversy after allegedly advising Senator John Ensign (R-NV) to buy off his mistress:

Sen. Tom Coburn knew more than a year ago that his Republican colleague John Ensign was having an affair with a staffer - and he reportedly urged Ensign to end the relationship and pay a substantial sum of money to the staffer and her husband.

Doug Hampton - the husband of Ensign's mistress - told Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston in a television interview Wednesday that Coburn and others had urged Ensign to give the couple "millions of dollars" so that they could pay off their mortgage and move away from Ensign's hometown of Las Vegas.

Watts defended Coburn's role in the Ensign affair by saying:

"I would mortgage one of my grandkids that Tom Coburn was sharing the Gospel in that situation. To make that look sinister is just - it's what politics has become."