James Coburn

EDMOND — EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in an occasional series of stories about candidates for the 5th District Congressional seat, opening in 2010.

Del City Republican Paul Arabie said the presidency of Barack Obama inspires him to run for the 5th Congressional District in Oklahoma.

“He has some radical ideas — very radical,” said Arabie, 77. “He doesn’t demonstrate to me that he’s an American citizen. He goes against every principal that we have.”

Obama’s appointments of “czars” should scare any true American, Arabie said.

“This should scare any true American patriot, and to think that these individuals has not been approved by the Congress, and answers only to the man who calls himself the president,” Arabie said.

Arabie is one of five Republican Congressional 5th District, which includes state Rep. Mike Thompson of Oklahoma City, former state Rep. Kevin Calvey of Del City, Rick Flanigan of Bethany, James Lankford and Johnny Roy, both of Edmond. Independent candidate Clark Duffe, of Edmond, also is in the race.

No Democrats have announced their candidacy for the Congressional 5th District seat currently occupied by Republican Mary Fallin, a 2010 gubernatorial candidate.

A czar is a high-level staff member appointed by the president to oversee a particular policy. There have been 117 czar jobs since the first 12 took office during the Franklin Roosevelt administration, according to Wikipedia. George W. Bush appointed 47 czars, the most of any president. Obama follows Bush with 32 czar appointments.

“Practically every one of them is involved in illegal activity or has been in the past,” Arabie contended. “Everyone who he has appointed as his Cabinet members are. Why don’t we face it; they’re crooks.”

He pointed out that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner owed back taxes when he was appointed as secretary.

“I don’t know how Washington runs,” said Arabie, a retired chief technician for cardiac cauterization at Children’s Hospital. “… But it won’t take me long to learn that. I have a lot of common sense. I know what’s right and what’s wrong. I can say no to pork barrel anytime, even if it benefits the state of Oklahoma.”

Congress is passing the buck for taxpayers to bear the expense of needless spending, he said. Arabie and his wife Freda have been married for 56 years and had five children.

Generations to come will pay for what Arabie calls a disastrous federal stimulus package, he said. Stimulus funds are creating new roads, a task already done by the state, he added. Refunds to taxpayers would stimulate the economy better than the federal stimulus, he said.

“How are these roads going to help us with our economy?” Arabie said. “It’s not going to help us any.”

Neither does he like Congress being involved in the business of health care, said Arabie, a pro life candidate. Abortion is murder, he said.

“When they put in Medicare, it didn’t work,” he said. “It still doesn’t work; it’s in debt up to its ears. And they’re going to be taking from the Medicare program to fund this stupid health-care thing.” Medicare should be taken out of the federal fund, he said.

Arabie also called for the withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan because of expense and futility of the U.S. presence in the midst of a civil war, he said.

“The longer you stay in there, the more troops you lose and the more damage we do to that country,” he said.

People are afraid of their government, said Tech Sgt. Arabie, a disabled veteran who served in the Korean and Vietnam wars as an Air Force medic and has never been elected to a political office.

“Tyranny is when people fear government. When government fears people, that is freedom,” is printed on his campaign cards. His message for Washington, “If you misbehave, once before in history, the people got their weapons and they changed the form of government we had. And that can happen again.

“I want them to know that.”

The strength of his campaign is based purely on his message, word of mouth and some yard signs. There’s no Web site, no brochures.

“I don’t want special interests to help me. I don’t want the oil companies to help me. I don’t want any big business to help me,” Arabie said. “I want to say I represent the people. I don’t want to owe anybody anything.”

Arabie said he can be contacted at 619-9751 or by e-mail at mmarabie@sbcglobal.net.

THE OFFICIAL FILING period for candidates is set for June 7-9. The statewide primary will be July 27, with a runoff election on Aug. 24. The general statewide election will be Nov. 2, 2010.