“The halting, tearful and repeatedly remorseful 27-minute speech included tributes to Coburn’s family, personal aides, ushers who run the Senate and staffers at the Government Accountability Office and Congressional Research Service — two congressional agencies that he’s utilized exhaustively over the course of his career. He paused and held back tears when he mentioned his father, who had a fifth grade education and was ‘a great believer in our country,’ but ‘wouldn’t recognize it today.’…

“He read aloud the oath of office for senators and choked up as he read that senators are to defend the U.S. Constitution ‘and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.’

“‘Your state isn’t mentioned one time in that oath,’ he told colleagues as he slammed his hand on the lectern. ‘Your whole goal is to protect the United States of America, its Constitution and its liberties. It’s not to provide benefits for your state. That’s where we differ — that’s where my conflict with my colleagues has come. It’s nice to be able to do things for your state, but that isn’t our charge. Our charge is to protect the future of our country by upholding the Constitution.'”