Tulsa World | June 6, 2009

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Oklahoma Democratic Party on Friday said U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe prefers to smear President Barack Obama rather than address important facts of the president's recent address in Egypt.

"I am not surprised but I am disappointed," Todd Goodman said, pointing to what he described as Inhofe's pattern.

Goodman was responding to comments by Inhofe in which Oklahoma's senior Republican senator described Obama's speech Thursday in Cairo as "un-American" because it described the war in Iraq as a "war of choice.''

In a story by the Daily Oklahoman, Inhofe also criticized Obama for suggesting that torture had taken place at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The senator claims there has never been a case of torture documented at that facility.

"I just don't know whose side he is on," Inhofe was quoted as saying.

Goodman praised Obama's speech.

"The president did an incredible American and democratic thing," he said. "He reached out a hand in peace to the rest of the world."

Goodman said the path to greater national security is to emphasize shared values.

"When the president is telling the truth, Inhofe prefers to smear the president rather than address the important facts in the speech," he said.

"To criticize our president, even asking whose side he is on. We know whose side Jim Inhofe is on - Jim Inhofe's."

Goodman said Inhofe has a pattern of dividing people.

"He is listening to Washington special interests and the most extreme voices in his own party rather than what's good for the working men and women of Oklahoma and promoting security across the U.S.," Goodman said.

A spokesman for Inhofe responded by saying Obama did not stick to the truth when speaking about the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and torture.

"On the issue of the Iraq war, he called it a war of choice but later said the Iraqi people were better off without Saddam Hussein," Jared Young said.

"So, was going there a good choice or a bad choice?"

Young said the senator also believes it is important to engage in diplomacy and reach out a hand in peace.

He said Inhofe, however, does not believe reaching out to terrorist organizations such as Hamas should become official U.S. policy.

"That is one thing the president advocated in his speech in Egypt," Young said.