Like Jake and Elwood, it appears another successful act may be getting back together, and there’s a distinctly Oklahoma angle to the story. Today’s Washington Post reveals that the old “Harry and Louise” team is gearing up for another health care reform ballet, and the name of an Oklahoman that played a key role in the first battle is surfacing once again.

President-Elect Obama noted in today’s press conference that “sound policy” on items such as health care will be necessary to fix the nation’s ailing economy. No doubt there will be much debate on precisely just what “sound policy” is, and the Goddard-Claussen team will no doubt be involved in defining that term.

So what is the Oklahoma angle? It was 1993 that an unknown Oklahoma company was drafted by the Goddard-Claussen team to run advocacy operations. It was News9’s political analyst Scott Mitchell that worked alongside Ben Goddard and Rick Claussen to design the advocacy and grassroots programs that defeated the Clinton health initiative and subsequent attempts at the state level throughout the 1990’s. Mitchell later added trial consulting to his firm’s menu, becoming an expert in pre-trial publicity and advising some of the nation’s top lawyers on the public aspects of legal cases, becoming the first public affairs/media consultant in America to teach Continuing Legal Education (CLE) on strategies in the “Court of Public Opinion.” With Mitchell on the National Board of Directors of DC-based Community Health Charities, the nation’s top patient charity organization, rumors are flying the life-long Oklahoman will be heavily-recruited to join the new Goddard-Claussen team in DC.

Regardless, as President–Elect Obama re-assembles many of the same people that advanced a government takeover in the early 1990’s, it sounds as if yet another retro-band is getting back together, and unlike the recent Republican effort, this band knows how to win.

Developing…..

Flashback Video: Harry and Louise on Hillary Clinton’s health plan (1994)