Senator Tom Coburn is unknown to most Americans, but the strange workings of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics could end up making the Oklahoma Republican far more popular than he is today. The numbers in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey also highlight the huge gap between the culture of Washington and the American people.

Currently, 65% of voters nationwide don’t know enough about Coburn to have any opinion at all. He is best known in Washington as "Dr. No" for battling his colleagues over wasteful government spending. However, when people learn about his battle with the Senate ethics committee, Coburn’s ratings skyrocket to levels that would make his colleagues jealous.

Coburn is a medical doctor who continues to deliver about 400 babies a year. When told that it would be a violation of Senate rules to earn such outside income, Coburn stopped collecting money. He actually loses money for delivering the babies since he pays for malpractice insurance out of his own pocket. The latest Rasmussen Reports survey found that 77% of voters say such conduct is appropriate for a senator while only 8% disagree.

But, according to Politico.com that’s not good enough for the six senators on the ethics committee, three from each party. They have ordered Coburn to stop delivering babies for free even though he provides services for poor and uninsured women.

While the committee itself, chaired by California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, doesn't rate the Coburn issue as its highest priority, the fact that it is an issue at all seems odd to most voters. Just 13% say this is the kind of issue that the ethics committee should be concerned about.

When told that Coburn would ignore the committee and continue delivering babies for free, 75% voiced a favorable opinion of the senator (including 40% with a Very Favorable opinion). Obviously, those figures are based upon just a single aspect of Coburn’s Senate career. But if the ethics committee keeps pushing the issue, it will be the one thing that most voters know about the first-term senator who is up for reelection in 2010.

While voters think it’s silly for Coburn to be pursued in this manner, 55% say it should be considered a violation of Senate ethics for any senator to receive campaign contributions from people with issues before the Senate. Just 25% disagree. If that standard were implemented, every senator would be in trouble.

Government ethics and corruption consistently rank near the top of voter concerns about Election 2008.

In a separate survey last month the percentage of voters who gave Congress good or excellent ratings fell to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. Just 9% said Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) felt Congress was doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Last week, 61% of Americans in a nationwide survey said Congress, which is in recess until early September, should return to Washington immediately to vote on lifting the ban on offshore oil drilling.

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