I wonder…if you took a secret poll of Senate Republicans, how many of them would like to see Tom Coburn defeated in the 2010 elections? Coburn will object to any effort to speed up the process of passing the health care bill even though that means members will miss Christmas Eve with their families and will have to come back to DC before New Years Day to expand the country’s debt ceiling. I particularly liked Senator John Cornyn’s spin on this.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said, definitively, “no, we’re not going to cede back any time. We’re fighting til the bitter end, till hell freezes over and we’re skating on the [thin?] ice.”
I don’t really care if senators’ holidays are ruined. It’s basically what they deserve. But I think most of them would like to strangle Corburn for his pointless posturing. Yet, they’re going to make the best of it by telling us all that they’re only doing what the teabaggers demand.
What do you expect from coburn? Didn’t he “pray” for the death of senator Byrd so that the senate bill wouldn’t pass?
maybe he just prayed for a fender bender. I don’t know. He’s an a-hole.
Always expect the worst from Republican senators and you will seldom be disappointed.
The GOP doesn’t have a choice.
It’s either 100% full-throated support for idiocy like this, or it’s heresy to the Teabaggers, and they start plotting your replacement.
Ask Angry Johnny how that’s going for him.
the entire health care process has exposed all the warts and ugliness of a terribly dysfunctional senate, largely composed of petulant assholes on both sides of the aisle. wtf are the motives of the RAT caucus in going along with this charade…can they really be that committed to pandering to the lunatic fringe?
isn’t there some arcane senate rule that could be invoked that would facilitate ending/overridinng this kind of deliberate obstructionism…or is it just another one of those situations where little tommy gets to throw his tantrum and they’ll all just have to bear it issues?
although, frankly, missing the holidays serves them all right.
Coburn is a loose cannon. I think the Republican leadership would muzzle him if they knew how.
Wouldn’t hell freezing over imply that they’d be skating on thick ice? I know it’s nitpicking, but if Coburn is going to spew nonsense all critiques of him should be at his level.
Is there any evidence that Coburn’s antics are losing him or Republicans in general any votes? Is this one of those situations where “the centre cannot hold” and the only way to keep your base, funding, and prospects intact is to pander to the extremes?
If so, the underlying problems run deeper than the arcane rules of the Senate. They reflect a deeper malaise within the body politic as a whole. The Weimar republic went off the deep end because moderate, liberals, and centrists couldn’t solve the problems created by Versailles, war reparations and economic meltdown. Then along came Hitler and those problems /prejudices were (in part) resolved by scapegoating Jews, expropriating their property, and suspending all civil liberties- (with much worse to follow as all checks and balances were removed).
Why should the world have confidence that the US can do any better?
Attention Oklahomans. There are 2138 precincts; that tells you pretty much how many volunteers it will take to work a full-court press in an election.
Coburn won the general election in 2004 with around 750,000 votes.
Get an organization and a candidate, work your tails off to turn out, say, 1 million voters for a challenger. And the heads of the Village will explode.
It’s a very steep hill. Not an impossible one, a steep one.
In the words of an ancient TV show, “You mission, should you accept it is…”
Get it right – it’s their Khan (aka Moby Dick) moment:
“from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYPsoxpt0BU&feature=related