Late for April Fools

In the up-is-down, black-is-white world of Republican politics, a Republican occasionally strays off message and says something reasonable. But three?

• Karl Rove tells the frothing wingnuts to take their meds and answer the census. (Well, not in so many words...)
  
• John McCain finally concedes that he's an orthodox conservative without any marketing-driven maverickyness. (Well, not in so many words...)
• Tom Coburn declares a jones for Nancy Pelosi. (Well, not in so many words...)
  

April 1st would have been the perfect day for this - one day a year for Republicans to dispense with their constant outlandish distortions and try to make sense.

The real answer is that they would rather be quoted for saying anything other than answering questions about paying to watch simulated lesbian sex. Showing their well-buried humanity was probably the only gambit extreme enough to get the media even partially off of the Voyeur sex club.

One last weird oddity: When a Democrat has a scandal, every follow-up story recaps all the saucy details. ($90,000 in the freezer!) I had to search through the CNN Political Ticker all the way back to March 30 to find the name of the club that the hard right went to to get right hard.

Teabag Christians pray for death

Listen carefully (around 0:15) and you will hear that this prayer group prayed for Sen. Robert Byrd to die so that the current tepid health insurance reform wouldn't pass a procedural vote in the Senate. The caller explicitly states that they got the message from wingnut Sen. Tom Coburn to hold their prayer vigil:

The degree to which Mr. Byrd’s condition looms over the proceedings was underscored Monday when Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, outraged Democrats in a floor speech by declaring that "what the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote."

He didn't explicitly call on Byrd to die. He left that for wingnut bloggers - and eager Christianists. Is the Christianity of forgiveness and mercy passé?

Second thoughts (5:32 p.m.): I was out finishing my Christmas shopping, which I always delay to the last minute because I'm a serious procrastinator, not because of my lack of faith. Somewhere in the ebbing commercial frenzy of excess, I came upon enough hope in my normally justified pessimism about political Christians to rethink this a little.

Surely this call was spoofing the American Taliban. Surely the bar for what can be called Christian is not so low. Surely the weeping over the invented, supposed death of James Inhofe was a tip-off that this couldn't be real.

Even so, both Sen. John Barrasso and the C-SPAN news host didn't respond at all to the claimed death prayers. Trust me when I tell you that a Democrat in that position would be pilloried for weeks.

More low comity

"In my capacity as the senator from Minnesota, I object," replied [blessed Al] Franken.

Keeping the verbose, self-important Joe Lieberman (IINO-CT) from finishing yet another whiny, self-flattering speech on the Senate floor was only a slap on the wrist. Reid should throw Lieberman out of the caucus – and out of his chairmanship.

John McCain of course leapt to Lieberman's defense. Those two ought to get a room.

But answer me this: Has McCain ever objected on the Senate floor to Tom Coburn's Dr. No act? Has it ever occurred to him that Coburn's constant hamstringing of the Senate is far more low comity than shutting off Lieberman's at the end of his time? I know it deprives him of the heroin of ego gratification that a captive audience gives him, but everyone else in the world knows when to shut up.

Update: It's all so much bullshit, a non-story trumped up by the screamers in the media.

Low comity

The Republican caucus repeatedly offers the Democratic caucus the back of the hand, yet Democrats continue like an abused spouse or child to cling to the fantasy that there's comity in the Senate.

There isn't. Stop pretending and implement Democratic policies. Reduce the Republicans to the snarling whiners they are.

Splainin'

I was all set to defend Republican Senator Tom Coburn. Sure, he's way out there on everything, but the first clip I saw of his Ricky Ricardo moment when questioning Sonia Sotomayor seemed to be discussing a hypothetical and legally suspect response by someone other than Sotomayor to a less than immediate threat. I was all set to take the media to task for trimming the quote to make it worse.

Uh, no. He did indeed direct his comment at Sotomayor.



Of course, it was bad enough even when I thought he only happened to retreat to stereotype.

Blame the Republican

The AP says that "partisan wrangling" is holding up a wilderness bill. In fact, Republican Tom Coburn is the only one wrangling. He does this all the time. He is well known on both sides of the aisle for his willingness to stand alone in the way of anything his stony little cinder of a brain doesn't like.

Why do we have reporters if they can't keep up with context?

Update (1/11): AP continues to ignore Coburn's career-long obstructionism. No matter, the bill passed overwhelmingly.