Oklahoma Senator Cries Justice

Freshman Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma cried during his opening remarks at the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for John Roberts, which you can see on C-Span (RealPlayer link), right around the time he delivered this passage:

The opportunity to sit on this committee at this time in our nation’s history will be among my most important tasks as an elected official. When I ponder our country and its greatness, its weaknesses, and its potential, my heart aches for less divisiveness, less polarization, less finger pointing, less bitterness and less mindless partisanship, which, at times, sounds almost hateful to the ears of ordinary Americans.

Coburn's an odd bird in the Senate, a practicing family physician and rigid social and fiscal conservative who once used his Judiciary Committee seat to tout breast implants:

If you have them, you're healthier than if you don't. That is what the ultimate science shows. ... In fact, there's no science that shows that silicone breast implants are detrimental and, in fact, they make you healthier.

I don't know what he has to cry about, with two seats on the Supreme Court in the easy reach of the Republican majority in D.C. Unless Roberts forgot to tell anyone he murdered a series of drifters along the Potomac in the '80s, the guy seems like a lock for the chief justiceship.

My fellow Democrats are the ones who should be crying.

2005/09/12 · 10 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

During the 2004 election that landed him in the Senate, Tom Coburn said that doctors who performed abortions should be imprisoned as murderers. Even though the Supreme Court said that performing abortions are not committing murder. Now the strange thing about Coburn saying this is that he has admitted that earlier in his career he himself performed abortions. Before he decided that they were acts of murder I guess. So far he hasn't surrendered himself to the authorities for incarceration for his past "crimes."

#1 · Joe · 2005/09/12

POTOMAC

#2 · ED · 2005/09/12

I'm sure murdering some drifters 20 years ago wouldn't be much of a hurdle for him. Vacationing virgin coeds, maybe.

#3 · Jeff · 2005/09/12

OMG, please don't bring up those drifters again. Roberts said he didn't do it, and we should believe him.

The blood on his hands was just from his nose; he has suffered from frequent nose bleeds since childhood, sometimes losing as much as four pints of blood, such as what happened that night in the '80s.

#4 · justsomeguy · 2005/09/12

Dude, you've been intellectually burgled:

No confidence

Jonathan Chait

September 9, 2005

IN DECEMBER 2000, before the outcome of the presidential recount was known, "Saturday Night Live" aired a sketch titled "A Glimpse of Our Possible Future." In it, the imaginary President Bush hid under his desk to avoid delivering a State of the Union address, pleading, "I don't want to go out, it's too hard!" He then goes on to tell the country, "So, how we all doing out there, huh? Yeah, not so good. I broke the Hoover Dam ... we had that war thing happen."

#5 · Sven · 2005/09/12

I share Coburn's sentiments regarding the need for less divisiveness. Now if somebody would just tell Rove...

#6 · Bill · 2005/09/12

"Run, run, the sky is falling!" Keep the people divided, keep the minorities duped, spread the propoganda, obstruct everything...you liberals are a friggin' trip.

#7 · John · 2005/09/13

Hey John....Fuck off.

#8 · visitor · 2005/09/13

I always thought "Gays are the single biggest threat to [America's] freedom" sounded at least a little hateful the ears of most Americans, if not hateful then at least ignorant.

#9 · Corpus Christi Texas · 2005/09/14

Visitor...good answer.

#10 · John · 2005/09/15