"The Rightwing Crackup"

[GreenPartyVoter]

As the the Senate Judiciary Committee began confirmation hearings for Judge John Roberts, Bush's nominee to be the next Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, dead bodies were still clogging the streets in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Maybe it was the strain of watching the worst natural disaster in our nation's history unfold, coupled with the most callous and incompetent government response imaginable, that made one Republican on the committee actually start crying during his opening remarks.

Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, denounced "judicial activism" and the idea of a Supreme Court that functions as a "superlegislative body.” And then, out of nowhere, his voice broke and he seemed to lose control for a moment, declaring, "my heart aches," and calling for "less polarization, less bitterness, less partisanship." "Our family structures have declined. Our dependency on government has grown," he lamented.

What was Coburn crying about? He seemed to grow emotional when he began talking about our divided country, and calling for one, united America. But the Roberts confirmation battle has been a pretty easy ride so far--it's not like these are shaping up to be highly divisive hearings. With the Republicans in charge of everything in Washington, and Bush on the verge of installing both a new Chief Justice and a second Supreme Court justice, it's not like partisanship is blocking them at every turn. Besides which, Coburn is the guy who called for the death penalty for abortion doctors, denounced his moderate opponent in the 2004 election as "evil," and called homosexuality America's number-one problem. The idea that he's lamenting divisive politics is a little much.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0913-29.htm

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[cynatnite]

1. I hope someone passed Coburn a tissue

:sarcasm:

[Tempest]

2. Coburn's a f*cking hypocrite

"The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power. ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda.'"
- Tom Coburn


Now who's less polarizing, less bitter and less partisan?

[Turbineguy]

3. In the land of unintended consequences

a policy you think will make things better serves to divide the nation worse than can be imagined.

He probably figured that denouncing homosexuals would merely affect 10 percent of the population.

The problem is that the RW view on homosexuals is only a small part of their overall view of the world. This is what happens when you start to discover the horror of your error. These are not discrete issues. They affect the overal fabric of a civilized society.

In a company I worked for, a new co-worker came in with some new ideas. Taken by themselves the ideas were not bad. Implementing them caused near total disfunction in the department. So we went from a less than perfect operation directly to disfunction without ever seeing the effect of the ideas.

[triguy46]

4. I'm from Oklahoma, he's a hypocrite and a dork...

He was confused after medical school and took the Hypocritic oath, rather that the Hippocratic oath (first, do no harm). He's one to cry, it must be because he sense's the salad days may be over. He challenges our other senator, inhofe, for being the most ineffectual, ignorant, worthless, backward legislator. He was elected on divisive issues, wedge issues, and now he's crying? He's only crying because we aren't totally submissive to * yet.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. Anhhhhh, fuck your crocodile tears, Coburn.

If you don't believe in government, for crissakes don't get involved in it. Stay the fuck out and leave it to people who DO care about it.

:nopity:

[geniph]

6. What, did he forget his Haldol this morning?

I feel no sympathy for him or his frigging crocodile tears.

Sure he wants a "united America" - united and socially conformist under THEIR rules, those of the shiny-eyed pod people suffering from religious mania.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Nail on the head

------------------------------------------------------
URGENT yet easy! Hold the government accountable for Katrina's aftermath
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4736062

Save the gulf, then save the nation! http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm