Senate

Merry Christmas to You Too, Senator Coburn

By Karen Tumulty | December 21, 2009 | +

Okay, let’s give Tom Coburn the benefit of every conceivable doubt. Is it possible to read this comment as anything but a wish prayer that catastrophe befall one of his colleagues, especially with the frail and ailing 92-year-old Robert C. Byrd requiring a wheelchair to make it to the Senate Chamber?:

At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon — nine hours before the 1 a.m. vote that would effectively clinch the legislation’s passage — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) went to the Senate floor to propose a prayer. “What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight,” he said. “That’s what they ought to pray.”

Related Topics: robert byrd, tom coburn, Congress, Health Care, Senate

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  • hotbbq

    Right, because relying on prayer to get things done is an effective solution. Religious folk amuse me.

  • deconstructiva

    …wow. Coburn says that after Kennedy’s passing to boot. And he’s a doctor? When Byrd voted aye, did he look / point at Coburn? If yes, which finger did he raise? Otherwise, I’ll let other loyal readers handle this.

  • slowp

    It’s a good thing for Coburn that Jesus loves sinners.

  • michaelfury
  • palininatowel

    He hadn’t heard that Ted Kennedy had died.

  • kathy

    That is astonishingly bad taste, not to mention bad theology.

  • gysgt213

    No fan of Coburn, but based on his comment why would one even consider that he meant, wished or hopede catastrophe would befall one of his colleagues Senators missed votes all the time. There was a hugh snow storm and this vote was coming down to party lines.
    .
    Further more this is right up there with the attempt to make news out of the Franken/Leiberman video last week. Come on. We can do better than this.

  • artraveler

    Too bad Coburn isn’t a Christian. He is another of those small “c” christians who only toss “Christianity” around as red meat to the small-minded like himself. He did absolutely nothing to make the bill better.You are either part of the solution or part of the problem. Coburn, you are part of the problem.

  • 53_3

    I remember yesterday commenting about the Spittle and Froth crowd, and yuletide death threats.
    .
    Right time, wrong place. It wasn’t in the Swamp, it was on the Senate floor…

  • http://2thirdsrocks.wordpress.com 2thirdsrocks

    What’s the difference between a healthy piece of garbage and a “frail and ailing” piece of garbage? None that I see.
    .
    And a big fat stinking perverted drunk is now is now a big fat stinking perverted dead drunk. Who cares?
    .
    You lefties revere and adore big piles of human excrement, all the while casting dispersions on anything even remotely resembling Christianity. Uncanny.

  • Matt

    Seems to me that Coburn is trivializing his religion sand desecrating the Christmas holiday with these shameful remarks.

    http://www.political-buzz.com/

  • nflfoghorn

    When Jesse Helms was around did anyone wish that he’d die soon? How despicable do you sound, Rocky? So loud, apparently, that you can’t hear.

  • merelymyopinion

    “casting dispersions”? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

    …and Memo To Coburn: The GOP party line is we’re all supposed to be terrified of politicians & doctors making our end-of-life decisions. So (hint, hint) ix-nay on the ayers-pra.

  • http://polderjongen.wordpress.com/ Polderboy

    So when 60 Senators do make it to vote for cloture, am I to understand that God wanted it that way? And that the Republicans are doing the devil’s work?

  • puckerpuss

    “Resembling Christianity”? Lucian, Marcus Aurelius, Galen and Celsus disagree. Since when does wishing ill will for someone remotely resemble Christianity?

  • Exiled_At_Home (formerly Neo)

    Is it possible to read this comment as anything but a prayer that catastrophe befall one of his colleagues…
    Yes, I’m sure that was his desire. Thanks Karen.
    ~
    By the way, you wouldn’t by chance be pandering to any specific political bloc with this nonsense, would you, KT?

  • notfooledbydistractions

    I don’t know what particular brand of “Christianity” Coburn subscribes to, but hearing this comment, and being aware of his involvement in the “kill the gays” bill in Uganda, I’m thankful that’s not the christianity I was raised to believe in. HIs view is a perverted form of “Chrisitianity”.

  • constantweader

    Yeah, well Doctor Coburn proved a long time ago he took the Hypocritic Oath. For once, Tumulty’s colleague Joe Klein gets it right when he calls Coburn’s remark “borderline sedition.” It’s the equivalent of the despicable Pat Robertson’s asking people to pray for the demise of one of the “liberal” Supremes. These miscreants are lucky there ISN’T a god who’s listening to see if they’re “naughty or nice,” because if there were, Coburn, et al. would find themself in that “furnace of fire; in that place [where] there will weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

    The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com

  • 53_3

    You aren’t going to help us with a nice lovely yuletide death threat are you, 2/3rdsrocks, are you?
    .
    One of your freinds on JK’s leading blog did at comment 29!
    .
    MERRY CHRISTMAS!

  • http://floridarex.wordpress.com floridarex

    I know 2thirdsrocks to be a twit.

  • http://www.blakesthinktank.com/2009/12/21/tom-coburns-prayer-request/ Blake’s Think Tank » Blog Archive » Tom Coburn’s Prayer Request

    [...] a shame that GOP tactics have amounted to this. As Karen Tumulty of TIME magazines writes, Okay, let’s give Tom Coburn the benefit of every conceivable doubt. Is it possible to read [...]

  • http://2thirdsrocks.wordpress.com 2thirdsrocks

    speaking of human excrement…..

  • apollyon07

    So someone “not making the vote” automatically means that they die? Wow. Does anybody really believe that he meant that?

  • Exiled_At_Home (formerly Neo)

    No they do not, Apollyon, it’s simply an expression of faux outrage similar to that which they so often chastise the right for doing. To be fair, this reflexive, yet disingenuous, display is often a ploy of the GOP, but clearly not unique to Republicans.

  • anon76

    “… all the while casting dispersions on anything even remotely resembling Christianity.”

    The phrase is “casting aspersions”, but the more troubling points from your post are:

    “And a big fat stinking perverted drunk is now is now a big fat stinking perverted dead drunk. Who cares?
    You lefties revere and adore big piles of human excrement …    ”

    Nice. Are those sentiments from the Sermon on the Mount or something Moses brought down etched on tablets? Or are you, as usual trying to co-opt Christianity as something that is ‘on your side’ while at the same time making statements that contradict the basic tenets of the religion?

  • anon76

    Coburn might not have meant it (giving him the benefit of the doubt), but its worth noting that 2thirdsrocks supports the sentiment 100% on behalf of Republicans upthread.

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