The Hudson Institute sent over a smooth-faced lady, impeccably turned out, to do some damage to Health Care Reform.

She made one huge mistake. She didn't realize she would be facing Senator Al Franken.

With a few simple questions:

"How many medical bankruptcies were there in Switzerland last year?"

"How many medical bankruptcies were there in France last year?"

....

Franken DEMOLISHES her argument, and gives Dems a rallying cry. It seems to me that NO SENATOR in either party comes to the table as well prepared as Al Franken. He started as a comedian but he does more serious homework than any other senator.

Watch her try to drag out the old insurance-lobby shibboleth about cancer survival rates in those countries. Watch "Stuart Smalley" carve her up quicker than a Thanksgiving turkey.

Imagine a Franken-Grayson ticket in 2016. I can dream, can't I?

(Thanks for the rec list! I am definitely riding Sen. Franken's coattails....)

UPDATED x2 TO ADD COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT:

Franken: Dr Furtgott-Roth, I think we disagree on whether the health care reform that we’re talking about now in Congress should pass, and you said that kind of the way we’re going will increase bankruptcies ... I want to ask you, how many bankruptcies because of medical crises were there last year in Switzerland? Diana Furchgott-Roth: I don't have that number in front of me but I could find out and get back to you. Franken: I can tell you how many it was. It was zero. Do you know how many medical bankruptcies there were last year in France? DFR: I don't have that number for you but I can get back to you, if you like. Franken: Yeah, the number is zero. Do you know how many there were in Germany? DFR: From the trend of your questions, I'm assuming the answer is zero, but I don’t know the precise amount and I would have to get back to you.. Franken: Well you're very good. You're very ... fast. The point is I think we need to go in that direction not the opposite direction. Thank you. DFR: Do you know the cancer survival rates in those countries? Franken: You know, you’ve picked on one – and, if you look at that study, did you know that we pick easily, much more easily survivable cancer rates – so if you want to start getting into digging deep into studies ... that study isn’t legitimate. I’ve heard that before. That’s because we find easily survivable cancers to count as ones that we survive. So if you want to – you can cherry pick stuff to find one little place where somebody says our system works better than the French or the Germans - but we’re talking about bankruptcy here today. And the fact of the matter is, you’re saying that if we go more to a French system or a Swiss system, that we’ll have increased bankruptcies, but the fact is that they don’t have bankruptcies, and we do - for medical care. Thank you.

UPDATE: I just went to ActBlue and donated to help retire Sen. Al Franken's recount debt (thanks Norm!) as a way of thanking him for his smack down of Diana of Pearls - and for sending me to the top of the rec list! I urge you to make a donation and thank Sen. Franken for his excellent work ....

Contribute at Al Franken's ActBlue page......

UPDATE x3: I just want to call everyone's attention to the hilarious way Senator Franken executes his drawn-out, laborious, near-mispronunciation of her ridiculously hyphenated surname: "Doc - tor Fuh - Furt - gott .... Roth!" Takes a real master of comic timing to pull that one off.