It's time to stop pussyfooting around the reality that the Evil Doctor is either hopelessly insane or a sociopathic liar, and either way needs to be straitjacketed and institutionalized immediately.



-- Dana Milbank, in his Washington Post "Washington Sketch"



The Oklahoma Republican's procedural maneuvering -- including demanding the bill be read aloud -- had his Democratic colleagues living in fear of what he might pull out of his bag of tricks next. And, despite his hard work to kill the bill, Coburn's upfront attitude about his opposition kept him from attracting too much ire from his Democratic colleagues.

The Oklahoman, who led the effort last week to stall proceedings by forcing an hours-long reading of legislative language, had already lobbed a grenade onto the floor when he said that, because of the legislation, Medicare recipients are "going to die sooner."



On Saturday, Coburn likened the current situation to the period preceding the Civil War. "The crisis of confidence in this country is now at an apex that has not seen in over 150 years, and that lack of confidence undermines the ability of legitimate governance," he said. "There's a lot of people out there today who . . . will say, 'I give up on my government,' and rightly so."



Earlier Sunday, Coburn, a medical doctor by training, held another news conference and accused Democrats of "corruption" in drafting the bill. He then went out onto the floor two hours later to discuss his prayer that one of the Democrats wouldn't make it to the chamber. A few days earlier, Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Sam Brownback (Kansas) joined a public prayer for the bill's defeat -- but Coburn, as usual, went further.



Durbin, learning of Coburn's prayer, went to the floor 45 minutes later to challenge him to a rhetorical duel. Coburn declined to return. "I don't think we should be wishing misfortune on either side of the aisle," Durbin said of his absent colleague.



Coburn was wearing blue jeans, an argyle sweater and a tweed jacket with elbow patches when he walked back into the chamber a few minutes before 1 a.m. He watched without expression when Byrd was wheeled in, dabbing his eyes and nose with tissues, his complexion pale. When his name was called, Byrd shot his right index finger into the air as he shouted "aye," then pumped his left fist in defiance.

Democrats weren't in the best position to take the high road Sunday evening. One of their own members, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) had just delivered an overwrought jeremiad comparing the Republicans to Nazis on Kristallnacht, lynch mobs of the South, and bloodthirsty crowds of the French Revolution.



"Too many colleagues are embarked on a desperate, no-holds-barred mission of propaganda, obstruction and fear," he said. "History cautions us of the excesses to which these malignant, vindictive passions can ultimately lead. Tumbrils have rolled through taunting crowds. Broken glass has sparkled in darkened streets. Strange fruit has hung from southern trees." Assuming the role of Old Testament prophet, Whitehouse promised a "day of judgment" and a "day of reckoning" for Republicans.

we can't ever point it out

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn did not wish "misfortune" on anyone when he asked people to pray that lawmakers miss a key vote on health care reform, a spokesman said Monday, rejecting suggestions from Democrats that the Oklahoma doctor was wishing ill on his colleagues.



Rather, Coburn was hoping -- praying, even -- that sleep-deprived Democrats would hit the snooze button one too many times and miss the vote scheduled for 1 a.m. ET Monday morning.



"If senators are napping before the vote he would not be disappointed if alarm clocks don't go off," spokesman John Hart said in an e-mail.

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As our Dana goes on to explain, everybody involved in the countdown to the vote on the Senate's much-compromised health care bill understood that the evil Dr. Coburn "was referring to the 92-year-old, wheelchair-bound Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) who has been in and out of hospitals and lay at home ailing," and would be hard put "to get out of bed in the wee hours with deep snow on the ground and ice on the roads" to be the 60th vote the Dems needed.Let me start by stating, simply and unemotionally, that Sen. Dr. Tom Coburn is an evil, worse-than-worthless pile of shit, and he's in big trouble if this vicious, insane God he and his fellow right-wing crazies keep screeching about and praying to actually exists, because Dr. Shit-for-Brains should be standing in the path of a lightning bolt that will reduce his putrid carcass to a pile of ashes that will presumably have to be disposed of as toxic waste.By the way, the Evil Doctor is on the WaPo's Chris Cillizza's list of " The political world's winners and losers in health care reform " today -- as a(along with such proud luminaries as John McCain and Ben Nelson):Our Dana refers back to that performance as he expands:Whether the Evil Doctor is deliberately spreading lies like those above with conscious intent to foment violence or he simply doesn't have a sane cell in his brain, his crusade of falsehoods is dangerous to decency and to the country, and he needs to be put safely under lock and key in the appropriate facility -- for his own safety as well as society's.Meanwhile, I don't want to leave our Dana looking good. In fact, "reporting" like his has to be assigned a share of the blame for the epidemic of psychotic factlessness that has engulfed our public discourse. Because our Dana is stuck in the Village idiot's tit-for-tat, they're-all-naughty mantra of truthlessness. The Evil Doctor's behavior, you see, isn't that much worse than the following:As I've pointed out, no matter how Nazi-like the behavior of the Rampaging Right becomes,. Not even while those same lying sociopaths make headway with their crusade, as astonishing as it is delusional, to "prove" that Hitler was a "leftist," just like the "socialist" Obama. This they can do because they believe that their crackpot God allows them to lie at will, to live in total, unmitigated dissociation from reality, denying every fact that contradicts their delusions. Really now, would anyone have been more shocked and outraged than the Führer himself at even the lightest insinuation that he was anything but a committed-to-the-death rightist? It's what he built his universe around, and it was his flaunting of the terrifying bogeyman of Bolshevism that enabled him to take power in Germany.Anyone with any knowledge of history and functioning sensory apparatus also knows that in terms of their political program, their authoritarian mindset, and their bullying, violent political strategy and tactics, the modern American Far Right is not only the rightful but the proud heir of Hitlerism. I guess that's why they're entitled to lie about it with every breath they draw. That's what Hitlerites do. But for the infotainment news media to let them get away with it, to ignore the poison of ignorance and violent authoritarianism that is at the heart of everything they do politically, is journalistically criminal malfeasance. For our Dana, though, it's just another day at the office.Stop the presses! Fox Noise is "reporting" today : "Republican Sen. Tom Coburn did not wish 'misfortune' on anyone when he asked people to pray that lawmakers miss a key vote on health care reform, a spokesman said Monday, rejecting suggestions from Democrats that the Oklahoma doctor was wishing ill on his colleagues."Which means that the Evil Doctor, his brain-dead toady, and Fox Noise are all psychopathic liars, and it's time no one said a word to any of them, ever, for any reason, except: "Liar, liar, pants on fire."If you're curious about the details, here's the lie offered by the shithead's toady (I assume that's what this lying scumbag fills in anytime a form asks his occupation: "shithead's toady"):The one small step we could take now would be for it to become automatic: Anytime anyone comes within sight of the Evil Doctor, his leashed shithead John Hart, or anyone from the liars' club that is Fox Noise, just shout out: "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

Labels: Dana Milbank, Dick Durbin, Tom Coburn