The battle over health care reform has brought some pretty fiery rhetoric to the good people of the United States. In my opinion, save for the outbursts of Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), Congressional Republicans have been spreading the most abhorrent language to his or her constituents. When we look back to this debate 20 years from now, we will all remember the big lie that was “death panels,” used by Republicans to scare senior citizens. Unfortunately, the closer we get to a health care reform bill, the more incendiary the rhetoric has become. Over the weekend it became biblical.
This weekend in Nebraska, former Republican Presidential nominee Mike Huckabee visited to criticize Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE). Why would the former Arkansas Governor travel to Nebraska on short notice? Because he saw an opportunity to once again act as demagogue when Nelson finally agreed to join the rest of the Democrats to vote for a health care reform bill. Huckabee, forever the political opportunist, dropped this little line to drive home his point (via CNN):
“I don’t want [senators] to go up there…and then somehow go back and boast ‘Here’s some money I got from you.’ The last time we saw that kind of historic moment it was 30 pieces of silver, and that didn’t work out to well for us either.”
He, of course, was referring to Judas’ betrayal of Christ. Of course it is the same as expanding health care coverage to 30 million Americans, right? What a stupid think to say, Mr. Huckabee, even for you.
And last night, stung by the realization that Senate Democrats had assembled the needed 60 votes to stop a filibuster, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) went to the floor of the “greatest deliberative body in the world” to release one of the most heinous comments that one could ever imagine.
That’s right; Sen. Coburn is calling for the American people to pray that a Democratic member is unable to show up. To the great disappointment of Sen. Coburn, God did not intervene, and even the 92-year-old, wheelchair-bound Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) made the 1 a.m. vote. Democrats reached cloture by a vote of 60-40, along party lines.
I don’t know what is going on with our politicians these days–they seem to have all lost their minds. The Senate bill should pass on Christmas Eve, and then there will be a whole new series of vitriol, as the Senate bill will go to conference to merge with the bill that was previously passed by the House of Representatives. After the eventual passage of the health care reform bill, maybe we can all begin thinking more clearly. Until then, get accustomed to “crazy talk.”
TarHeelPirate 