Joe Klein: Coburn's comments are "borderline sedition...dangerously close to incitement of violence"

[jefferson_dem]

Coburn Heartburn

Posted by Joe Klein Monday, December 21, 2009 at 9:39 am 87 Comments • Trackback (0)

As Karen notes below, Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma--who, with James Inhofe, constitute the most extreme Senate delegation from any state--prayed for the incapacitation or death of a Democratic Senator so that health care would be blocked. But that wasn't all. He also offered this:

"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."

This is borderline sedition. Coburn--who had a friendly relationship with Senator Barack Obama--is saying that giving up on the U.S. government is justified. This helps stoke the hatred of those extremists who see Barack Obama's presidency as illegitimate. It also comes dangerously close to incitement to violence. It certainly deletes Coburn from the list of those who can be considered loyal to the most important American ideals. He should clarify what he means by these statements--and apologize for his hate speech, immediately.

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/12/21/coburn-heartburn/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fswampland+%28TIME%3A+Swampland%29#ixzz0aLu7B7IU

[grantcart]

1. I say let Oklahoma go with Texas

[DBoon]

10. Why would you do that to Mexico?

The poor Mexicans have a hard enough time with Texas just to the north of them

[wizstars]

2. The best thing to come out of Oklahoma is I-35...

where do they GET these dipsh1ts??!??!??

[Zen Democrat]

3. Stop with the state hate. The best out of Oklahoma = Woody Guthrie and Will Rogers

And the multitude of Native Americans in Oklahoma. State Hate sucks.

[DBoon]

9. I read somwhere that during the 1930's OK was a Communist stronghold

literally, the state had about the highest American Communist Party membership in the country

That red state once really was red.

[democrat2thecore]

13. It was the SOCIALIST Party of Gene Debs.

[DBoon]

14. no seriously, I recall it was the CPUSA

No citation, so I could be wrong, but may be worth looking up

By the 1930's the SPUSA was a shell of its former self.

I would bet OK was a stronghold of SPUSA support when Debs actually ran for president in 1912.

Again, red states at one time really were red.

[wizstars]

17. Point well taken

my apologies, I was momentarily overcome by my loathing of Coburn and Inhofe and the human-impersonators who vote for them.

[QC]

5. You're from the home of Rush Limbaugh. n/t

[Rowdyboy]

7. Limbaugh is from Missouri, not Oklahoma.....

[QC]

11. Wizstars is from Missouri. n/t

[defendandprotect]

4. Agree . . . prime nut case . . .

[HughMoran]

6. Republican psycho talk at it's finest

He needs to be removed from office.

[wysimdnwyg]

8. Hey, Tom! There's the door

If Coburn has such a problem with the government, perhaps he should set an example and remove himself from it.

[hatrack]

12. So what else is new?

They're Republicans.

Shit-stirring with the shit-kickers.

Standing tall with mobs of armed birth certificate conspiracy theorists.

Saying absolutely nothing as herds of morons parade with signs comparing national health care with the Holocaust.

Putting bumper stickers of Bible verses which call for the death of the president on their cars.

Insisting that the president is (simultaneously) a Fascist AND a Communist.

Painting Hitler mustaches on Obama posters.

They're Republicans.

It's what they do.

[Flaneur]

15. I heard they were deporting all the Texas Aggies to Oklahoma...

...thereby raising the average IQ of both states.

[otohara]

16. Coburn Flashback - Gay Agenda More Pressing Danger

In 2004, he rated the "gay agenda" as a more pressing danger than any terrorist activity affecting Americans.


Over at The New Republic, Suzy Khimm notes that Coburn and Barron offer no explanation on how this legislation would improve upon the Ryan White CARE Act. More importantly, she notes that what Coburn offers the op-ed with this lternative is more than a little offset by Coburn's historical hostility to the gay community. Coburn has opposed gay marriage, gay adoption, and anonymous HIV testing, and he has called the "gay agenda" the "greatest threat to our freedom that we face today." By "today," by the way, he meant 2004, a time when America was supposed to be fighting terrorists in two wars, who were a threat to freedom.

Khimm also notes that "just last month, Coburn's chief of staff declared that 'all pornography is homosexual pornography,' warning that smut could lead young people to adopt that dreaded gay lifestyle." Of course, the most notable thing the Coburn has ever said about the gay community was probably this:

"Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/20/tom-coburn-attempts-to-ge_n_327712.html


So much compassion coming from a doctor

[freddie mertz]

18. Agreed. He's a freakish Dagwood from hell.

[GodlessBiker]

19. Oh, it's not borderline sedition. A lot of people have said "I give up on my government."

Hell, I've said it in the past.

[Orsino]

20. Wake me when he resigns from the Senate, or stops cashing his checks.

At the moment, Coburn seems heavily invested in the system exactly as it is.