Praying for Misfortune in the Senate
Dec 21st, 2009 | 30 responses
I’m glad that Dana Milbank has front-and-centered this perversion of religious belief:
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.”
It was difficult to escape the conclusion that 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. It would not be easy for Byrd to get out of bed in the wee hours with deep snow on the ground and ice on the roads — but without his vote, Democrats wouldn’t have the 60 they needed.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the number-two Democratic leader, went to the floor to complain about Coburn’s unholy prayer, which followed an unsuccessful request from Democrats for an earlier vote because of Byrd’s “significant health problems.” Said Durbin: “When it reaches a point where we’re praying, asking people to pray, that senators wouldn’t be able to answer the roll call, I think it has crossed the line.”
It’s worth noting that Sen. Coburn, in addition to being one of the most fervently loud and public advocates for fundamentalist Christian religious observance in Congress, is also a medical doctor. If there are any two groups that should not be praying for misfortune to befall another human being, I would think those two groups would be devoutly religious people, and medical professionals.
By and large, the Democrats focused their ire on the plight of uninsured Americans, on correcting the many Republican factual misstatements about the bill, and on emphasizing the historical nature of the legislation being debated. However, there was one genuinely cringe-worthy moment on the majority side of the aisle, when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse “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.
30 Responses to “Praying for Misfortune in the Senate”
No it isn't. What a bunch of drivel.
The doctors and staff that I know personally are opposed to it.
Here is what one of them had to say (edited for profanity)
Bribes and graft have become the American way and it has got to STOP! Come 2010 and 2012, WE WILL NOT FORGET!
Palin / Bachmann 2012
Silly hyperbole, that ticket will never be. Insert a similar message with Moderate/Moderate and it would still apply though.
Palin / Bachmann 2012
Please give the country a break.
On the Coburn episode, whatever he was talking about, (I hope not Bryd), he should not have framed it as a prayer (and I'm an atheist, Rep.).
I can respect that position unlike that of partisan poo slinging monkey Dana Milbank
It was difficult to escape the conclusion that 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.
Major stretch by Milbank. Coburn wishes one out of 60 Democratic senators can't make it in and Milbank concludes he must be referring to Byrd.
You people started this in 2000 and have no idea what you have unleashed. Better get used to it.
Oh, come on, you can't go back further than that?
Leonidas:
To quote Admiral Yamamoto after he bombed Pearl Harbor, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” THIS is what you have done to conservatives in this country. You people want to play dirty? Then so be it.
Palin / Bachmann 2012
2000 is when the left decided that they could retake power through lies, deceit and personal destruction a la Alinsky. Unfortunately, it worked.
Dirty is one thing, Palin is stupid. I would like to win next time.
Great spoof…
Palin / Bachmann 2012
I didn't know the Kook Party would be on the ticket next election.
Who is “You people”?
FYI, I never voted for Bush, if thats what you mean. If you mean something else please specify. If that was what you meant, you might do better than make assumptions.
Oh sorry if your really an advocate of a Palin/Bachman ticket, I thought you might be a liberal expressing sarcasm. If so my bad for assuming that, its just the type of thing I could see a liberal offering up as a joke.
I think indeed many people were woken up, but I don't think Palin/Bachman is anywhere in the realm of possibility. Palin, while I do like a few aspects that she offers is not a good choice and such a ticket wont be taken seriously by moderates, even right leaning ones. I'd voe a write in or third party before I'd vote for that ticket.
So George bush and Dick Cheney are the left?
P.S. no one liked your remark, I just accidentally hit the like button when trying to hit reply.
Wouldn't be a first, Cynthia McKinney was on the 2008 ticket.
..lol…what a coincidence. Why just yesterday I placed a curse on anyone who impedes the passage of health care reform that actually serves to tend to the People who cannot afford what's going on now.
Must be something in the air? Time will tell which one is favored. Meanwhile consult The Good Book or at last resort, your conscience, to ferret out which one is more likely to bear fruit.
Lol what a coincidence, a few days back a friend posted this on another forum:
New study: More Democrats than Republicans believe in ghosts, talking with the dead, fortunetellers
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs…
.lol…what a coincidence. Why just yesterday I placed a curse on anyone who impedes the passage of health care reform that actually serves to tend to the People who cannot afford what's going on now”
Is that fair, a curse on Nelson, Landrieu, and all those making deals. Out of fairness, I'm sure you would want to include all the oinker Senate Dems. And, there will be plenty more, we are only at half time, next comes the oinkers in the House.
The curse wasn't specific by any means, it was open-ended. Only those truly guilty of the crime need to worry. And they already know who they are so names aren't necessary and yes, they' are on both sides of the “aisle” as well as in the industry who bribes them.
And all this of course if you even believe in curses…lol… I dunno though. Seems like Hollywood actors are cursed these days. Who says the Capitol building is immune? And what that senator “prayed” for was darker than any curse I've uttered under my breath. Another's death so that profiteering at human' health's expense could continue full-tilt? And calling it a prayer??? *shudder* Oh you don't know what you're messing with..
Geez, curses, hexes, prayers, Bible quotations…all on one thread. What have you wrought Kathy?
“This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill; cannot be good…
Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.” MacBeth, Act I, Scene III.
Wow. The crazy is sure loose around here today.
Reps, everybody hates to lose. Which you did last night. Sucks to be you.
Here's a novel idea: be grownups and work to make this bill reflect your values as best you can. Put country before ego.
Now go drink some eggnog and let it go, for a few hours.
P.S. When did “teabagger” become synonomous with “cock-sucker”? You were calling *yourselves* “teabaggers” all summer!
Shows we are a multi-media, multi-spiritual forum.
I agree that calling upon people to pray for others to experience misfortune is wildly inappropriate. Fortunately, God is not a cosmic vending machine.
The fringists who are either upset that the legislation doesn't lunge far enough leftward, or who are looking for more pathological occasions to attack Republicans, etc., ought to hope that what gets passed includes mental health benefits, because God knows (pun intended), they really need it.
“More Democrats than Republicans believe in ghosts, talking with the dead, fortunetellers”
…global warming and other “crises,” and don't forget Washington as the magical source for goodies!
Tread lightly, curses are of satan not true Christians.
But it's ok for Pelosi to call those people who are concerned that government shouldn't be in the healthcare business NAZIS!!