One of the Senate's most conservative members defended House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and criticized Fox News in audio
released Tuesday. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) spoke at a recent town
hall meeting that was taped by
KGOU Radio. When discussing the short-term unemployment benefit
extension that he is stalling, to the chagrin of Democrats, Coburn said
he is "180 degrees in opposition" to Pelosi but that "she is a nice
lady." That comment drew boos and jeers from the crowd, but Coburn asked the
crowd for calm and spoke about civility.
“Come on now. She is
nice – how many of you all have met her? She’s a nice person,” Coburn
said. "Let me give you a little lesson here. I hope you will listen to
me. Just because somebody disagrees with you don’t [sic] mean they’re
not a good person. And i want to tell you, I've been in the senate for
five years and I’ve taken a lot of that, because I’ve been on the small
side –- both in the Republican Party and the Democrat Party." The
Oklahoma senator is seen by many as a divisive figure.
A
physician, he is known as "Dr. No" for his penchant to grind the
legislative process to a halt.Democrats have put him in the spotlight
the last few weeks, saying that because he stalled the benefits
extension, 200,000 unemployed lost their federal assistance starting
Monday. But Coburn says he wants the benefits package funded before it
passes.
To underscore his point about civility, Coburn formed
a friendship in 2004 when he joined the Senate with then-Sen. Barack
Obama (D-Ill.), who was also a freshman at the time. After an
audience member suggested that the government could jail people for not
buying health insurance under the new healthcare law, Coburn said "that
makes for good TV news on Fox but that isn’t the intention."
The senator continued, telling told the mostly conservative crowd to not
be fooled by the "biased" information from Fox News.
"What
we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that
you can see what’s going on and make a determination yourself,” Coburn
said. "So don’t catch yourself being biased by Fox News that somebody is
no good. The people in Washington are good. They just don’t know what
they don’t know." (h/t Capitol News
Connection)
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