Mr. Smith–AKA Dr. Coburn Goes To Washington

Dr. Tom Coburn, a practicing OB-GYN in Muskogee, Oklahoma, is also a US Senator.  I’m proud to say he’s one of my senators, and I helped, with my vote, send him to Washington.  Yesterday, he was representing not just my views, but the views of the majority of the American people.

Yesterday, he was your senator too.

It all began when Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist from Vermont, introduced an amendment to the health care reform bill.  Sanders’ single-payer amendment is 767 pages long.  The amendment is 767 pages.

The custom is to call for unanimous consent to dispense with the reading of an amendment, but it must be unanimous.  If even one Senator objects, the amendment must be read in full.

Sen. Coburn objected, and the clerk began reading.  It took 18 minutes to read the table of contents.

It was projected that at that rate it would take around 12 hours to read the entire amendment, which would take them through Friday.  Thus, Sen. Coburn staved off the anti-free market, anti-free choice, anti-American forces for a couple of days.

As it turned out, Bernie Sanders pulled his amendment, stopping the reading, in a move that does not follow parliamentary rules.  In fact, a new rule was created yesterday, a new precedent set, that allowed the pulling of the amendment by the person introducing it.  Until yesterday, this pulling of an amendment requires unanimous consent.  But Harry Reid allowed the parliamentarian to simply make a new rule to stop the reading.

I heard Coburn speak with Sean Hannity yesterday afternoon on Sean’s radio program, and when Sean asked him what the next step was, and if he had other parliamentary weapons in his arsenal, Dr. Coburn wisely said he didn’t want to share those because “someone might be listening and I don’t want them to know what the next steps are.” He went on to promise, “There will be several more attempts to derail this bill from a parliamentary standpoint, by me.”

Saul Alinsky should be proud.  Sen. Tom Coburn, doctor from Muskogee, is making good use of Rule #4 from Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals, whether he knows it or not.  He’s fighting for us, and for this country as surely as if he were on the battlefield.  He is on a battlefield, a battlefield with words flying instead of bullets.

If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were honest and moral persons, they would stop telling the American people that the GOP is simply being obstructionist, with no plan of their own. The GOP has a plan, a much better one that the Democratic plan, but because it focuses on actually improving the health care system, rather than expanding federal government control, it is suppressed.

But, that point is moot, because they aren’t honest and moral persons.

This is a battle for our freedoms and the American way of life.  Stand tall and fight hard, Sen. Coburn.  We are with you.

More about this story:  Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, and American Spectator.

Tagged as: Alinsky's Rules For Radicals, Bernie Sanders, GOP health care plan, Health care, single-payer healthcare amendment, Tom Coburn