Two interesting stories today that may indicate a new trend.
First, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R) has been demanding for over a week that the Senate Healthcare Bill be read aloud on the Senate floor, I guess to show that our nation’s responsible legislators (i.e. the Democrats) can craft lengthy legislation to address major societal issues that have been neglected for untold decades. It would take 34 hours to read the entire bill nonstop, and the Democrats, led by Senator Harkin, have embraced Coburn’s demand and told him that if he wants it read then Coburn himself must start reading it tonight, and he cannot ever stop for a break or a glass of water, less the Democrats make a motion to suspend, which would pass. Now, I suppose Coburn thought that this was a brilliant PR stunt that would have the support of all of the GOP Senate Caucus. He was wrong.
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn is backing off his threat to require that the Senate read the 2,074-page health care bill because some GOP colleagues aren’t supporting the effort.
Second, Mike Huckabee has this to say about his Republican Obama-hating base, and those politicians that cater to them:
When he [Barack Obama] was at Dover the other day, and went there to pay respect for soldiers, I heard a lot of people on the Right say “Aw, that’s just a cheap photo-op.” No, I think it was the Commander-in-Chief of our military paying respect to a dead soldier, and I’m grateful that he did that, and I was proud of him for doing that. And I think we all — as Americans — should give him credit for doing that.
[…]
When he and Michele hosted the tricker-treaters on Halloween, quit finding something wrong with that. Say “Good, I’m glad that he and the First Lady are treating children to an experience at the White House.” And I just find it deplorable that some people on my end of the aisle want to find everything wrong and nothing right about the man as a man.
Now, these are very mild signs of rationality within the Republican ranks, but it speaks volumes of the extremist GOP that such signs deserve a breaking news alert. Now, it could be that the Senate GOP caucus just wants more time to air their lies about the HCR bill, and the reading stunt would take away from that, and it could be the Huckabee’s pushback is just a good political move on his part to make himself appear somewhat palpatable to the last remaining Republican moderate and right leaning Independent. In other words, these two moments of rationality may not be sincere. But it would be good for country if we did have a rational opposition.