A Republican Plea for Civility
By Bob Gaydos
Well, it’s been nearly a week now and I still haven’t heard about any smug, condescending reply from Fox News to Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn’s comments at a town hall meeting. If, like me, you avoid Fox like the plague, let me tell you that Coburn, a Republican whose arch-conservative bonafides include attempting to stop an extension of unemployment benefits and trying to kill the health reform bill, cautioned the hometown crowd not to depend on Fox News for the facts of any story and actually had the guts to call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — Beelzebub incarnate in female form to Fox and its far-right followers — “nice.”
Nice. As in just a hard-working family woman who happens to be two heartbeats away from the presidency.
Coburn, a doctor, dropped the “N” word on the crowd as he was discussing his differences with the speaker over the health reform bill. Thus brought boos and hisses. “Come on now,” Coburn said, “she is nice – how many of you all have met her? She’s a nice person. Just because somebody disagrees with you doesn’t mean they’re not a good person. 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.”
In addition to his lecture on civility, Coburn actually corrected a woman who said she might actually be thrown in prison for refusing to acquire insurance under the new health reform law. “The intention is not to put any one in jail,” he said. “That makes for good TV news on Fox, but that isn’t the intention.”
Wow. This is virtually unheard of today in the Republican Party, where all members seemingly must pay total obedience to whatever inane utterances or lies emanate from Fox News or fear a verbal onslaught from its staffers and questions from Tea Partiers about their patriotism. For proof one only has to look at the shell of a candidate Sen. John McCain has become as he seeks re-election in Arizona by walking a few steps behind Sarah Palin’s leather jacket coattails.
McCain may have finished near the bottom of the pack at the Naval Academy, but he knows what he knows and what Palin doesn’t know and yet he puppy dogged around her in hopes her conservative glamour aura — a phenomenon which he unleashed on the planet — would translate into another term for him. In the process he has disavowed every principled position he ever took in the Senate, positions that were often at odds with fellow Republicans, and actually said he never considered himself a maverick. What was all that stuff about then, John?
This was the presidential candidate of the GOP two years ago, a war hero, the de facto leader of the party, which today has none, the party which today takes its lead from the blabbering heads of Fox News, who reap ratings and money from their distortions and fear-mongering without having to worry about running for election.
Spake Coburn: “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. 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.”
Coburn told the audience to “stay informed on the issues.” Don’t “just watch Fox News or CNN — watch ’em both.” He said, “I do a lot of reading every day (The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal)” to “get a perspective” and “know what other people’s thoughts are — not just what I hear through a pipe channel. I’m disturbed that we get things like what this lady said and what others have said on other issues, that are so disconnected to what I know to be the facts. And that comes from somebody that has an agenda that’s other than the best interests of our country.”
Coburn happens to be friendly with President Obama, from their shared days in the Senate, despite having starkly different political philosophies. Once upon a time, this was normal in Congress, where disagreements over policy did not have to descend to character assassination. The Just Say No Crowd has made it difficult for politicians of character to stand up and speak the truth, at least in the GOP. They’ve hammered this message home on Fox for two years now, or ever since Obama, the champion of bipartisan governing, became a serious candidate for president. There’s no drama in his approach, nothing on which Fox can exaggerate and profit. Only news it can report, if it so chooses, which it does not.
Coburn called them on it and, so far, Fox hasn’t called him a socialist, commie-sympathizer or anything else. (If you’ve heard or read otherwise, please let me know because, as I said, I don’t watch Fox News. Meanwhile, I’ll be on the lookout for any other Republican with the guts to speak the truth about the emperor’s clothes.
Bob can be reached at bob@zestoforange.com.
Tags: Bob Gaydos
April 9th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
So let me get this straight:
–Anyone who watches Fox News is a moron who must also watch CNN, MSNBC and read the NY Times?
— Anyone who ( as you do not) watches only CNN, MSNBC and basically any other network other than Fox News is well educated and doesn’t need to watch or read anything else?
— Tom Coburn is your Republican bellweather?
— John McCain was an “OK” guy until he started hanging out with Sara Palin ( I bet you have no idea what Nancy Pelosi was wearing the last time you saw her in public)
— Republicans as a whole are bigots, racists and generally totally unaccepting of anyone who differs from their conservative dogma?
Have I got it right?
Guess what? I watch Fox News, listen attentively to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity ( I’m halfway through his new book – you should read it, it’s quite enlightening – even has footnotes – bet you didnt think a moron like Sean could cite his work, huh?) and Mark Levin ( I read his book “Liberty and Tyranny” which is also a great read). I also read the Wall Street Journal and Commentary magazine. Let me guess, you love the impartial New York Times – and oh yeah that Rhodes Scholar Keith Oberman ( talk about morons) on MSNBC. And you worship at King Obama’s altar. Talk about an emperor who has no clothes. You want to debate? Anytime anywhere, pal. I promise I’ll leave my guns at home. Might bring Sara Palin, though. She could run circles around you intellectually.
I guess we do agree on one thing – if you flip around most of what you wrote that’s pretty much how I feel about liberals like you.
April 9th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Civility. Moderation. Not pre-judging. That’s all that Gaydos was really discussing, it seemed to me. That and bemoaning the fact that the lines have been so strongly drawn, that legislators on both sides of the aisle are constrained from being considerate and civil for fear of being labeled.
It’s pretty evident that MOST of the pressure nowadays comes from the right-wing elements. Forty years ago it was a different story, and the most outraged and intense pressure came from the left wing. This is the way politics (and life) work. Back and forth. Right and left. In power, out of power.
What is so dreadful in these particular times is the emotionalism and the anger, fear, rumors, accusations and the downright ugliness, most of it engendered by certain elements of the media. I mean, why is DGREENE so all-fired vitriolic and nasty? “Worship at King Obama’s altar”?? what the heck is that all about??? And then there’s talk of “leave my guns at home.” Good grief.
Well, on a positive note, at least DGREENE is engaged, is paying attention to what’s going on in his/her country… both commendable qualities in any citizen.
One thing I ought to know by now, though: It’s pointless to ask some folks for a wider perspective on certain issues. Probaly on any issue, actually.