Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Senate or Loony Bin?


Tom Coburn (R-OK)
"Coburn called for the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions. "
"Earlier this year, Coburn said that lesbianism is 'so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they’ll only let one girl [at a time] go to the bathroom.'"
"In the 1990s Coburn criticized NBC for broadcasting Schindler’s List, the Oscar-winning film about the Holocaust, charging that it would encourage 'irresponsible sexual behavior.'"
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
"At a debate in October, DeMint said, 'If a person wants to be publicly gay, they should not be teaching in the public schools.' DeMint refused to apologize — although he did apologize for saying that unwed, pregnant women should not be allowed to teach either."
David Vitter (R-LA)
"Vitter’s opposition to reproductive choice is so unwavering that he has co-sponsored legislation to require doctors who prescribe RU-486 — a drug that, if used properly, can induce a safe, nonsurgical abortion — to have both the ability and the necessary equipment to perform a surgical abortion should one become necessary. As James Ridgeway observed in the Village Voice, 'That’s a little like asking a doctor who prescribes heart medicine to be able to do open-heart surgery, right there in the clinic.'"
John Thune (R-SD)
"Thune was agitated over something Daschle had said in March 2003, just before the war in Iraq began — that is, that "this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war." Never mind that a) Daschle was speaking the truth, b) he had voted in favor of the war resolution and later backed the $87 billion in reconstruction money for Iraq and Afghanistan, and c) he was a veteran and Thune was not. Thune took the opportunity to accuse Daschle of something close to treason, saying, "What it does is emboldens our enemies and undermines the morale of our troops."

And these people are in charge of the country?