April 6, 2010, 11:47 am by Jordan Fabian
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 a local radio station.
When discussing the short-term unemployment benefit extension that he is stalling, 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. 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 and physician is seen by many as a divisive figure. 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.
To underscore his point about civility, Coburn became friends in 2004 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 stated
"that makes for good TV news on Fox but that isn’t the intention."The senator said 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."
source: http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/in-the-know/36-news/3281-gop-senator-defends-pelosi-calls-fox-news-biased
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/ken-mckay-resigns-rnc-chi_n_526104.html
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