Also over the weekend, we learned that Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the gang's only professed liberal, noted that he's heard Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) deliver "the doomsday speech" -- the one in which the right-wing Oklahoman explains how the debt will destroy civilization as we know it -- and was apparently worn down by it. "He has convinced me," Durbin said. "This is serious, and if we don't do something, and do it quickly, bad things can happen, in a hurry."Actually, Dick, if you "do things" quickly enough, you're going to jeopardize the economic recovery and help elect a Republican president in 2012. It's amazing, and sickening, the degree to which the Democrats have adopted most of the GOP talking points on the economy. No longer did the stimulus save the country from another Great Depression, and no longer did George Bush plunge the country into deficit (and economic despair). None of that is worth mentioning any more. How does the public reach any other conclusion than that Barack Obama and the Democratic congress recklessly spent the country into fiscal ruin, while the Republicans are the only ones who know how to rescue us (note that the Republicans have no problem constantly blaming all of this on the Democrats).
Perhaps now would be a good time to note that Coburn, a physician with no background in economic, fiscal, or monetary policy, doesn't really understand these issues.
More from Steve:
Nevertheless, Coburn continues to note that he's prepared to accept some higher taxes as part of the larger compromise. He told NBC yesterday that he's aware of his 2004 pledge not to raise any tax on anyone by any amount, but may feel inclined to do the right thing anyway.What's happening here is that Durbin is channeling his inner Obama, I suspect at the request of the President. It's all, "I love Big Republican Brother" time for Democrats, because maybe, just maybe, if they're nice to the Republicans, and embrace some of their ideas, they won't be mean to Democrats as we approach the 2012 elections. More specifically, this is a clear effort to woo Coburn into helping the Dems convince the Republicans to raise taxes as part of the budget deal. As if.
It's difficult to read this from Durbin and not come to the conclusion that the man is either far too subservient to Obama for his (and our) own good - and he is - or he's a total idiot.
