A Few Random Thoughts Regarding the Tone of Debate in the Senate:
1. Mostly, whenever Mika Brzezinski starts scolding people on Morning Starbucks with Joe, the Rude Pundit just thinks, "Oh, you need a spanking." (Note: it's the same thought he has whenever he sees a raging Shepherd Smith.) But in the last few days, Brzezinksi and the rest of the baristas have been tut-tutting their clicking tongues at the behavior of Senators while debating health care reform, lamenting the "tone" and the lack of comity, as if debating life and death ought to involve gentle caresses and well-timed reacharounds.
Fuck that. It's actually during this Republican-forced march to the inevitable passage of the Senate bill that the members of that body have taken off their civilized masks and gotten into some shit, which is what should have been happening all along. The jolly air of Victorian politesse has stymied the very real passions at play here.
2. Drunk Max Baucus is kind of awesome. Check out the video of Montana's Max Baucus losing his shit at Republican Roger Wicker of Mississippi over the destructive obstructionism of Republicans. Baucus is a man who spent way too much fucking time in a small room, smelling Chuck Grassley's corn farts, and while the Rude Pundit has absolutely no proof that Baucus is drunk while making this speech, Baucus is drunk while making this speech. Watch it and see the self-loathing of the corrupted soul on display, the lashing out of someone compromised and debased by the very forces he encouraged, the desire for some kind of redemption, all from inside a bottle of Scotch.
It's like one of those family moments when a guy slugs back whiskey at a wake until he's wobbly and then tells everyone how dead Uncle Irving repeatedly fondled neighborhood children and then threatened to kill them if they said anything. You just think, "Hey, that's great, dude. Too bad you didn't say anything when Irving was alive. Maybe we could have done something about it."
3. Whoremongers and adulterers on the Republican side are drama queens. Diapered hooker patron David Vitter and mistress briber John Ensign got their balls in knot during debate last night. Vitter, as befits a man who gets off on infantilization, was endlessly in awe of the size of the bill, repeating that it is now 2,733 pages. Instead of one big one, Vitter wants five little ones, each only 1/100th the length and girth of the Democrats' bill. Of course he does.
And John Ensign went all constitutional, in an argument dismissed a long time ago, but pressing forward, he said, "What happened to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? I guess Americans can only have them if they comply with this new bill and buy a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum health insurance program. America's Founders and subsequent generations fought dearly for the freedoms we have today.
"I question the appropriateness of this bill and specifically the constitutionality of this individual mandate. Is it really constitutional for this body to tell all Americans they must buy health insurance coverage? If so, what is next? What personal liberty or property will Congress seek to take away from Americans next? Will we consider legislation in the future requiring every American to buy a car, to buy a house, or to do something else the Federal Government wants?"
By the way, beyond the obvious jokes about a member of Congress taking another man's wife, John Ensign was a huge supporter of a flag burning amendment in 2006, which would have enshrined in the Constitution what private citizens can do with their personal property.
And the Sisyphean struggle to achieve mediocrity continues.
4. To return to Morning Joe, Bernie Sanders continues to kick ass.
