Tom Coburn's gone rogue! At a town hall, the conservative Oklahoma Senator actually claimed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a "nice lady," and not a monstrous, liberty-defiling Gorgon. Then he suggested seeking information from sources other than Fox News!

Such is the state of our national shit, that a Senator is booed by his constituents for saying, "just because somebody disagrees with you doesn't mean they're not a good person."

What led to the outburst of unprecedented reasonableness was a concerned citizen telling Coburn that in the Democratic health bill, "they can put us in prison" for not buying health insurance. This nutty hippie Coburn had the audacity to say that's not true!

"The intention is not to put anybody in jail," he said. "That makes for good TV news on Fox but that isn't the intention."
[...]
"I'm 180 degrees in opposition to the speaker — she's a nice lady," he said. The crowd could be heard responding unfavorably to his characterization.

"Come on now, she is a nice — how many of you all have met her?" continued Coburn. "She's a nice person. She's a nice person."

But this is Tom Coburn we're talking about. He dog-whistles to birthers. He fear-mongers about scary lesbians infesting our public schools. His decision to demagogue on the budget led to thousands of people losing their unemployment benefits—something crazy Jim Bunning originally did just to be an asshole, which led to "mainstream" Republicans actually adopting it as a legitimate political ploy, just because they can get away with it.

So, I'm not sure I think Tom Coburn is a "nice person" who "happens to be wrong." I am not even feeling as charitable as Tom Coburn, today! It is partly the unemployment thing but it is mostly the scary lesbian schoolchildren thing, actually.

[Pic: Getty]