Tom Coburn to MSNBC: ‘I’m No Longer a Conservative’ According to Ted Cruz

Mediaite ^ | 9/26/13 | Evan McMurry

[Graewoulf]

Proven Federal Fact: The only way to balance the US Federal Spending and Income within the next two years is to execute this two step process:

1.) DEFUND Obamacare in 2013; and

2.) ABOLISH Obamacare, Democratcare, and Republicancare in the first month of 2014.

______________________

BTW US Congress men and women, failure to do BOTH of these timely steps will insure that your replacements will gladly do it for you.

It is all about the money, stupid - - - OUR taxpayer money!

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick ———

[jwalsh07]

Just another Vichy Republican.

[popdonnelly]

I’m impressed by all the Republican “conservatives” who are running to get their views on MSNBC, the mouthpiece of the Democrats.

[Tanniker Smith]

Then do it. Giving up before you start gets you nowhere.

[Waryone]

LOL! That’s a perfect before and after picture of Tom Coburn.

[Paladin2]

Interesting.

Can you include the data for Alexander, Cornyn, McConnell, Inhoffe, Juan and Linda as well as the "best" 'rat?

[Busko]

he is a “CINO”. Anyone who goes to the msnbc and run their mouth is not really anything but a politition.

[Defiant]

“Other than my stand on slavery, I have a great record as a Republican, Mr. Lincoln.

[GeronL]

Ted Cruz has forced these Shadow Democrats to self-identify.

[cotton1706]

I post the senators ratings on a weekly basis under elections but here you go. I created the average because I got tired of republican politicians always pointing to their high ACU ratings (which seem to be biased to protect the moderates). I haven’t bothered to compile the democrats because they all need to go.

Scott (SC) 2014 94% (Average) 95% (Heritage) 92% (FreedomWorks)

Risch (ID) 2014 89% (Average) 82% (Heritage) 86% (CFG) 96% (ACU) 92% (FreedomWorks)

McConnell (KY) 2014 87% (Average) 82% (Heritage) 74% (CFG) 100% (ACU) 92% (FreedomWorks)

Cornyn (TX) 2014 87% (Average) 86% (Heritage) 82% (CFG) 88% (ACU) 91% (FreedomWorks)

Inhofe (OK) 2014 86% (Average) 86% (Heritage) 84% (CFG) 80% (ACU) 92% (FreedomWorks)

Sessions (AL) 2014 80% (Average) 77% (Heritage) 78% (CFG) 88% (ACU) 75% (FreedomWorks)

Enzi (WY) 2014 76% (Average) 67% (Heritage) 71% (CFG) 92% (ACU) 75% (FreedomWorks)

Roberts (KS) 2014 76% (Average) 86% (Heritage) 55% (CFG) 72% (ACU) 92% (FreedomWorks)

Graham (SC) 2014 70% (Average) 50% (Heritage) 86% (CFG) 92% (ACU) 50% (FreedomWorks)

Chambilss (GA) 2014 66% (Average) 53% (Heritage) 68% (CFG) 84% (ACU) 58% (FreedomWorks)

Johanns (NE) 2014 62% (Average) 57% (Heritage) 53% (CFG) 80% (ACU) 58% (FreedomWorks)

Alexander (TN) 2014 53% (Average) 41% (Heritage) 53% (CFG) 68% (ACU) 50% (FreedomWorks)

Cochran (MS) 2014 47% (Average) 55% (Heritage) 48% (CFG) 52% (ACU) 33% (FreedomWorks)

Collins (ME) 2014 28% (Average) 27% (Heritage) 38% (CFG) 20% (ACU) 25% (FreedomWorks)

Cruz (TX) 100% (Average) 100% (Heritage) 100% (FreedomWorks)

Lee (UT) 100% (Average) 100% (Heritage) 100% (CFG) 100% (ACU) 100% (FreedomWorks)

Paul (KY) 99% (Average) 95% (Heritage) 100% (CFG) 100% (ACU) 100% (FreedomWorks)

Johnson (WI) 95% (Average) 91% (Heritage) 97% (CFG) 100% (ACU) 92% (FreedomWorks)

Rubio (FL) 91% (Average) 82% (Heritage) 91% (CFG) 100% (ACU) 92% (FreedomWorks)

Toomey (PA) 90% (Average) 73% (Heritage) 93% (CFG) 100% (ACU) 92% (FreedomWorks)

Coburn (OK) 88% (Average) 80% (Heritage) 87% (CFG) 92% (ACU) 92% (FreedomWorks)

Crapo (ID) 86% (Average) 76% (Heritage) 86% (CFG) 88% (ACU) 92% (FreedomWorks)

Flake (AZ) 82% (Average) 64% (Heritage) 100% (FreedomWorks)

Hatch (UT) 82% (Average) 67% (Heritage) 93% (CFG) 92% (ACU) 75% (FreedomWorks)

Barrasso (WY) 81% (Average) 77% (Heritage) 74% (CFG) 88% (ACU) 83% (FreedomWorks)

Coats (IN) 78% (Average) 79% (Heritage) 79% (CFG) 80% (ACU) 73% (FreedomWorks)

Grassley (IA) 78% (Average) 77% (Heritage) 78% (CFG) 72% (ACU) 83% (FreedomWorks)

Vitter (LA) 78% (Average) 71% (Heritage) 76% (CFG) 80% (ACU) 83% (FreedomWorks)

Burr (NC) 76% (Average) 65% (Heritage) 75% (CFG) 88% (ACU) 75% (FreedomWorks)

Ayotte (NH) 75% (Average) 64% (Heritage) 86% (CFG) 76% (ACU) 75% (FreedomWorks)

McCain (AZ) 72% (Average) 48% (Heritage) 91% (CFG) 92% (ACU) 58% (FreedomWorks)

Portman (OH) 72% (Average) 64% (Heritage) 79% (CFG) 76% (ACU) 67% (FreedomWorks)

Heller (NV) 71% (Average) 68% (Heritage) 71% (CFG) 71% (ACU) 75% (FreedomWorks)

Corker (TN) 70% (Average) 45% (Heritage) 84% (CFG) 92% (ACU) 58% (FreedomWorks)

Boozman (AR) 68% (Average) 73% (Heritage) 65% (CFG) 76% (ACU) 58% (FreedomWorks)

Moran (KS) 66% (Average) 57% (Heritage) 68% (CFG) 64% (ACU) 73% (FreedomWorks)

Thune (SD) 66% (Average) 64% (Heritage) 62% (CFG) 77% (ACU) 58% (FreedomWorks)

Shelby (AL) 65% (Average) 68% (Heritage) 66% (CFG) 76% (ACU) 50% (FreedomWorks)

Isakson (GA) 64% (Average) 52% (Heritage) 64% (CFG) 80% (ACU) 58% (FreedomWorks)

Fischer (NE) 59% (Average) 59% (Heritage) 58% (FreedomWorks)

Blunt (MO) 58% (Average) 59% (Heritage) 58% (CFG) 72% (ACU) 42% (FreedomWorks)

Kirk (IL) 56% (Average) 50% (Heritage) 52% (CFG) 67% (FreedomWorks)

Wicker (MS) 50% (Average) 41% (Heritage) 60% (CFG) 64% (ACU) 33% (FreedomWorks)

Hoeven (ND) 43% (Average) 41% (Heritage) 42% (CFG) 48% (ACU) 42% (FreedomWorks)

Murkowski (AK) 39% (Average) 38% (Heritage) 41% (CFG) 36% (ACU) 42% (FreedomWorks)

[VRWC For Truth]

Another Politburo Democrat outs himself.

[Hoodat]

I take issue with your list. I’ve got Cruz at 174% and Lee at 158%. Also, Isakson should be no higher than -14%.

[cotton1706]

Hey, then take it up with the rating agencies, buddy! I don’t cast the votes, I just report ‘em! :)

[CharlesWayneCT]

Or more to the point, his actual voting record on issues that conservatives care about.

I would like to see the senators block Reid’s plan, just to make Reid give them an up-or-down vote on the house plan.

On the other hand, I think it is absurd to claim that he and others are not conservative based on their opinion of the outcome of this strategy.

If I believed that in the end, Obama and the democrats would drop Obamacare in order to fund the rest of the government, I would be more critical. But I do not. I see no change in hell Obama would ever sign a bill that didn’t fund Obamacare. He’d shut the government down. Maybe the democrats would VOTE for one in the end, to give them political cover (although remember they WIN ELECTIONS by appealing to their liberal base who would rather shut down then defund, just as we say we would rather shut down than fund).

But Obama is not up for re-election. And he has shown he doesn’t mind destroying the country and blaming others. And in a shutdown, he has signaled that the ONE THING that will get funded is Obamacare, while he will certainly use the shutdown to further destroy our military capability. His use of “emergency funding” will likely break the law, nobody will have the standing to sue, and even if we could it would take too long, and his funding priorities won’t match ours.

And in the end, enough republicans from marginal districts WOULD join the democrats in the house, and the bill they passed wouldn’t be just funding Obamacare, it would have a wishlist of democratic special interest money, and we’d be powerless to stop it. In the end, Obamacare would be funded, AND the sequester would be gone, and there’d be new program spending, and more deficits.

Now, that is just a prediction. You can certainly believe it could turn out differently, but reading just what is written in these threads, it is clear nobody on the conservative side believes the average republican has the guts to push this to the end game where we’d stand strong, and Obama would decide the pain to his side was greater than the pain of giving up Obamacare.

And you know the worst thing? If we ACTUALLY WON, with all the pain, suffering, the hit to the economy — the bill ONLY FUNDS through December. Obama would blame the entire economic mess on the shutdown. Enough people would believe him that however bad the economy was, republicans would NOT be able to use it in 2014. And Obamacare might have less money for 2 months, but then in December it all happens again, and I don’t think it turns out any better.

So yes, I believe there are smart conservatives who can see beyond the “Hey, look, we can TAKE HIS QUEEN”, and see that 5 moves later, we will be check-mated.

The problem is, the “hey, we just won’t give them money”, is such a simple sound bite that people forget it is just a sound bite, and start thinking it is actually a solution.

Suppose we passed a CR for each appropriations. From our side, it looks like we are doing clean CRs just like they ask, and the senate would obviously pass them. But no — Reid would take a CR that funded just the military budget, he’d get it through cloture (who could resist?), and then he’d do an amendment adding in Obamacare money, and pass it.

Whatever we sent to him, he’d always do the same trick. Our bills would either all get bottled up in cloture votes, or come back with Obamacare money.

IF we were signalling that there was some compromise middle ground, I could see the democrats figuring it would be worth it, and we’d win some concessions. But if you tell the other side “Hey, we are going to kill you”, well they really have no reason to not simply say “we’ll kill you first”.

Anyway, I don’t want to stop the hatefest. I know there are smart freepers who can think this through and understand. I know there are some who don’t care about elections, and would like to see the party burned to the ground fighting for this one hill they can’t win or hold. I’m not going to tell you otherwise. Call your senators. Fight for what you want.

But I reject the notion that smart conservatives are forbidden to have a different picture of the outcome, and to vote based on what they see as the end point. If Coburn thinks that the final budget will be more conservative if he votes FOR cloture, that is a rational vote, even if it doesn’t end Obamacare.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I believe you are ignorant of what Tom Coburn has done for conservatives during his career. I’m not going to argue that he is a purist, that is obvious by his support for John McCain in 2008. But the man has been a champion for many of our conservative values throughout his career in the house and senate.

Attack him for what he is doing now. Why do people feel they have to re-write history instead of making a rational argument?

[CharlesWayneCT]

Now this is a true statement — for some reason, the longer people stay in office, the more they get taken in. I reject that Coburn is now some RINO (I wish we’d stop using RINO and just yous CINO, since it is clear that Coburn is republican, and in fact that might be part of the PROBLEM).

Coburn was one of those non-career politicians who did go to the house and then leave when he said he would. He then ran for Senate and I believe said he’d be one term, but then he decided to stick around for another term. I don’t know if he has “devolved” to the point where he plans to run again or not. At this point, I think it would be nice if he moved back home and gave someone else a chance.

[Lancey Howard]

The fact that Coburn would show up on the militant Democrat communist news channel, MSNBC, to criticize another Republican speaks volumes.

FUTC

[dfwgator]

He’s “Severely Conservative” don’cha know?

[A CA Guy]

defund that guy as well.

[Paladin2]

" I don’t think Coburn deserves the treatment he’s getting here. "

After the GOPe stratergery of getting more RINOs elected failed in 2012, it is time to go for broke. No more Mr. Nice Guy.