I saw a diary complaining about John Cornyn (R-TX) and he surely is on my list, but even though Dick Cheney was here in Texas endorsing Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor and she suggested that Cheney head the ticket in 2012 (I say go for it, Dick, and please put Sarah again for VP), I can't put her in my top ten. There is just too much competition.
And I am still heartsick over the Texas races for U.S. Senator that could have been won with effective campaigns here in 2002 and 2008. Anyway, two states that formerly had moderate or even occasionally liberal Senators score twice in my list, Oklahoma and Kansas. Back in the '70s, Oklahoma had Fred Harris, almost a radical leftist and not surprisingly, a populist from the original dust bowl state that still ought to be a Democratic state, like adjoining Arkansas. Kansas had moderate Republicans for decades, the latest being Bob Dole, who back in 1974 was regarded as a right winger. And remember Nancy Kassebaum?
So here is my top ten list and brief reasons for their appearance and also the order:
- Tom Coburn (R-OK) He's an OB/GYN doctor who is not only blocking health care reform as part of the GOP united front. He is also blocking improved health care benefits for veterans. Is there a humanitarian doctor in Congress? Ron Paul comes closest because he opposes the war and supports the legalization of drugs. (Okay, I lose some credibility right away, but Paul is the only candidate last year who made sense on foreign policy; he was better than our winner on that issue, having the nerve to speak the truth.)
- James Inhofe (R-OK) He's a holocaust denier, if you consider the destruction of the planet to be a disaster in the making that will cause more deaths and destruction than Hitler's "final solution". Also an enemy of science.
- John Cornyn (R-TX) When he was a "justice" on the Texas Supreme Court, he was an "activist judge". Gutted consumers' rights in Texas and started a trend that has made insurance companies here practically immune from liability for failure to pay claims. We once had some of the strongest consumer protection laws in the nation. What's more, Cornyn is running ads here claiming that he is fighting to protect Medicare, even as he opposes even moderate reforms in health care, let alone the public option or "Medicare for all".
- Charles Grassley (R-IA) Palin may have started the "death panel" garbage, but this jerk lent her remarks some credibility in part because he was being portrayed as a "moderate" and had been praised by the Obama administration. His statements should have led to immediate denunciations by the Obama people and Democratic senators. Didn't happen.
- Pat Roberts (R-KS) Am I just noticing his name similarity to Pat Robertson or did I get his first name wrong? This guy repeatedly blocked inquiries into the intelligence that led to the Iraq war and at one point actually claimed that we would not have had to invade if Saddam had let the inspectors in. (We threw them out when they were begging for more time and telling us that they were making progress. Does anyone remember that?)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS) He has Presidential ambitions and may be running for governor up there. (I am still thinking that it was a mistake to tap Kathleen Sibelius for the Obama cabinet; she could have been the first Democratic Senator from Kansas in my lifetime. Brownback regularly addresses far-right religious groups with hateful remarks about homosexuals. He's all over the radio on that subject in Kansas.
- John Ensign (R-NV) Family values guy; scandal ongoing.
- David Vitter (R-LA) Another family values guy in a poor state that needs help and has a high number of people with no health insurance.
- Richard Shelby (R-AL) Used to be a Democrat, if I am not mistaken. Has signed on to some of the fringe stuff about Obama.
- Joe Liebermann (I-CT) He was a drag on the ticket in 2000; Gore should have chosen John Breaux of Louisiana. It's hard for me to believe that a man who supposedly went down south to work for civil rights for black people in the early '60s is now helping to block health care for poor and middle class folks.