Tonight on Montana Evening Edition, the local PBS news broadcast, News Director Sally Mauk interviewed Senator Conrad Burns. This interview had to be one of the most hilarious (and sad) example of clueless right-wing rhetoric that I have heard all Fall.
Unfortunately, the broadcast is not available online until after midnight. You can check it out then or I can try to Update this diary: http://www.mtpr.net/...
I wanted to get this message out, however, because there was an especially newsworthy episode when Burns insisted that Saddam Hussein was involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
More notes below the fold:
I want to emphasize that these are notes from my recollection and should not be considered exact quotes (so I won't use boxes as much as you might think I should).
To paraphrase:
In a discussion that started with a question about the deficit, Sen. Burns began to give the usual talking points that the deficit isn't the Repub's fault because `This administration has had more unforeseen catastrophes happen than any other... 9/11, Katrina, the Iraq War, War on Terror..."
Sally Mauk pointed out that the Iraq War was not an "unforeseen catastrophe," but rather a policy decision that wasn't forced on the administration.
Burns responded by emphatically saying that it was forced on us on Sept. 11.
Mauk: are you saying that Iraq had something to do with Sept. 11?
Burns: yes
Mauk: even though studies have found otherwise?
He continued to insist. To be clear, he seemed to be saying that the money came from Iraq ("where do you think the money came from"), not that Saddam actually planned the attack. But he was also saying that somehow Iraq was the central font of terrorism - sorry I don't remember his exact wording (I was laughing too hard - and driving).
Sally Mauk continued to press him about the fact that all evidence has said that Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11, and why did he think all that was wrong?
Burns answered essentially that "I just know"
But how do you know?
Because I know!
We have to get the exact transcript because it was fricking hilarious. He sounded like a 12-year-old making his final argument: "Because!"
He also went on to talk about how Saddam had plenty of opportunity to move his WMD's, etc. Much of that is fairly typical Repub rhetoric.
One other especially silly exchange was about universal health care: during which Burns talked about how we don't want to be like Canada, where if you get cancer, "they might be able to help you in 6 months."
Sally Mauk pointed out that studies have shown that Canadians are healthier than U.S. citizens. Burns insisted that couldn't be true. When asked what made him think that all the scientific studies wrong, he answered that "I talk to a lot of friends in Alberta and Saskatchewan, so I know."
Burns also talked about how "Medicare Plan D is working really well." In one of the debates last month, he also mentioned this as an example of "how well the free-market system works for health care." That's interesting, because I have been using Medicare Plan D as one of the best examples of how badly the free-market system works for health care.
All of this went on and on, but I am afraid I will get too many things wrong if I continue trying to recollect. Flame me if you think I should have waited for the transcript, but I was too excited!