Tom Coburn must be listening to what David Frum has to say about Fox. Think Progress reports:
...when Coburn described his disagreement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), whom he called “a nice lady,” over funding for extending unemployment benefits, the crowd booed Pelosi’s name. Coburn then lectured the audience to not be “biased by Fox News” into thinking that people they disagree with are bad people:
COBURN: Come on now. She is a nice. How many of y’all have met her? She is a nice person. She’s a nice person. You know, let me give you a little lesson here. I hope you will listen to me. Just because somebody disagrees with you doesn’t mean that they’re not a good person. And I want to tell ya, I’ve been in the Senate for five years and I’ve taken a lot of that because I’ve been on the small side, both in the Republican Party and the Democrat Party. Just because I don’t agree with them, it doesn’t mean I’m bad. It means I have a legitimate point of view that’s different than theirs. And what we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what’s going on and make the determination yourself. So, don’t catch yourself being biased by Fox News that somebody’s no good. The people in Washington are good. They just don’t know what they don’t know.
Here's audio -- it's worth a listen:
This is a new approach for Coburn. Just a few months ago, he seemed to encourage people to pray for Robert Byrd's death. Seriously.
Even though it represents a change in tone for Coburn (and could earn him the wrath of Fox), it's smart politics -- and good for the country. It's smart politics because the American public will never, ever return to power a Republican Party that is dominated by the invective and vitriol spewed forth by Glenn Beck and the Fox News Channel.
It's good for the country because what Coburn said in his town hall is true: just because we disagree does not mean we can't get along. Politics can be like a battle, but if more Republicans join Coburn in resisting the Fox-fueled notion that Americans are at war with each other, the better off we will all be.
Join the discussion in Julie Gulden's recommended diary, Coburn: Don't listen to Fox?!.
