Are you there God? It's Me, John Thune.

Andrea sent a youtube link (many thanks; see below for the link) through that captures Senate footage of John Thune (R-S. Dakota) and the incomparable Al Franken (D-Minn.) debating the timing on taxation and benefits of the current health care proposal. Essentially, Thune just made up some ridiculous crap about the benefits not starting until 2014 although the taxes would start now. He omitted the fact that benefits will start immediately, a point which Franken clearly explained, undercutting Thune's entire point. Thune responds by arguing, "but it's on my chart! Did you see my chart?" Touche, monsieur. If you put it on your chart, it obviously could not be wrong. Shit, everyone knows Kinko's has a magic machine that makes everything you print true. It's in the back room near the candy machine.

At first, I'm trying to figure why this Thune character wants to take on Franken. Franken's CLEARLY a hell of a lot smarter and more informed on the matter, and the kind of person who's going to go through the details to make his point. The guy has made a goddamn career out of getting the details straight. Thune has long made it clear that his mission in Congress is to instill Evangelical concepts onto national policy (this was one of his central reasons for promoting the Iraqi invasion--because the Iraqi people just couldn't wait to get some of his good South Dakota Christianity). He went to a no-name Christian college in LA with substantially lower academic standards than Auburn. And he's kind of an ass, although that's a different issue.

The problem, of course, is that Thune's (and the Republican Party's) purpose in this is not to argue facts. As John McCain noted, "facts are stubborn things." Thune, et al. have to throw out this malarkey just to keep the base happy. It just doesn't matter any more what he says. The more he gets his name out in public, the more he gets the poor, old, and scared to send in their $10 of Social Security each year.

Accuracy on the facts doesn't make the tea party nuts show up to wave Obama=Hitler signs, it's just the arguing with the other side. So in the end, it doesn't really matter what he says. He can claim that a key point of the bill is that Obama gets to shit on everyone's lawn on Wednesdays, and make the Democrats respond to it. Until the dust settles Fox News can have the round table on why this CLEARLY demonstrates that Obama is a Socialist and how you can show him that nobody shits on your lawn by watching Hannity more often. Maybe Glenn Beck can start advertising Obama lawn shit cleaner like he used to do with ads for buying gold (after telling people on the show they needed to buy all the gold they could). "Act Now, and Don't Let that Big Stinky Pile of Communism Stay on Your Lawn Any Longer! Only $19.95!"

The link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n2P0QsTe8c&feature=player_embedded