Censure Sen Tom Coburn (R-OK)!

We the undersigned, are asking the US Senate to officially censure Sen. Tom Coburn (OK) for his remarks made on August 16, 2009, in which he basically said -government has earned threats of violence-. This sort of inflammatory rhetoric has no place in the political discourse of this great nation. In a democratic society, if the people are unhappy with their elected officials they replace them; they do not threaten them with violence.

From "Meet the Press" August 16, 2009

MR. GREGORY:  All right.  But let%u2019s talk about the tone of the debate.  There have been death threats against members of Congress, there are Nazi references to members of Congress and to the president.  Here are some of the images. The president being called a Nazi, his reform effort being called Nazi-like, referring to Nazi Germany, members of Congress being called the same.  And then there was this image this week outside of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a town hall event that the president had, this man with a gun strapped to his leg held that sign, %u201CIt is time to water the tree of liberty.%u201D It was a reference to that famous Thomas Jefferson quote, %u201CThe tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.%u201D That has become a motto for violence against the government.  Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, had that very quote on his shirt the day of the bombing of the Murrah building when 168 people were killed.

Senator Coburn, you are from Oklahoma.  When this element comes out in larger numbers because of this debate, what, what troubles you about that?

SEN. TOM COBURN (R-OK):  Well, I%u2019m, I%u2019m troubled anytime when we, we stop having confidence in, in our government.  But we%u2019ve earned it. 

This is a worrisome trend of which we are seeing more and more lately. Rush Limbaugh and others have compared President Obama and Nancy Pelosi to Nazis. Americans for Prosperity encouraged people to visit the offices of their elected officials and "put the fear of God in them", Glenn Beck ran a doomsday scenario on his show and asked the question whether it would be a bad thing for the US Government to be overthrown in defense of the Constitution. With Glenn Beck, Chuck Norris, Jim Robinson and others on the far right advocating the violent overthrow of the US Government, we certainly do not need any elected officials giving any sort of perceived legitimacy to this dangerous movement. We therefore request that the United States Senate send a strong message to Sen. Tom Coburn that these sort of incendiary remarks will not be tolerated from somebody of his office and standing.