Did Coburn Offer Prayer for Byrd's Timely Demise?

In the wee hours of the morning, the U.S. Senate gathered to vote on cloture, the first of three motions, for the health care reform bill in order to move the process on to the next step. With all 60 Democratic caucus members finally aligned against the Republican filibuster, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) resorted to more sinister implications in his Sunday afternoon floor speech: “What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight. That’s what they ought to pray.”

The statement seemed to be a thinly veiled jab at ailing Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) who, at 92, chastised his Republican colleagues for forcing him to come in for a vote at 1 a.m. this past Friday. As he was wheeled into the chamber, he rebutted the applause with a cadence of “shame, shame.” At least three members of the GOP caucus were slated to vote for cloture on that Pentagon budget bill, but their leadership snapped them back in line in order to force the Dems' hand and Byrd's appearance.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) interrupted Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to fire back at Coburn this morning: “This statement troubles me, and I’m trying to reach him come back to the floor and explain exactly what he meant about a senator being unable to make the vote tonight.”

Durbin went on, "This statement goes too far. We are becoming more coarse and divided here... When it reaches a point where we're praying, asking people to pray, that senators wouldn't be able to answer the roll call, I think it has crossed the line."