Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Discusses the “Lunatic Fringe”

Rory Cooper / December 21, 2009

Over the weekend, Senators from both sides of the aisle debated the merits of Obamacare with a level of emotion rarely seen in the halls of the U.S. Senate.  But one senator took home the prize for the most outrageous comments unbecoming of an elected representative.  Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) began a floor speech citing a liberal op-ed that referred to the “lunatic fringe,” which appears to lump all sorts of groups in with conservatives.  He used this as a catalyst to make floor remarks (seen in the video above) about Obamacare’s opponents saying: “They are desperate to break this president,” Whitehouse continued, “…it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist.” 

Between those tragic thoughts he lumped in members of the Aryan nation, birthers, militias and fanatics with the entire overwhelming majority of Americans opposed to Obamacare.  So even though members of his own party were on the fence about the Senate’s health care legislation right up until they got $300 million payoffs, the non-bought-off Americans opposed to it must just hate the President.  What other rationale could they have…well…except for the unfunded entitlement expansions, tax hikes, lesser quality care and massive expansion of government control of their lives.  But those are small issues compared to their hatred of a politician, right? Right?  Wrong. (more…)