Another GOP Sanity Sighting

A reader here, Carolyn, sent a video of a town hall similar to the meeting I just wrote about where Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger tried to convince the roomful of disbelieving far right Republican that shutting down the government over affordable healthcare is really not a good thing.

In this exchange, it's a town hall for Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) where a pissed-off constituent makes his case for screwing the entire country.  Among other things, Mr. Cole, to his credit, says --

"We’ll see what happens in September when we get back, but my instinct is, you won’t win that fight. It won’t be popular. Never polls popular. What do you tell the people you’re inconveniencing? Most of the people that argue this point are not thinking, why would you shut down the National Weather Center that just saved a whole lot of lives in central Oklahoma by giving us 16 minutes of warning instead of two. Why would you put 15,000 families — that’s families — out of work at Tinker Air Force Base. There are four million important national defense workers. Why would you go to Sulphur, where there are guys in their 80s and 90s who gave this country everything they possibly had in its darkest moment, and say, “sorry, there’s not going to be anybody here showing up to fix your meals or look after you or do the commitments we made.” I don’t think it’s smart politics. Anytime you hurt millions of people, and inconvenience tens of millions more, I don’t think you usually achieve your end. I think they wonder why you did that to them."

Hat's off to him for rational thinking.  I suspect he hasn't voted this way for a long while, but at least he's acting sane and not trying to drive the bus over the cliff.

Here's the full exchange.