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Coburn on Democrats: ‘The next election is more important to them than the country’ [VIDEO]

David Martosko Executive Editor
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Speaking this month to The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn said Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid is the worst Senate Majority Leader he has ever seen.

“Harry Reid has done more to damage the Senate, I would say, than anybody — all the rest of them combined — in my lifetime,” Coburn declared.

“Never before in the history of the Senate,” Coburn added, “have we had a majority leader who will ruin the traditions of the Senate purely for partisan political reasons.”

Coburn blamed the lack of a federal budget in the Senate on Democrats’ unwillingness to stand and be counted. “They don’t want to have to vote on it,” he said.

But in the Oklahoma senator’s most stinging allegations, he slammed Reid and other Senate Democrats for what he said was a habit of putting short-term political gains ahead of America’s best interests.

“The next election is more important to them than the country,” he claimed, “more important to them than the institution of the Senate. More important that they win, rather than protect and heal our country.”

Coburn said Americans would be better served with a more diverse group of Senators who were interested in problem-solving instead of re-election.

Reid, he insisted, has no interest in solving problems at all.

“What Harry Reid’s answer is,” Coburn told The Daily Caller, “is ‘let’s not talk about it, let’s not debate it, let’s not vote it, and let the problem simmer.'”

“In other words: ‘I don’t want to fix a problem, ’cause it’s better for me politically to be blamed for not fixing the problem than it is to take the votes — ’cause some of my members might lose.”

The rest of Sen. Coburn’s interview with Ginni Thomas will be online Monday morning, only at The Daily Caller.

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David Martosko