Video: Senator Coburn's prayers work against his own party on Senate health care reform bill vote

A GOP Senator missed the health care reform bill vote.  AP Photo Alex Brandon

A few days ago I wrote a post concerning a speech of Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) on the floor of the Senate before a key vote on the Senate health care reform bill.  The vote was on the motion for cloture which was the first of three votes necessary to end debate and move the bill forward.  In his speech Coburn stated that people should pray that one of the Senators not be able to show up for the vote.

I interpreted Coburn's request to mean that he wanted people to pray for misfortune on the head of one of the Senators from the Democratic caucus.  After all, the Democrats needed all 60 votes from their caucus in order to pass the motion.  On the other hand if a Republican failed to show up it would not really have much significance since 60 votes would still be required to pass the motion.  I also believed my interpretation was reasonable given the circumstances.  If a Democratic Senator was to be delayed in traffic the Democrats could simply delay the vote an hour or two which once again would have no real effect on passage of the bill.  Others disagreed with my interpretation saying Coburn's request was more vague.

While I stand by my original interpretation I must now conceded that my critics have more evidence to support their argument today.  Think Progress reports that today Republican Senator James Inhofe missed the second of the three crucial cloture votes in the Senate.  Therefore today's vote was 60-39 without Inhofe's "no" vote.  So as it turns out Coburn's request may have actually worked only against his GOP colleague from his own state.  I suppose the Lord does work in mysterious ways.  By the way there are thankfully (and I mean that sincerely) no reports of Senator Inhofe being in ill health.  Instead he reportedly missed the vote to be back with his family over the holiday.