Conservative blogger wishes death on Byrd

Bob Owens, the "Confederate Yankee," crosses a line in hoping for the defeat of healthcare reform

Published December 21, 2009 10:01PM (EST)

Clearly, a lot of conservatives want Democrats' healthcare reform legislation to fail, and are dismayed that it looks like there will be a bill passed. But in a post he published Sunday night on his blog Confederate Yankee, Bob Owens took that desire to a whole new level, saying he hoped that Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., would die so that the bill would go down to defeat.

In the post, titled "All I Want Is A Byrd Dropping For Christmas," Owens wrote:

Robert Byrd has been around a very long time, and his many decades of service have made West Virginia a wonderful state in which to manufacture methamphetamine or frame the locals for murder. But it's time for Senator to do the right thing, and expire.

It isn't too much to ask for Byrd to step off for that great klavern in the sky before the Senate vote that may force this nation to accept government-rationed health care. Even a nice coma would do.

Without his frail, Gollum-like body being wheeled into the Senate's chambers to cast the deciding vote, the Senate cannot curse our children and grandchildren with crushing debt and rationed, substandard healthcare.

Noting that some people were bound to be (rightfully) appalled by what he'd written, Owens added that he'd tell those people "that the party wheeling in a near invalid to vote in favor of this unread monstrosity of a bill is the one that should feel shame."

(Hat-tip to Andrew Sullivan.)


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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Healthcare Reform Robert Byrd D-w.va.