Coburn's sorry, sort of

Speaking at a New York City Young Republican Club event, Oklahoma Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn said, “There's no comity with Harry Reid. I think he's an absolute asshole.”

The comment was reported by the New York Daily News. Some subsequent news reports said Coburn would seek a meeting with Reid, presumably to apologize. But before that could happen, Coburn elaborated on his view of Reid.

“I think he's done more damage to the Senate than any majority leader,” he said. “Seventy-five times he's used filling the tree and filing cloture to eliminate debate, to eliminate the idea that the Senate was supposed to force consensus.”

“Filling the tree” refers to a sanity-challenged practice in which a Senate parliamentarian diagrams multiple pending amendments together before any one is dealt with. The diagrams being called “amendment trees.”

Reid's spokesperson noted that if Coburn wants to apologize, he should know the way to Reid's office, because it will be the second such Coburn apology. Last year, Coburn told a C-SPAN interviewer that Reid is “incompetent and incapable of carrying on the tradition of the Senate.” In a later Senate speech on fiscal matters, Coburn apologized: “As an individual, he has a very difficult time, and I understand that, and … I ask his forgiveness.”