By the end of Tom Coburn's Morning Joe appearance today, Joe Scarborough could be heard, off-camera, whistling in astonishment.
Not surprising, since the plain-talking Republican Senator from Oklahoma had just unloaded on Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid. Coburn called Reid "dishonest" in his dealings with him, saying that Reid was "not truthful" and had "not kept his word." For good measure, Coburn added that Reid had been a "failure" as Majority Leader. View the video after the jump.
TOM COBURN: As long as the Senate is being used for the 2014 election, and that's the primary goal --
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Do you really think that's what's happening right now?
COBURN: I think that has been Harry Reid's mode of operation the last seven years. Yes sir.
SCARBOROUGH: Do you really?
COBURN: Yes sir. He has been dishonest with me, not truthful, not kept his word. He's played games. We've done our own damage to that in response to it. So that what we have is people pointing fingers at each other . . . Not many U.S. Senators volunatarily leave the Finance Committee. I did. You know why? Because in the two years I was on it, with all the problems in front of our country, we did not one thing to solve Medicare, solve Social Security, solve Medicaid, overhaul the tax structure, fix our corporate tax rate so we're competitive. We didn't do anything! Well, that's leadership. My big complaint is, Harry Reid is a nice guy; I like him. But I think he has been a failure as a Majority Leader for the Senate in terms of keeping the history of the Senate and the progress of the Senate in line with what it was intended to be by our Founders.
