Tom Coburn's March of Stupid

Well, Sen. Coburn certainly had a busy day.  Lessee.  He took on political science (and lost):

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is known for picking some odd fights, but his new dispute hits a little close to home: he wants to cut off all federal funding for political science research.

The National Science Foundation subsidizes some research into political science, and Coburn introduced a measure yesterday to eliminate the funding altogether. Proving that the right-wing senator has no real understanding of what political science is, Coburn said in a statement, "Americans who have an interest in electoral politics can turn to CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, the print media, and a seemingly endless number of political commentators on the Internet."

In particular, Coburn criticized NSF grants for poli sci because Paul Krugman once got one. And the Nobel laureate is bad. Or something.

I trust this is stupid enough on its face that my wise and wonderful readers don't need a full smackdown, and any Cons stumbling across this site are hopeless anyway.

Not only does Coburn want to cut funding for pol-sci, he wants to cut funding for Grandma, too:

Someone forgot to remind Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that it's the Democrats' job to make Granny's life tougher. On the Senate floor yesterday, Coburn blocked a vote that would have prevented a reduction in Social Security payments next year.

Coburn stood in the way of unanimous consent to a House bill setting 2010 Medicare premiums at 2009 levels. As the National Journal reports (sub. req.), Coburn's move means "seniors are facing uncertainty over Medicare costs next year" and that "would see a net reduction in their Social Security benefits."

So... why does Tom Coburn hate Grandma?  And you could just imagine what would happen if he ran into a granny who's also a pol-sci major....