Quote of the day

Sens. Jon Kyl and Debbie Stabenow go back and forth over Kyl's mother

Published September 25, 2009 6:15PM (EDT)

You know a political argument is getting good when senators start dropping "your mom" jokes. That's what seemed to happen today during a brief exchange on healthcare between Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. Said Stabenow, "And I don't think you can go forward and allow 60 percent of the insurance companies not to provide basic maternity care."  Then Kyl took the floor, and said, "Well, first of all, I don't need maternity care. So requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don't need, and will make the policy more expensive."

At that point, Stabenow cuts back in and says, "If I could just object once with my colleague, I think your mom probably did."

Even though Stabenow is actually making a substantive point, and not really a joke about his mother,  faint "ooooh"-ing can be heard in the background. Kyl shoots back weakly, "Over 60 years ago my mom did."

See the video below. (Hat tip to Dana Goldstein at TAPPED.) 

 


By Gabriel Winant

Gabriel Winant is a graduate student in American history at Yale.

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