Coburn claims privilege on Ensign advice

[yellowcanine]

Source: UPI

July 9 (UPI) -- Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said Thursday he would invoke privilege if asked about advice he gave to Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on handling an extramarital affair.

Coburn said he was talking to Ensign about his tryst with a former staffer in his capacities as a doctor and a man of the cloth, Roll Call reported.

"I was counseling him as a physician and as an ordained deacon," Coburn said. "That is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody. Not to the (Senate) Ethics Committee, not to a court of law, not to anybody."



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/07/09/Coburn-claims-privilege-on-Ensign-advice/UPI-20581247181187/

---

First of all, only pastors have privilege, not deacons. And Coburn is neither Ensign's pastor nor his deacon.
Second - there is absolutely no evidence that Coburn was acting as Ensign's doctor and even then, privilege would only cover medical advice, not relationship advice.
Third - privilege does not cover legal advice unless one is a lawyer and acting as one. Even then, the advice is not privileged if it was advice to do something illegal or unethical.

Coburn has just jumped the shark on this one.

[jwirr]

1. A misuse of the right.

[No Elephants]

21. What right? The "right" to tell a Senator to pay people off to try to hide an affair?

[jwirr]

35. Of course not. The right of doctors, lawyers, and preachers to hear

confidential matters without confidence that they cannot be forced to reveal the content. I don't know about you but I want to be able to talk to certain people in confidence. It is not their right it is mine and yours. He is misusing it to protect himself.

[trumad]

2. Isn't he a Gyno?

[rocktivity]

5. Rachel Maddow said that yesterday.

:rofl:
rocktivity

[Dappleganger]

17. Oh, that is righteous!

[yellowcanine]

6. Don't forget that Republicans are irony challenged. Of course everyone is going to ask what kind of

doctor Coburn is if he is going to claim he was giving Ensign medical advice. He obviously did not think this one through. Which begs the question, "What the heck is Coburn hiding?"

[RandySF]

10. An abortion maybe? n/t

[yellowcanine]

13. Well I suppose that might actually be privileged advice if that were the case.

So someone needs to ask Coburn if the advice had to do with abortion or contraception since it seems that would be the only way his counsel to Ensign could be privileged.

[No Elephants]

23. Abortion? Wouldn't Ensign have to be the patient before a privilege came into play?

[yellowcanine]

30. I think you are correct, but when one is grasping, any straw will do.

[pscot]

32. Maybe Ensign thought he was pregnant

n/t

[No Elephants]

22. I guess that explains his "love for women, "as shown by telling Ensign to pay one hush money.

[LiberalFighter]

27. Someone beat me to it.

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

33. Not exactly

He did his internship in general surgery and his residency was a combined family practice/obstetrics training program.

[babylonsister]

3. And let us not forget, Coburn is an OB/GYN. What kind of medical

advice was he giving? He's CYA all the way.

[yellowcanine]

4. Advice on how not to get mistress preggers?

[theblasmo]

8. Nope...

...advice on how to sterilize people without their consent and to make lesbians in southeast Oklahoma by having two girls go into the bathroom at the same time.

Between him and Inhofe, we have the country's biggest idiots as Senators. Welcome to the home of the squeezed out.

[LiberalFighter]

28. If two girls go into the bathroom at the same time are lesbians...

what does that make two guys go into the bathroom at the same time?

[Pharlo]

11. He may, indeed, consult with an ob/gyn on

birth control.

BUT, I would think he would need a religious guide/ob/gyn more for advice and counsel on terminating a pregnancy.

Who's to say that $24,000 wasn't for the cost to send her to an exclusive 'resort' for the purpose of a 'discrete medical procedure'.

Even if it's pure speculation, it does sound plausible.

[No Elephants]

25. If Ensign is getting gyn advice, why would that be a privileged conversation?

The privilege is doctor patient and Ensign is not a gyn patient. Medical malpractice, maybe, to give advice without examining the patient. Doctor patient privilege, though, maybe not.

[DCKit]

7. Try thinking like a Republican and the answer will come to you.

Then, of course, you'll have to bleach your brain (and all your sex toys).

[pattmarty]

9. Coburn Is a fucking political psychopath. Listen to some of his "rants".

[JCMach1]

12. Coburn jumped the sharks years ago...

[Bluenorthwest]

14. Coburn is an anti-gay bigot religionist

using his 'faith' as cover for his actions and the actions of his pals. Interesting to see the real value he puts on faith and family. Interesting that he had a dollar figure in mind. Faith indeed.

[No Elephants]

26. Yes, good point. Apparently, "family value" is an even $96,000 tax free. (Lord, Doug sold out

cheaply, didn't he? I would have held out for a casino, at the very least.)

[jasi2006]

15. Coburn is a member of the Family

http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2009/07/terry-gross-since-the-republican-partys-defeat-last-november-the-party-has-been-struggling-to-redefine-itself-thats-become.html

Scary stuff!

[Dappleganger]

16. He thinks too highly of himself!

Deacons and elders do not have privilege, and personal matters have nothing to do with being an MD.
What a sanctimonious jerk.

[yellowcanine]

18. Someone pointed out on Huff Post that even if Coburn had "privilege", he gave it up when he denied

the wronged husband's allegations about what he told Ensign. You can't "pick and choose" about which info you are going to reveal. Either you shut up about all of it or none of it is "privileged."
Game Set Match on Dr. Coburn.

[kestrel91316]

19. Coburn is hiding something big that still hasn't come out, obviously.

[No Elephants]

20. "Pay them off" is medical advice? And since when does a deacon have a privilege?

[Piewhacket]

24. So what yer actually saying is...

Coburn is being an idiot repuklien. well, sure.
So if called he claims he will refuse to answer based on those reasons.
Of course, to refuse to answer Congress (or a court) might be contempt unless the reason was
legally sound. So if you are wrong, he will not have to answer, but if you are
right and he knows it, then he is calculating he will not be called to answer...

Now I'm calculating Coburn is an idiot repuke (no controversy there), but that
Coburn actually knows you are right and knows he is an repuklien idiot (a fair bet), but
that what Coburn is actually saying is : don't ask me or I'll make a big stink and stir
up my loyal right wing-a-ding-ding whack-outs to a frothing frenzy with my spurious claims of right.

Methinks it will work, alas, because that just seems to be ... the way it is.

yellocanine sez:
First of all, only pastors have privilege, not deacons. And Coburn is neither Ensign's pastor nor his deacon.
Second - there is absolutely no evidence that Coburn was acting as Ensign's doctor and even then, privilege would only cover medical advice, not relationship advice.
Third - privilege does not cover legal advice unless one is a lawyer and acting as one. Even then, the advice is not privileged if it was advice to do something illegal or unethical.

Coburn has just jumped the shark on this one.

[aquart]

29. His medical prescription was to pay her off?

He'll get away with it. Watch.

[yellowcanine]

31. I don't think he will - unfortunate timing for him. The Ensign story is heating up just in time for

the weekend news shows - and unless something big pops today or tomorrow, the Ensign story will be the only game in town.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

34. Covering one's ass about covering another's.

Who was coveting an ass on the side.

I love this shit. :rofl: