After more than a year of debates and votes and town hall meetings and demonstrations, on the very day of the final House vote on the health care reform bill, Auditor Tom Salmon decided to weigh in on the issue with his Congressman. He wrote a letter that has been circulating in some circles since, and it constitutes one of the more bizarre, nonsensical – and sometimes disturbing – rants one will ever see from a major elected official. Here are some highlights: 

As we know, in addition to fundamental flaws in oversight, the flaws in Medicare (spot-addressed by 208 billion Dr Fix) and continued problems with Medicaid spell a boondoggle. Please don’t buy into the promise of fraud savings. They don’t exist in this current delivery system (bowl of spaghetti) and the bill doesn’t foster a structure to facilitate that oversight model.

Why has the number of uninsured gone up a million a year in California? Senator Feinstein said 8 million plus? Because of cost? I was once a California uninsured preparing to pay cash for the birth of our son. $1600 to the Chinese born doctor and $1000 to Children’s hospital. If you wish to address this by pushing millions into Medicaid, where doctors are getting a 66% payment of the private marketplace, do you think this is going to work? I say no.

"Spaghetti" rambling notwithstanding, its hard to come up with a positive spin on his need to identify his doctor as "Chinese born," as it reads for all the world that he is pronouncing his resentment of payments to someone not quite American enough for him.

It's a hard letter to excerpt, replete as it is with vacillations between high praise of Welch and tea-party-esque doomsaying, along with Salmon's personal opinion of what Bobby Kennedy would say if he were alive (Huh? Did he mean Ted?). There is also the odd matter of Salmon's challenges with his own recent history, or perhaps simply a lack of thought or proofreading:

My September 2008 letter informed all -explaining why I left the Democratic Party and references my view on Healthcare reform.

Salmon did not switch parties until September of 2009.

Since even before his party switch, it seems virtually every time Tom Salmon draws attention to himself, he raises further concerns over his fundamental competence. Yet, there is still no sign whatsoever of any Democrat considering a run against him.

The 2010 Primary election filing deadline is July 19. If the Democrats do not run a challenger, it would constitute a monumental point of shame for the party's rank and file. GMD is absolutely committed to insuring that doesn't happen out of principle – even if it means one of us filling the ballot line ourselves. If the VDP knows what's good for it, it won't let it come to that.

Salmon's complete letter is reprinted in the extended entry in its original, eclectic formatting. It simply cannot be fully appreciated for the train wreck it is without reading it in full.

(NOTE: Diaries posted under the GMD user represent collaborative efforts of multiple admins.)