These Republican doctors-turned-lawmakers sure do know some interesting tricks. Bill Frist, for example, can use an hour of family videotapes to challenge the diagnosis of doctors who have examined a severely brain-damaged patient in person. Tom Coburn, meanwhile, can use his medical training to tell if someone is lying, just by looking at them.
Coburn during John Roberts hearings: I’ve tried to use my medical skills of observation of body language to ascertain your uncomfortableness and ill at ease with questions and responses. I will tell you that I am very pleased both in my observational capabilities as a physician to know that your answers have been honest and forthright as I watch the rest of your body respond to the stress that you’re under. (End videotape)
Tim Russert: Do you believe as a physician you can tell whether a candidate for the Supreme Court is telling the truth?
Coburn: I think you can certainly tell when they’re ill at ease with a subject and sometimes telling the truth or not. I think you can do that. I think you can do that — anybody can be trained to do that — by body language, respiratory avoidance responses. Yeah, I think you can.
Russert: And have you used those skills to make judgments like that?
Coburn: Mm-hm, I certainly have.
Russert: Has any — have you ever detected someone lying?
Coburn: Uh-huh, lots of times.
C&L, of course, has the video.
Now, obviously this is pretty silly. Doctors receive all kinds of training, but they aren’t human lie detectors. But my favorite part of the exchange came when Coburn tried to use a little medical jargon to make his remarks seem more reasonable. He said, specifically, that he measures “respiratory avoidance responses” to see if a judicial nominee is telling the truth during a confirmation hearing.
I’m not a physician, but I do have access to Google. There doesn’t appear to be any such thing as “respiratory avoidance responses.”