Don't blame the doctor, says lawmaker
Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, has a reputation for having a quick wit and an ability to use it to skewer the opposition.
But sometimes the most memorable quips Rukavina utters are marked for himself. At an emotion press conference this morning (Feb. 11) on medical marijuana, a Michigan physician spoke of how medical marijuana allowed his wife, suffering from cancer, to eat a meal and not throw it up.
The doctor, in providing some background on himself, mentioned how he had once practiced in Rukavina’s hometown of Virginia.
“He didn’t deliver me — don’t blame him,” Rukavina shot from the sideline.
Taking questions from reporters, Rukavina mentioned that although Gov. Tim Pawlenty and he don’t share political viewpoints, that he was still socially a pretty good friend of the governor — the governor has compassion, Rukavina said — and suggested that if Pawlenty watched testimony on the medical marijuana bill, he might change his opposition to it.
That Pawlenty and Rukavina have been good friends is suggested by the wrestling hold the governor once famously put on Rukavina at the Capitol a few years ago.
In one of the most memorable gags conducted on the House floor, Rukavina later showed up wearing a neck brace.
