It was a rather broad interpretation of the right to life. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., known for his opposition to abortion and the destruction of embryos for research, went to the Senate floor Thursday to extend the culture of life: to old, unwanted cars that would be cruelly scrapped under the 'cash for clunkers' program. 'Why destroy a perfectly good car?' the senator pleaded to his colleagues. 'We will take a perfectly good automobile that somebody less fortunate could utilize for years ... and instead we're going to destroy it. We will destroy the opportunity for somebody less fortunate to have that automobile.' Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who represented Detroit's interests along with her Michigan Democratic colleague, Sen. Carl Levin, teased the defender of the defenseless old wrecks. If the clunkers were 'adopted' instead of scrapped, she asked, 'would he support extension of the program?' The cash-for-clunkers program has been wildly popular -- so much so that Americans, claiming up to $4,500 each by trading in their old gas-guzzlers, quickly depleted the $1 billion set aside for the program. The senators on Thursday stood ready to join the House in putting more money into it -- but not before rolling out some late-session silliness as they prepared to leave town. If there were a cash-for-clunkers program for rhetoric, several senators would be $4,500 richer after Thursday's debate. 'I hope one of my colleagues will propose cash for golf clubs,' suggested Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who, with a Ford Fusion Hybrid parked outside, had no need for the program. 'I've had many calls from people who have old golf clubs and they'd like to have some cash for them.' Clunk. 'Why not dishwashers? Why not washing machines? Why not boats? Why not RVs?' contributed Coburn. That, he said, is just as sensible as giving people cash to buy a Toyota Prius, which he pronounced 'Prew-iss.' Clunk. 'The cash-for-clunkers program,' chimed in Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., 'would create handouts for Hummers.' Clunk. Of course, everybody knew that the popular program would pass. Senators used the debate, the last before the August recess, to make points -- even if they didn't know exactly what the point was. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, proposed an amendment that would limit the benefit to those of modest means. 'Why would we want to give a member of the Senate who makes $172,000 a year $4,500 to buy a new car?' he demanded. But a few minutes later, Harkin returned, sheepishly, to the floor. 'There is a mistake in drafting,' he announced, so the lowest-income people would actually be excluded from the program. 'The way the amendment is now drafted, quite frankly, I couldn't even support it,' Harkin admitted. 'I'd move to table my own amendment.' Kyl saw an opportunity for mischief. 'I would urge those on our side to vote against the motion to table,' he declared. Harkin finally prevailed in killing his own amendment. Clunk. Only a few of the senators had a personal stake in the debate, judging from the cars parked outside the Capitol and across the street on Delaware Avenue. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would probably benefit from a trade-in. An old, beat-up Buick Park Avenue had his parking pass in it; there were T.J. Maxx bags in the back. Another clunker candidate: North Dakota's Kent Conrad, whose parking pass was in an enormous old Buick, dented and missing the nameplate except for the word 'Supercharged.' But, judging from the parking passes, most lawmakers' wheels are too new to qualify, and too fancy to scrap: Sen. Jim Webb's BMW 330, Kit Bond's Cadillac DHS, Stabenow's Cadillac CTS and Olympia Snowe's hybrid Lexus SUV. Still, they weren't about to deprive voters of the clunker funds, because, as opponent McCain put it, 'people like free money.' There were quibbles from various corners. Harkin didn't think it right that about half of the new cars purchased 'were foreign.' Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., complained that it was 'a kickback to the automotive industry.' McCain railed against 'crackpot economics,' and Kyl inartfully denounced 'this crash program.' But they could not overcome the Detroit duo as they funneled more government funds to the home-state industry. Opponents, Stabenow said, 'should be jumping for joy' at the success of this program. 'Cash-for-clunkers has exceeded earlier projections,' added Levin. 'A winner on every front,' tossed in Stabenow. Even Coburn had to admit, 'I've not heard from a dealer in my state who is not for this program.' Still, he did his best to defend the clunkers from the scrap yard, even using a real-life example of a clunker too young to die. 'We had a car traded in that had 10,000 miles on it in Oklahoma -- 10,000 miles,' he said. 'They destroyed the engine on the car under this program.' 'We're going to destroy another $1 billion of automobiles,' Coburn repeated in a final plea. 'We ought not be throwing them away and ruining them.' But it was not the day for clunker compassion. The Senate was ready to doom thousands more to the scrap yard. 