Mouth in motion before mind in gear
September 10th, 2009 at 09:57am Linda Grist Cunningham
You don’t spit into the wind, and you definitely do not call the president of the United States a liar when he is addressing a joint session of Congress.
Bless his little, pea-picking heart, as we said down South when I was a kid, poor, ol’ Joe Wilson, done dug himself a mighty hole with that outburst during last night’s presidential speech on health care. The South Carolina Republican Congressman’s mouth got the better of him when he yelled “you lie” as President Obama said his health care reform would not cover illegal immigrants.
Wilson, who has made no bones about his opposition to reform plans on the table, apologized for the outburst, but at the moment neither his Republican nor Democratic cohorts want to take him out for a drink and a chat. More like a visit to the woodshed.
Yelling at the president just isn’t the done thing these days. It’s considered disrespectful and, well, low brow. Congress sits respectfully. It registers its approval or disapproval by standing or sitting, applauding or not.
A joint session is not a campaign rally. Men wear suits, ties and hard shoes. Women wear red. A joint session is the last bastion of good manners and tasteful, albeit stuffy and understated dress codes. (History would show that back in the really old days, things were a bit less formal, but that’s a story for another day.)
Wilson’s motor mouth will do him no favors. He will be remembered forever — true or not — as the dumb, disrespectful redneck who couldn’t control himself. He looked rude, crude and socially unacceptable. His loss of control just proved that incivility is condoned by those in power, that yelling beats finding solutions, that confrontation trumps collaboration. That’s sad.
So, was he right? No. Is Obama lying when he says illegal immigrants will not be covered? No. There is no provision in the primary legislation to cover illegal immigrants. None. In fact, it’s explicitly barred.
Language in House Bill 3200 Section 246 “No federal payment for undocumented aliens” says: “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”
Poor Joe Wilson. Must not have read that far.
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4 Comments Add your own
1. Paul | September 10th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Joe Wilson from South Carolina, is just another good old boy where in the morning these married men preach to you that there should be prayer in our schools and in the evening they are on their cell phones setting up a date with their other women on the side, hypocrisy has been bred in. I am not surprised that he felt compel to yell like he was at some Friday night game. He is a hater not a debater like most of his side of the isle.
2. John Duncan | September 10th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Ah, but the details, the details, Linda. There are no provisions for enforcement of this. A Republican amendment to specifically provide for enforcement was deep-sixed by the Dems. It is not paranoid to assume this was done because they actually do intend for illegals to be covered. There seems to be little or no desire by the Dems to curtail illegal immigration, to begin with, so why do you think they would worry about them getting health insurance on the cheap? By the way, did you not notice O called lots more people liars than did Joe Wilson last night.
Also, appropos of Joe Wilson - do you recall the booing and general boorish behavior towards Bush at the 2005 SOTU and other speeches.
3. Linda Grist Cunningham | September 10th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Questioning is a very good thing. Being doubtful and skeptical good, too. (I am opposed to being cynical because it’s so counterproductive.)
But, my point wasn’t about who called who a liar. It was about the demeanor. And, though Dems and Goppers have always made ugly faces, scrunched in their seats, snorted under their breath, looked appalled, and sent various nasty body language messages to whichever POTUS was in front of them at a joint session, not in modern times has a member shouted out at the prez.
4. Mike Carroll | September 14th, 2009 at 8:19 am
The following accurately reflects my feelings on Mr. Wilson’s action-
“Almost everyone agrees South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson shouldn’t have called President Obama a liar during his speech to Congress. He has properly apologized for his outburst, but that hasn’t prevented some Members from continuing to make hay of the issue.
Senator Arlen Specter, a newly-minted Democrat who is desperate to curry favor with liberals in his primary with Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak next year, was all over the Wilson story. He insists that Mr. Wilson be censured. “There ought to be some rebuke, reprimand, censure — something that will discourage that kind of conduct in the future. If you do that to the President, it’s open season,” he told reporters yesterday. Echoing these thoughts today was House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who said if his fellow South Carolinian doesn’t apologize to the House, Democrats will seek a resolution to reprimand.
Mr. Specter wasn’t available to answer questions about whether he thinks such disrespect for a president should be sanctioned only if it happens in the president’s presence. If not, then other Members of Congress certainly could have been reprimanded in the past.
Take Senate Majority Harry Reid, the Democrat who took the lead in convincing Mr. Specter to switch parties. In 2002, Mr. Reid called then-President Bush “a liar” over the issue of storing nuclear waste in Nevada. “President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country,” he told a news conference. When asked two years later by NBC’s Tim Russert if such rhetoric was “appropriate,” Mr. Reid didn’t flinch. “People may not like what I said, but I said it, and I don’t back off one bit,” he told Mr. Russert.
At least Mr. Wilson has apologized.”
– John Fund
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