Outrage over Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst isn't dying down

[CrazyExpat]

The congressman who heckled President Obama during a televised address found that while the president accepted his apology Thursday, the furor over his outburst did not let up.

"I'm a big believer that we all make mistakes," Obama said in acknowledging the apology from Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.). The lawmaker's shout of "You lie!" during the president's speech on healthcare was a significant break in decorum.

"I do think that, as I said last night, we have to get to the point where we can have a conversation about big important issues that matter to the American people without vitriol, without name-calling, without the assumption of the worst of other people's motives," Obama said.

Still, House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, a Democrat from Wilson's home state, said that he planned to push for a resolution expressing disapproval of the incident unless Wilson issued a public apology on the House floor.

And Rob Miller -- the Democratic challenger for Wilson's House seat -- raked in 14,000-plus contributions totaling more than $500,000 since the Wednesday night outburst, according to the House Democratic Campaign Committee. The committee also has cited the shout-out in a fundraising appeal: "Calling the president of the United States a liar in front of the nation is a new low even for House Republicans."

Wilson spokesman Ryan Murphy said that the lawmaker had "apologized to the president sincerely, and the president accepted and said let's move on and have a civil discourse. And the congressman agrees."

Wilson's outburst came in response to Obama's statement that a healthcare overhaul would not directly benefit illegal immigrants.

"There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants," the president said. "This too is false -- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally."

On Thursday, some people said Wilson was right in challenging Obama's statement.

"It is a real shame that the rest of Congress was not on their feet pointing out the president's lie about illegal aliens in his healthcare plans," said William Gheen, president of the Americans for Legal Immigration, a political action committee.

The healthcare bills developed by House Democrats and by the Senate's health committee explicitly prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving federal subsidies for insurance. However, the House Republican leadership has complained that there is no provision to enforce the prohibition. GOP House leaders also complain that Democrats rejected their amendment to require applicants for federally subsidized healthcare to verify their legal status.

Republican leaders said the furor over Wilson had distracted them from their efforts to talk about healthcare and Obama's speech. They described their colleague's prompt apology as adequate.

"I think all of us who know Joe Wilson know that he did the right thing in apologizing to this White House," said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.). "I don't think anyone accepts the type of outburst and the lack of decorum in the House chamber."

(In a separate display of Republican unhappiness, Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois had walked out of the House chamber during the president's address. His spokesman said the congressman was frustrated that Obama was not offering any new ground and left with just minutes remaining in the speech.)

Robert Oldendick, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina, on Thursday described reaction within the state to Wilson's outburst as "surprise and strong disapproval."

But whether it will hurt the lawmaker at home is uncertain.

"There are 14 months for people's memories of this to fade before the election -- although I'm sure they'll be reminded by opposition campaign ads," Oldendick said. "While the reaction here has been pretty strongly negative, I don't get the sense that Wilson will be severely damaged.

"And he may, over time, be able to turn this mistake into his 'passionate opposition' to a plan that he felt was so wrong."

There have been many examples of the breakdown in civility on Capitol Hill over the years, including Vice President Dick Cheney directing an obscenity at a senator on the Senate floor in 2004. In 1856, a South Carolina House member, Preston Brooks, entered the Senate chamber and severely beat abolitionist Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts over the head with a cane.

Even so, according to the Office of the House Historian, "the rules and precedents of the House do not allow insulting language or personal attacks, or even the public questioning of the sincerity of a member."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-joe-wilson11-2009sep11,0,5584524.story

[smoker]

The thing is, why get so pissed off if some illegal immigrants get health care?

If people get sick they should get treatment, if for no other reason than if they don't get treatment they can infect the rest of the population.

[WannaGo]

Jimmy Carter: Wilson comments 'based on racism'

By GREG BLUESTEIN (AP) – 19 hours ago

ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act "based on racism" and rooted in fears of a black president.

"I think it's based on racism," Carter said at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

The Georgia Democrat said the outburst was a part of a disturbing trend directed at the president that has included demonstrators equating Obama to Nazi leaders.

"Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care," he said. "It's deeper than that."

Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, was formally rebuked Tuesday in a House vote for shouting "You lie!" during Obama's speech to Congress last Wednesday.

The shout came after the president commented that illegal aliens would be ineligible for federal subsidies to buy health insurance. Republicans expressed their disbelief with sounds of disapproval, punctuated by Wilson's outburst.

Tuesday's rebuke was a rare resolution of disapproval pushed through by Democrats who insisted that Wilson had violated basic rules of decorum and civility. Republicans characterized the measure as a witch hunt and Wilson, who had already apologized to Obama, insisted he owed the House no apology.

Wilson's spokesman was not immediately available for comment, but his eldest son defended his father.

"There is not a racist bone in my dad's body," said Alan Wilson, an Iraq veteran who is running for state attorney general. "He doesn't even laugh at distasteful jokes. I won't comment on former President Carter, because I don't know President Carter. But I know my dad, and it's just not in him."

"It's unfortunate people make that jump. People can disagree — and appropriately disagree — on issues of substance, but when they make the jump to race it's absolutely ludicrous. My brothers and I were raised by our parents to respect everyone regardless of background or race."

South Carolina's former Democratic Party chairman said that he doesn't believe Wilson was motivated by racism, but said the outburst encouraged racist views.

"I think Joe's conduct was asinine, but I think it would be asinine no matter what the color of the president," said Dick Harpootlian, who has known Wilson for decades. "I don't think Joe's outburst was caused by President Obama being African-American. I think it was caused by no filter being between his brain and his mouth."

Harpootlian said he received scores of racial e-mails from outside South Carolina after he talked about the vote on Fox News.

"You have a bunch of folks out there looking for some comfort in their racial issues. They have a problem with an African-American president," he said. "But was he motivated by that? I don't think so. I respectfully disagree with President Carter, though it gives validity to racism."

Carter called Wilson's comment "dastardly" and an aftershock of racist views that have permeated American politics for decades.

"The president is not only the head of government, he is the head of state," he said. "And no matter who he is or how much we disagree with his policies, the president should be treated with respect."

[WannaGo]

Obama says he disagrees with Carter, though.

[lvdkeyes]

I think Obama doesn't want to be one of those people who plays the race card. He must know that the outburst was racially motivated.

[smoker]

At lease Wilson didn't throw a shoe at him.

[lvdkeyes]

The shoe thrower missed, dammit.

[Bob]

Wilson was an absolute dolt for doing what he did. It was disrespectful as hell to any president.

We've had more and more of these tea parties and other events as of late where some idiots show up with placards referring to Obama as a monkey or having large photos altered to show Obama as some African witch doctor or the equivalent. This is only being done by a very small minority of people but, of course, the more outrageous the conduct the more newscasters pay attention to it. Clearly a lot of what's being done by these few idiots is clearly racist.

So, for the last couple of months, the tension has been ratcheted up quite a bit here in the US and it didn't surprise me at all, given those rising tensions, that some people termed what Wilson did as "racist." While I won't defend Wilson's conduct, there's no way in my view that you can fairly conclude he's a racist because of it. And, while I admire the hell out of Jimmy Carter (especially his numerous good works since he left office), he was way off base in my view by asserting that most of the criticism toward Obama's policies is racist (or, as Carter put it, because "Obama is a black man"). Sure, some of the criticism has come from racists - but the bulk of it? I personally don't buy that (nor is there evidence to support it).

[Beer Chang]

Think the escalation of disrespect for the office of the Presidency started with the way right wing media attacked Clinton. The Monica Lewinsky scandal was a good excuse.

The left wing retaliated by attacks on Bush's intelligence and mis-statements.

It seems at the beginning of his term Obama was a sacred cow of sorts; too attack him would appear racist, so Pelosi and Reid were used as proxies.

[lvdkeyes]

I think it started back when Tricky Dick was forced to resign over the Watergate mess. The Republicans have been trying to even the score ever since.

[WannaGo]

I think Obama doesn't want to be one of those people who plays the race card. He must know that the outburst was racially motivated.

You're probably very right about that.

I read a very angry newspaper column recently in which the writer said that "socialist" is the new N-word and that most of the people crying about Obama being a socialist are actually racists too afraid to say what they really mean. I think that's probably an overly broad generalization, but certainly true in many cases.

[smoker]

It's considered racist because a popular Southern expression is "You lie, boy!" directed at black men. True, he didn't use the word "boy" but he sure implied it.

[Wino]

I think it started back when Tricky Dick was forced to resign over the Watergate mess. The Republicans have been trying to even the score ever since.

I think it started way before Tricky Dickie. Lincoln was ridiculed to the max by the opposition. I am sure Washington had his detractors. It is the game of politics. Too bad we cannot work together for the good of the country.

[smoker]

The first big scandalmongering of this type was when Jefferson was president and the Sally Hemmings thing came out.

[rucus7]

[

Wilson's outburst came in response to Obama's statement that a healthcare overhaul would not directly benefit illegal immigrants.

It seems to be en-vogue, at least by the far right media in America, to shout and even scream to audibly drown out any opposition. I am not surprised that it has carried over into the Republican Congress.

[WannaGo]

The first big scandalmongering of this type was when Jefferson was president and the Sally Hemmings thing came out.

I'll be damned. I didn't know this and had to go look it up. Felt like I was reading about a modern political scandal.

[smoker]

Jefferson briefly jailed the reporter in that case.

[Wino]

Jefferson briefly jailed the reporter in that case.

I heard Jefferson remained silent. Since he ignored the whole issue, it eventually died down.

[Wino]

Just read an article by Leroy Chapman Jr. that states, "Wilson raised $2.7 million in the quarter, according to reports on Friday. I think Joe has seen an opportunity and managed to tap into it." It seems yelling "you lie" has made him a celebrity and brought in big bucks and national interest.