In case you hadn’t heard, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) did the President a tremendous service last night by mistaking the floor of the Senate for a town hall meeting and shouting “You lie!” during one point in his speech when Obama asserted that his health care plan would not cover illegal immigrants.
Supporters of Obama-care have been painting those in opposition as obstructionist, disruptive áššhølëš, and Wilson suddenly became the face of that. Everyone is used to the likes of Limbaugh assailing Obama on the radio, but a Congressman heckling a president on the Senate floor is simply unprecedented, at least in modern times (they probably gave John Adams a lot of crap if/when he swung by). Other Republicans are running from Wilson as fast as they possibly can for fear of being tarred with the same brush, but it may well be too late. When you’re basically saying that the opposition is acting like a bunch of jerks, and one of them then acts like a jerk under the most inappropriate circumstance possible, then your opposition has done you the service of lending support to your cause. It’s one thing to sit on your hands and refuse to applaud the President, but outright heckling…well, it may be SOP in England where face-to-face shouting matches with the Prime Minister are routine. But it doesn’t happen here. (Go watch Nancy Pelosi’s reaction during the video on CNN. To say “If looks could kill…” is a cliche, but that expression on her face is what the cliche was first coined for.)
It was a breach of protocol, to say nothing of common courtesy: The President is basically a guest there, and you don’t shout “You lie!” at your guest (again, unless you’re Limbaugh or one of his ilk.) Wilson may have done more in his two second outburst to help Obama’s case than Obama did in his hour-plus speech.
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