Joe Wilson's Word

“You lie!” he shouted at the President in response to Mr. Obama's attempt to debunk the Republican shouting point that his health care reform plan would give free health care to illegal immigrants. My reading of HR3200 ( and everyone else's) indicates that this is true, but South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson hasn't read it or doesn't care or just likes to shout insults in his official capacity as a Republican congressman and bar brawler.

The outburst last night certainly shocked not only the left side of the house but the side that had been rolling their eyes, smirking and looking offended at every clear elucidation of what the plan would and would not do. Although I'm constantly reminded by Republicans at how the entire concept of hatred and irresponsible rhetoric originates in the "Liberal" domain, nobody can seem to remember such an outburst, not even when Nixon told us he was not a crook or when G.W. Bush told us whoppers about Atomic bombs and uranium deals and mobile chemical weapons labs and Saddam Hussein being behind the 9/11 attack. He lied and anyone who said so was called a traitor and an ally of the "terrorists."

It's a new kind of game out there now. Disruptions, threats, thuggery, Glenbeckery and outbursts like this aren't part of some spontaneous culture change. I think it's deliberate and it's deliberation born out of desperation. A majority of us want some government administered option like Medicare.

Of course it came as an excellent counterpoint to the President's hints that gratuitous obstructionism was going on and that wasn't lost on the right side of the aisle. Wilson had to call the White House to apologize. Republican leaderSenator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told the NY Times

“I think we ought to treat the president with respect”

and I'm sure other Republicans agree - particularly when he's telling the truth.