Last night, we saw the definition of true centrist leadership. President Obama used the power of his office, and the perfect forum of the halls of legislative power, both to make his case to the American people, and to prove to voters that the adults were still in charge of government.
Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina probably did not start the evening with the intent of becoming the poster child for the Reactionary Right, but between his outburst of "You lie!" and the signs that a couple of childish congressmen were sporting, you quickly came to understand why the Founding Fathers established a Senate to go with the Congress. The patrician Senate was created in part to have a deliberative body that would mellow the reactive and, in their day, less educated public representatives holding office in the House.
Even in this day and age, there is an ignorant rabble that apparently cannot grasp the protocols of our government. Even though he apologized, Wilson developed a case of political cancer last night. Contributions to his opposition swelled, although, as we saw with Michelle Bachmann, even those with chronic political hoof-in-mouth disease can survive and thrive with their voters. What he did has no precedent, save for last night, in the annals of the United States Congress during a joint session, with the President of the United States speaking.
GOP leader Boehner should also be making a public apology today to President Obama and speaker Pelosi for the conduct of his members during the speech last night. It is bad enough having to watch Boehner's slimy, dyspeptic mug trying to figure out how to use the hall's cameras to his political advantage through any of his six postures of disapproval and insufferability.
This we expect from the party in opposition. What we do not expect, and we should not tolerate, is his Fox-fed whack jobs confusing their time dissing the president on the stump with the decorum that their office requires in a joint session of the Congress.
What is inexcusable is the continued attempt by the Right to dis Obama and belittle the office of the President of the United States.
Even when Dopey, King George II of Texas, was in office, we did not have members of the Democratic Party sitting there shouting "Illiterate" when he was mangling the words on his teleprompter, or "You lie" when it was clear that he indeed had lied about the reason for committing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives in Iraq.
Not that Democratic members of Congress were not sorely tempted to do so.
I was taken by much of the intended and unintended pageantry of the rest of the evening. Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton both went to "Pay Attention to Me," a chic Washington boutique for women of power. Apparently "I'm Over Here Red" is this fall's television suit of choice.
Joe Biden waited patiently for someone with the dissolving liquid to get the super glue off of his lips. He either showed remarkable restraint after the "You Lie" barb, which sent Nancy Pelosi's head spinning, or after years of feeling the Chill of Evil coming from the chair when Dick Cheney occupied it, it could just be my perception.
The camera caught Sen. Dianne Fienstein (D-Calif.) looking like she had stopped by the Haight in San Francisco before heading for the Hill. The pool cams of course did the obligatory emotional moment with the Kennedy family when Obama read portions of the letter from Ted Kennedy to the joint session. More interesting though, was who they singled out for their cameos. No Barney Frank looking righteously imperious. No Max Baucus, jostling uncomfortably on the pile of insurance money that holds down his seat.
To his credit, Obama did what he always does, steer the steady course of centrism, telling both fractious ends of the political spectrum that with 80% in agreement, a bill was not going down the tubes because of politically passionate principles on either side of the aisle.
He smiled and showed grace when Wilson called him a liar to the world on the illegal alien portion of the proposed legislation, which, by the way, does say that aliens can't get insurance under any public insurance facility.
Obama recovered what he was so successful at doing during the campaign: Looking sane and reasonable, while the hysterical people around him looked well, hysterical.
Wilson called him to apologize last night after being buried in phone calls, emails and tweets of scorn. Perhaps he should seek asylum at the British Embassy. I hear that the Labour Party needs some vocal back-benchers for the verbal sparring of Parliament. He would be well-suited to that hall.
The GOP, if they want to win the argument, and ostensibly, power, back from the Dems are going to have to figure out how to speak again to the educated, sane people in the majority of this country, and quit pandering to the cheap votes of the illiterati and the single-issue zealots. Sounding like the Conservative Party in Parliament is not how you make your case that you are the party of ideas, or even that you have a shred of credibility.
Now Obama should probably buy Wilson a beer. Nobody made his point better about the need for sanity and reason in the process than the insane Joe Wilson.
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When are we going to stop electing people, like Sarah Palin, who say "the government is bad?" They do everything they can to prove it, and Alaskans have died due to lack of health care.
If you look at the tape, there is zero reaction from those sitting around him. If it has not been planned, I think we would have seen an involuntary reaction from these men. They didn't even turn their heads to look at Wilson as a gasp filled the room. It was too controlled. I think anyone sitting next to him would have had an involuntary reaction(since shouting out that the President is a liar is not commonplace) if they hadn't been prepared for it.
Thoughts?
If this had been planned, I don't think that so many of the 40 watt bulbs in the GOP would have condemned it so roundly, nor do I think that Speaker Pelosi would have let it go unpunished.
Boehner may be an epic blow-hard but that made him and the rest of the leadership look bad, as did Wilson begging for money on YouTube yesterday.
They are intent on bringing Obama and the Dems down, rather than running the government. As much as Obama promised Health Care, he primarily promised an end to gridlock. No one in the media talks much about that, but THIS is his biggest challenge.
I know never is a long time, but
I NEVER will again.
So let's call them based on their behavior - The Rabid Right!
British Parliament, as a matter of FACT.........it WAS TRIED when
Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.........one MP accused her of
lying, he was IMMEDIATELY ESCORTED OUT OF THE ROOM, he
did it on another occasion, and again he was thrown out.....and had
to APOLOGIZE!
Why is this kind of DISRESPECT OF A PRESIDENT allowed to
happen in the U.S.A? And why is there no repercussions?
there's a law in effect that no ER can refuse service to anyone. ronny raygun put that into effect.
Do they really to be tweeting while sitting in a joint session of Congress?
In her facebook rants, Palin won't even refer the President, as President Obama. She calls him
Mr. Obama. Talk about disrespect.
Yet, the GOP seems more than happy to allow the neocons to take over their Party.
the truth is FOX is owned by a foreigner how do we know what his intentions are. Sorry from what I see on FOX i can say that Rupert Murdock wants the president of the United States Dead. why isn't he on our terror list...as a state sponsor of Terrorism.
I posted a few days ago...Why does the media fail so often to Say PRESIDENT OBAMA...
These are multi-national corporations. You can look at the heavy hitters' list at OpenSecrets.org (http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/indivs.php) and Murdoch isn't even on it. Murdoch (http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/donor_lookup.php?name=Murdoch,%20Rupert ) has given 15,100 to Republicans, although in the past he has also greased the wheels of selected Dems as well.
It is important, when we worry about things, to use the Internet to check out whether our fears are valid or not. Don't just rely on people like me to do it. The research tools are in your hands. Be informed.
I don't know if I would want to live my life either blaming God or poor people, especially since Jesus threw out those pesky Beatitudes
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for the least among you, you did not do for me"
SOCIALIST!! =)
On a second reading, I have to disagree again. I think the illiterati and single-issue zealots will come out in droves for an election in which they feel more threatened than they did in 2008. In 2008, they obviously thought that no black man could ever win, so some of them didn't bother getting on the short bus that would have taken them to the polling place. You can bet your boots they will in 2010 and 2012, though. If the country holds together that long.
I think the worst part, for him, will be to go down in the annals of American history as the rudest boor to ever serve in Congress. Second only to the most violent, his fellow South Carolinian, Congressman Preston Brooks, who in May of 1856 nearly beat Congressman Charles Sumner of Massachusetts to death with his cane on the floor of the House over an anti-slavery speech Brooks found offensive.
Something about South Carolina - Hear they have a Republican governor in a bit of trouble too.