Posted on 09/16/2009 12:06:52 AM PDT by bd476
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher was sitting a few feet from Rep. Joe Wilson when he shouted "You lie!" during President Barack Obama's speech last week to a joint session of Congress.
Though Rohrabacher agreed with Wilson, he also thought he was out of line. On Tuesday, Rohrabacher voted for a resolution reprimanding the South Carolina congressman.
"I think the president was lying," Rohrabacher said after the vote. "But Joe, by calling him a liar on the floor, was being rude and disruptive and that's not acceptable."
Rohrabacher was among just seven Republicans who supported the measure, which passed the House on a vote of 240-179. The vote was almost entirely along party lines, with only 12 Democrats voting against the measure and five voting present.
Wilson's outburst came when Obama said that his health care proposal would not cover illegal immigrants.
Though the House bill explicitly bars illegal immigrants from benefiting from the plan, Republicans have sought to strengthen enforcement mechanisms, while Democrats have voted those measures down.
Without stricter verification measures, Republican lawmakers warn that illegal immigrants could easily take advantage of the program.
Rohrabacher, a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, agrees with Wilson on the substance of the issue. But as a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, he felt inclined to defend the dignity of the office of president.
"The Republican leadership made a mistake trying to play lowbrow politics rather than sticking up for our principles," Rohrabacher said Tuesday. "What would we have expected if a Democrat had interrupted Ronald Reagan during a speech to the floor? We would have expected that the guy would have had to apologize to Ronald Reagan and to Congress."
Wilson did apologize to Obama, but declined to issue a second apology from the floor of the House. Republicans have said that Democrats' move to admonish Wilson was partisan politics.
"We're here on some witch hunt, some partisan stunt that the American people are not going to respect," said Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio.
Democrats countered that they were simply seeking to uphold the rules of decorum in the House.
"The resolution is not about the substance of an issue but about the conduct we expect of one another in the course of doing our business," declared House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, who sponsored the measure with Democratic Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C.
Tuesday's brief resolution said Wilson's conduct was a "breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House."
The Office of the House Historian said the resolution marked the first time in the 220-year history of the House that a member had been admonished for speaking out while the president was giving an address. A resolution of disapproval is less severe than other disciplinary action available to the House, including censure or expulsion.
Two other South Bay lawmakers - Democrats Jane Harman and Laura Richardson - also voted for the resolution. South Bay Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters did not vote because she was traveling.
Some have suggested that Wilson's outburst was connected to Obama's race. Rohrabacher said that was nonsense.
"Joe Wilson is a decent man who did not plan to be rude and disruptive. It was just a visceral reaction when he heard the president say something he felt was untrue," Rohrabacher said.
"He should have gone outside and called the president whatever he wanted to call him. You have to maintain standards in the House of civility."
Saying someone is lying when they are lying seems courageous to me, no matter the setting.
Rohrabacher got this one wrong, and he should pay for it.
“You have to maintain standards in the House of civility”
hahahahh thats hilarious. How many bounced checks have house members written against their house bank,..with no penalties, or a local prosecutor hunting you down, like anyone else. Last i heard was 12,000 checks! And they are in charge of how our banks should be regulated in these financial times of crises. Talk about aspects of civility....these guys believe they are the answer to the end all.
So calling out a liar and a traitor is no longer fashionable? We don’t care about the truth, integrity or doing right by the American people anymore only keeping “civility”. Whatever the hell that is.
Until I read that Rohrabacher disagreed with the mode yet not with the content of Wilson's comment, I had not given much thought to the context and setting.
There's the thought that whatever a Conservative does which could be considered uncivil, that Libs would be likely to emulate it and also amp it up exponentially.
Conservatives are traditionally the adults, and Libs the petulant crybabies. I wouldn't want to see that change anytime soon.
ROFLOL! Now that right there says it all. Thank you! I needed the laugh.
The crybabies control the executive and legislative branches right now, and the judicial branch is a coin toss away from being theirs as well.
I think ‘taking Joe to the wooshed’ is a stab in the back from these turncoat ‘Republicans’.
So Dimocraps can be rude, disruptive and crass with President Bush but Republicans can’t tell the truth about Hussein? Rohrabacher and the other six panty waisted Republicans make me sick and gives me another reason why I don’t give money to the Republican party or any of the Congressional Republican money machines. I do, however, contribute to Conservatives and Joe Wilson has already gotten a check from me.
Now if he wants to go on Sunday talk shows and say it, I have no problem at all with that.
Altura Ct., it's obvious that Rohrabacher agreed completely with what Wilson said. Rohrabacher's objection seems to have only been the setting, the context in which Wilson spoke.
I think I am beginning to understand Rohrabacher's point. Thinking a bit further into the future, what will the Libs rationalize as payback for Wilson's outburst?
For every action, there is a reaction.
I disagree completely. Our country is going down in flames being destroyed by the very people in that building and we are supposed to be worried if the right silverware is being used?!?!
The problem is this...when can we STOP insulating the President of the United States from using his enormous power of the bully pulpit to lie?
Some would say ALL have done this. I agree with civility, but at no time do I have ANY confidence that the media would take time afterwards to call his President Obama’s lie what it was. They would say what the president said. Over and over and over again.
Former President Clinton hated when Rush would be on the radio three hours a day and whn on the radio himself said “there is no truth detector”, so I ask...when and where do we have one with President Obama?
Our representatives have just made a move as they can not call the President a liar when he is LYING in the House of Representatives. This means that all liberals will have little to say against any conservative because thats most of their speech there.
Our Founding Fathers would’ve applauded the outburst as being the finest traditions of our Republic. If we wanted an outwardly polite yet backstabbing aristocracy we wouldn’t have bothered overthrowing the last one we had, over 200 years ago.
Huh?
Silverware?
I have no idea what you are talking about.
Altura Ct., it's obvious that Rohrabacher agreed completely with what Wilson said. Rohrabacher's objection seems to have only been the setting, the context in which Wilson spoke.
I think I am beginning to understand Rohrabacher's point. Thinking a bit further into the future, what will the Libs rationalize as payback for Wilson's outburst?
For every action, there is a reaction.
I disagree completely. Our country is going down in flames being destroyed by the very people in that building and we are supposed to be worried if the right silverware is being used?!?!
Well said and good point.
“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it” -- Albert Einstein
"Evil people always support each other; that is their main strength." - - - Alexander Solzhenitsin
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. ----- Ronald Reagan
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