Posted on 09/12/2009 4:52:21 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Trust Democrats to overplay a good hand.
Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" during President Obama's health care address has become the unofficial Republican response -- letting President Obama keep the offensive going. GOP congressional leaders are embarrassed. They asked Wilson to apologize; he only grudgingly accepted (South Carolina politicians have a history of not listening to other members of their own party).
A poll in his district shows that Wilson's previously perceived safe seat is now in danger. Rob Miller, Wilson's announced challenger, has been the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands of donations in the immediate 48 hours after the outburst. (Wilson also raised money off the incident, but a whole lot less). So, with all this going on, of course, the Democrats would just step back and let Wilson and the Republicans stumble around, right? They would follow that old adage of not getting in the way of your opponents when they're in the middle of self-destructing, right? Apparently not.
House Democratic leaders plan to bring a resolution to the House floor next week to admonish South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson if he does not apologize on the House floor for his outburst during President Obama's joint address to Congress, according to several House Democratic leadership aides.
"He's violated the rules of the House with inappropriate conduct and he's subject to reprimand," said Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina.
Earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had said that Wilson violated House rules — but also said that it was "time for us to talk about health care and not Mr. Wilson." Pelosi would be wise to get her troops in order and not let this resolution gather any steam. This looks like the Democrats piling on one member who has already apologized both in an official statement and in a personal call to the White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Obama took the high road Thursday, accepted Wilson's apology and said it's time to move on. Trying to keep the story going into a second week makes congressional Democrats look like they're more interested in crafting political advantage than in trying to uphold parliamentary protocol. Besides, a case can be made that Wilson might, technically, not have violated House rules. A determination would ultimately come down to a party-line vote. But do Democrats really want to have a lengthy debate that might come down to the parsing of the president's words in a speech -- and Wilson's interpretation of them? Probably not.
Go ahead, Democrats, turn Wilson into a victim in front of the entire country. While his outburst may have struck many as boorish, the fact that he did already apologize makes these actions against him seem rather petty.
My EYES MY EYES... It burrrnnnsss...
It appears that shouting out that the President is a liar while the House is in session is against the rules, while cheating on one's taxes while holding the chair of the Ways & Means committee (the committee that actually writes the tax laws) isn't.
Do I have that straight, Madame Speaker?
Mark
So is calling the President of the United States a liar a bad thing? Anybody remember when the "Three Stooges went to Iraq?" Shortly before the war started, Bonior, McDermott, and Moran went to Iraq and pretty much called Bush a liar while on foreign soil.
Mark
Hopefully none of them can. Imagine the total confusion they will have to face when it all backfires on them. They actually believe their own lies.
Would she be more of a “beard” or “hag” in that photo?
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.