He’s really going on about this. Odd, really, for a man with such historical knowledge to consider a cry of “Liar” to a politician to be extreme and uncivil behavior.
I guess it just shows that even the smartest and best-educated people can fixate weirdly on something picayune.
Calling Obama a liar was not uncouth.
Interrupting a speech was.
Imagine if every time someone was speaking on the house floor, another member was allowed to yell out whatever they wanted.
There would be no way to have a civilized debate.
When the Democrats booed Bush, we all knew that was wrong. Even though members have traditionally been allowed to interrupt speeches for clapping, booing the president was an interruption that could not be allowed to go unanswered.
If Wilson had yelled out “yes they are”, it still would have been unacceptable from a civility perspective.
Now, in my opinion if the President gets to come into the house and make a speech that isn’t his constitutionally mandated State of the Union, and you want it to be under the normal rules of the house, members aught to be able to call point-of-order if the President lies during his speech, especially if he calls members of the house liars.
I think the use of a joint session to deliver a political speech was a dispicable act by the president and the democrats in congress.
Anyway, we don’t want the next conservative President to be interrupted with shouts of “liar” every 10 seconds during the first SOTU address.