With two shouted words tonight, the Republican Party has lost all respect, credibility, integrity and honor. And with those two words, one Congressman from South Carolina proved that the Republican Party is nothing but the insane conservative fringe. It can no longer be denied. Never before in my lifetime, and perhaps longer, has a member of Congress screamed “YOU LIE” at the President of the United States during a nationally televised Presidential Address to a Joint Session of Congress. The irony was that this occurred while the President was calling out the lies, and easily proven lies, of reform detractors: that reform will create death panels and would provide coverage for illegal immigrants. Those charges are lies, Congressman Joe Wilson is a liar and he knows it, and yet he had the ultimate disrespect to scream at the President tonight, calling the President a liar.
Republicans all wanted President Obama to have a “Waterloo” over healthcare reform. It is now their Waterloo, and the only way to repair the damage that Joe Wilson did to the GOP tonight is for him to resign in disgrace immediately. Fuck his apology, I don’t want it, for it will not be sincere or honest. He must resign and all respectful and civil Republicans must demand it.
Update: A conservative blogger from Virginia, who speaks like I do, agrees with me:
That was fucking unprofessional….and the more I think about it, the madder I get. Who the hell yells in the middle of a Presidential address? On the floor of Congress, no less? This ain’t the 18th-19th century, where that type of behavior may have been acceptable. That ship’s sailed, dude. I’m all for dissent, but all you succeeded in doing is make yourself look the fool.
I’m not going to touch the implications of this for the GOP as a whole. It’s too late at night to write that post, and frankly, I’m too mad to write it coherently. But know that you’ve done a disservice to damn near everyone who can make a coherent argument against the President’s healthcare plan, without resorting to the “death panel”-esque talking points.
You’ve probably earned censure, at a minimum. God help me, but I’d agree with Speaker Pelosi if she chose that route. And, yeah, you should apologize.
You aren’t a hero. I’m going to stop short of calling you a villian.
But that wasn’t helpful. At all.